Autopsy Blames Choke-Hold for Concert-Goer’s Death : Law Enforcement: In contrast to Inglewood police version, report says Fountain Valley man’s body showed “considerable bruising.” Drug use is also indicated.

An autopsy on a Fountain Valley man who died in the custody of Inglewood police after a Grateful Dead concert last month confirms that he died from a carotid choke-hold and that his body was covered with bruises, a coroner’s office spokesman said Tuesday.

In sharp contrast to an initial police report, the autopsy on 19-year-old Patrick Shanahan describes “considerable bruising” on Shanahan’s forehead, neck, scalp, cheek, jaw, shoulder, chest, ribs and knee, said spokesman Bob Dambacher.

The autopsy report was released this week by the Los Angeles County coroner’s office.

The bruises on Shanahan’s back were as much as an inch deep and were so prevalent that they could not be individually distinguished, Deputy Medical Examiner Irwin L. Golden wrote in the 25-page report.

Shanahan, a student at UC Santa Barbara and an avid Grateful Dead fan, died Dec. 10 shortly after being arrested by five officers outside the Forum on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs.

Lawrence Trygstad, a Los Angeles lawyer retained by the Shanahan family, said the autopsy “further substantiates the excessive force and the brutality that (officers) used. With the autopsy report, the witnesses and everything else, there’s no question the officers used excessive force.”

The family’s lawyer said the autopsy affirms witness accounts that Shanahan was repeatedly beaten by police with night sticks.

William Shanahan, assessing the autopsy report, said that his son “was a mess from head to toe. The police version of events doesn’t gibe.”

While acknowledging that an officer applied a carotid choke-hold on Shanahan to control him, Inglewood police denied witnesses’ claims that officers beat Shanahan with their batons and maintained that officers had to use force to control the combative Shanahan.

“If you as a police officer are engaged in a fight or wild confrontation with a person on LSD, to what extent can you protect yourself from a person almost impervious to pain?” Moret asked. He described the choke-hold as an “approved method of dealing with extremely dangerous and combative people.”

Moret also raised the possibility that some of the bruises could have been self-induced before police arrived.

Investigations by the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office and Inglewood Police Department are ongoing, spokesmen said Tuesday.

The Inglewood probe is being hampered because witnesses of the arrest have been contacting the family’s attorney but not the police, Moret said.

LSD Use Cited

Dambacher said the autopsy shows that a carotid choke-hold applied by officers is the primary cause Shanahan’s death. “There are neck injuries on either side of the center of the neck and in the jaw area,” he said. “It looks like it was a carotid hold that compressed the neck.”

The autopsy also agrees with a preliminary post-mortem report released last month that said LSD intoxication and multiple injuries were contributing causes to his death.

William Shanahan said he was not surprised by the autopsy because the funeral director who prepared the body had advised him not to view it.

“It will be real difficult reading,” Shanahan said of the autopsy, “but I plan to read through it page by page.”

Shanahan and Trygstad said internal police documents have downplayed the injuries Shanahan suffered.

A police report of Shanahan’s death says a doctor at Daniel Freeman Memorial Hospital, where Shanahan was taken in the back of a police car, reported little trauma other than some marking on his wrists. The report added that investigating officers who observed the body the next day reported only “a small contusion on his chin and a small contusion on the left side of his forehead.”

The report added: “The investigating officers observed no other signs of trauma.”

However, the autopsy detailed “multiple blunt force traumatic injuries, both external and internal.” They included bruises around both eyes, bruises on the rib cage, back and chest, a 2 1/2-inch abrasion on the left cheek, cuts and bruises to both wrists and external discoloration and internal hemorrhaging in the neck.

The autopsy results will now go to Dr. Irving Root, a private pathologist hired by the Shanahan family. Root said his results should be compiled within two weeks.

When asked about the affect of LSD on an individual, Root said the hallucinogenic drug has never killed anyone by itself but can change behavior “in very peculiar and unusual ways.”

“They can get very excitable, violent or very quiet,” Root said. “The whole gamut.”