Services Held for Man Who Fell Into Coma and Died After Arrest

About 100 grieving friends and relatives on Monday night attended a memorial service for Mark Kevin Ross, a 23-year-old Huntington Beach man who lapsed into a coma and died after being arrested on traffic warrants.

The service was conducted at St. Wilfrid’s Episcopal Church on Chapel Lane in Huntington Beach.

The Rev. Charles Sacquety, who conducted the service, said, “We entrust Mark unto the care of God.” Noting the many grief-stricken friends and relatives present, Sacquety said, “The love they had for each other is evident here tonight.”

Scores of young people, their faces somber, attended the service and afterward gathered in the parish hall. Among them were Mark Kevin’s two brothers, Paul, 17, and Robert Ross Jr., 27.

Arrest Occurred Dec. 13

Mark Kevin Ross was arrested by Huntington Beach police on Dec. 13. He lapsed into a coma a few hours later and never recovered.

The Orange County district attorney’s office said last week that lethal levels of cocaine were found in his blood.

Witnesses contend that the young man was severely beaten by police after his arrest. Police have responded that no undue force was used; they say Ross was resisting arrest.

Ross’ father, Robert Ross Sr., returned to work at his Fashion Island chocolate shop Monday. “I find it better if I keep busy,” he said.

“It’s over now,” he added. “There’s nothing left to do. No more experts to call. That’s it.”

For about two weeks, Mark Kevin Ross was on life-support systems at Pacifica Community Hospital, where he was taken from the jail. On Christmas morning, Robert Ross Sr. and other family members consented to doctors’ advice at the hospital and allowed the life-support systems to be removed from the young man. Doctors said he was brain dead at the time.

Mark Kevin Ross was arrested after he and Robert Jr. were stopped by police at Newland Street and Ellis Avenue about 7:30 a.m. on Dec. 13. Officers Dan Johnson and Heather Dreyer found several outstanding traffic warrants against Mark Ross and told investigators that he resisted arrest while being taken into custody.

Had Trouble Breathing

Hours later, Ross was having trouble breathing at the Huntington Beach City Jail and was taken to Pacifica Community Hospital. Soon afterward, he lapsed into a coma.

Officers Johnson and Dreyer remain on duty, a Police Department spokesman said Monday.

Authorities say the official cause of the death cannot be determined pending results of toxicological tests. Those test results may not be available for several weeks, according to the coroner’s office.

The district attorney’s office, which continues its investigation of the death, disclosed last week that crime laboratory tests showed levels of cocaine in Ross’ blood in excess of that found in cocaine overdose deaths.

“I’m just letting the district attorney’s investigation go forward and hoping it is independent and that it will be accurate,” Robert Ross Sr. said Monday. “I must go on the assumption that any investigation is an honest one, and I really have no control over it.”

The Ross family’s attorney, James DiCesare, has said two witnesses told him that police hit Ross with a baton 10 to 20 times, used a chokehold on him and held him at the scene for more than an hour. During the arrest, the witnesses heard Ross cry out that he was being hurt and saw blood coming from his nose and mouth, said DiCesare, who refused to identify the witnesses.

Proper Force Claimed

A district attorney’s investigator said Ross had only a cut lip and no other external injuries. Police maintain that Ross resisted arrest and proper force was used to restrain him.

Ross was declared brain dead at 10:15 on Christmas morning, a hospital spokeswoman said.

“We knew almost from the beginning that it was coming,” the elder Ross said of the medical determination that his son was brain dead. The only reason physicians had not recommended disconnecting the machines earlier, he said, was that “it usually takes families a few days to be comfortable with decisions like that.”

“All the doctors got us together and told us there was no hope,” he said. “His kidneys had failed; both lungs had collapsed. There were more and more machines doing more and more. Their total opinion was there was absolutely nothing there but basically . . . a series of machines.”