Officers Will Not Face Charges in Stun Gun Case

No criminal charges will be filed against two Ventura police officers who used stun guns on a psychiatric patient with heart disease shortly before the man’s death in February, county prosecutors said Wednesday.

The Ventura County district attorney’s office, however, has recommended in a report to be released today that the Ventura Police Department further tighten its regulations on the use of the 50,000-volt electric weapons because they are potentially lethal.

“We do plan to issue criteria for the use of the stun gun, and I think you’ll see that it is tighter,” said Kevin McGee, chief deputy district attorney. “There are certain people out there to whom the stun gun appears to represent a more serious threat than to others, and officers don’t know who they are.”

McGee would not discuss the report except to confirm that no charges will be filed against the two officers who jolted 24-year-old Duane Johnson of Oxnard--first to subdue him during a frenzy in a hospital room, then to stop him from grabbing at people while tethered face down on a gurney and to get him to submit to handcuffing.

A copy of the report, which concludes a five-month inquiry into the incident and of the danger of stun guns, was sent to the Police Department on Tuesday so officials there could review it before it is made public today.

Police Chief Richard F. Thomas is on vacation, and the department will not comment on the report until he returns in September, Lt. Michael Tracy said.

McGee said the investigation failed to resolve a controversy over how many times Johnson was shocked by the officers. Police said the weapon was used four times, while witnesses said the man was jolted at least seven times, according to a coroner’s report.

“There is a major conflict in what some of the witnesses observed and recount,” McGee said. “It appears that he was shocked between four and five times at a minimum, and some witnesses say between eight and nine times. We don’t come to a final determination on that.”

Duane Johnson’s mother, Elviere Johnson, called the district attorney’s decision not to file charges unjust.

“I can’t believe how those officers could be acting within the law when it was used on him so many times,” she said. “They even demonstrated how to use it on him.”

Attorney John P. Coale, who is representing the Johnson family in a $2.5-million claim against the city, said police Sgt. George Morris tortured Johnson and should be charged criminally. Police said Morris was the only officer to shock Johnson after police had initially gained control of him.

“You’re always totally innocent if you’re a cop,” Coale said.

Johnson, who had a history of mental problems, was a heart patient at Ventura County Medical Center when he died Feb. 13, within minutes of being shocked by Morris.

County Coroner F. Warren Lovell concluded after an inquiry that the shocks were a primary cause of death and that Morris had used the weapon “like a cattle prod” to force Johnson to comply with orders while he was handcuffed to the gurney.

Lovell recommended that police use stun guns to end violent confrontations with crime suspects but not simply to gain compliance when suspects no longer pose a threat.

The Police Department found the officers had acted within department policy. But after a second highly publicized stun gun incident in June, in which a disoriented epileptic driver was repeatedly jolted by a motorcycle officer, Thomas ordered restrictions on its use.

The new policy still allows officers to use stun guns instead of nightsticks or firearms in serious situations in which suspects pose a danger to officers or to the public.

When announcing his policy change, Thomas said it was temporary and might be tightened further if recommended by the district attorney.

The Johnson incident began when the patient, who had been admitted two weeks earlier with a near-fatal heart attack, began throwing himself into windows and walls after being told that he would be transferred back to a mental health facility near the county hospital.

Police acknowledge jolting Johnson once with a Nova gun during the initial struggle in his hospital room and three times with a Taser weapon while he was being moved.

Two mental health workers who witnessed the 45-minute incident have told investigators that Johnson, a muscular former athlete, was shocked seven to 11 times, including several times after he was tethered face down on a gurney and posed no threat, the coroner’s report said.