Tyisha Miller Had Drug in Her System, Lawyer Says

Newly released toxicology findings indicate that Tyisha Miller was under the influence of GHB, an illegal drug that can induce semiconsciousness and vomiting--the type of symptoms she was said to be exhibiting before she was shot and killed by four Riverside police officers in December 1998.

Miller, 19, was slain by officers who said they found her unresponsive in her parked vehicle with a gun in her lap. The officers said she seemed in need of immediate medical attention, so they broke the car’s window to try to retrieve the weapon. They shot her in self-defense, they said, when she reached for the gun.

The shooting unleashed a barrage of criticism against the officers, who were not criminally prosecuted but were eventually fired for having acted too hastily. The shooting took on racial overtones because Miller was black, and the four officers were white.

The privately conducted drug report was released Tuesday by attorney Skip Miller, who is representing the city of Riverside and two of the officers sued by Miller’s family. He said the findings justify the officers’ swift actions.

“It corroborates the officers’ observations that she was in dire medical straits as a result of a drug overdose and that she had to be rescued,” Miller said.

Andrew Roth, an attorney representing the Miller family, said he was angered by the “mean-spirited and insensitive” disclosure of the drug report, which he hadn’t yet seen, and said that assuming it was accurate, “it would only help to prove she was unconscious and stuporous at the time she was shot.”

“It can’t be used to defend the conduct of the police,” he said. “It only supports the concept that she was not a threat, because it would have made her passive and nonresistant. If they think this supports their theory that the officers had to shoot her 12 times in order to save her life, so be it.”

The Riverside County coroner’s office conducted routine toxicology tests after the shooting, which did not screen for such drugs as GHB. Miller said the city hired a firm, Chemical Toxicology Institute of Foster City, based on rumors that the shooting victim was under the influence of the drug. The county coroner previously determined that Tyisha Miller had been drinking alcohol before her death.

GHB (gamma hydroxybutyric acid), sometimes called “liquid ecstasy,” is illegal to manufacture or possess in this country. It initially surfaced among bodybuilders as a steroid alternative and has become increasingly popular as a recreational drug, especially at raves, because of its intoxicating effects, according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

GHB also is considered a “date-rape drug” because it is odorless and nearly tasteless, can be easily added to a beverage, and causes a person to lose consciousness.

According to the FDA, the drug depresses the central nervous system, can slow or stop breathing and induce vomiting, dizziness, tremors and seizures. Consumption of alcohol can accelerate the effects of GHB, it said.

On the night of the shooting, Miller’s car had a flat tire and she parked at a Riverside gas station, where a companion called her family for assistance and then left the scene. Arriving family members found her seemingly unconscious in her locked car and called 911 for help, warning that Miller had a gun in her lap.

Witnesses said Miller seemed to have a foamy substance around her mouth. The officers said they were unable to awaken her, despite banging on her car. Before a supervisor could reach the scene, the officers acted.

Riverside County Dist. Atty. Grover Trask later criticized the officers for making a “mistake in their judgment.” State Atty. Gen. Bill Lockyer said their actions were “unwise and ill-conceived.”

The officers said they acted swiftly in trying to remove the gun so paramedics could treat her.

One of the officers, his attorney has said, had recently witnessed a drug-overdose death and believed that Miller was showing similar symptoms.

On Tuesday, Miller said that because the teenager was under the influence of GHB, which is a hallucinogen at higher doses, “it would explain her paranoid and confused response, her totally unanticipated behavior, in bolting for the gun.”

The officers are fighting their dismissals from the Police Department.