BANGOR, Maine — A civil lawsuit that accuses Bangor police officers of using excessive force when they used a Taser to subdue a man under the influence of bath salts, who later died, may go forward, a federal judge ruled Tuesday.
U.S. Magistrate Judge John Nivison wrote in his 27-page decision that a jury needs to determine if the police officers “reasonably should have known that Mr. [Phillip] McCue ceased resisting arrest and that the force that they employed after he ceased resisting was excessive.”
Efforts to reach attorneys in the case were unsuccessful Tuesday afternoon.
McCue, 28, of Bangor died at Eastern Maine Medical Center on Sept. 17, 2012, five days after Bangor police attempted to arrest him at an apartment building on First Street. The autopsy concluded that McCue died as a result of complications from overdosing on bath salts.
His father, Michael McCue of Jackson, filed an eight-count wrongful death lawsuit in March 2014 in U.S. District Court in Bangor seeking $6.65 million in damages.
Nivison held a hearing in July on a motion filed by the city and the officers to dismiss the case.
In his ruling Tuesday, the judge dismissed the city itself from the lawsuit because no evidence was presented that as a municipality it was aware the training of its police in the use of Tasers was deficient. The Bangor Police Department, unnamed members of the Bangor Fire Department and the maker of the Taser were dismissed from the lawsuit last year.
The remaining defendants are officers Kim Donnell, Wade Betters (who is now a sergeant), Joshua Kuhn, David Farrar and Chris Blanchard.
Officers went to check on a noise complaint on Sept. 12, 2012, at 18 First St. in Bangor, according to Nivison’s ruling. Witnesses told police Phillip McCue was “ranting and raving, yelling and screaming, and stomping and kicking at doors.”
McCue jumped over a banister on the third floor hallway and landed about 8 feet below on the stairway that led to the second floor, the judge wrote. He then ran past Donnell and left the building.
Donnell called for backup, and McCue was located near the Central Fire Station on Main Street. Officers gave him a disorderly conduct warning.
After officers learned from residents of the First Street apartment building that McCue was a bath salts user, they made the decision to take him into “protective custody” so he could be evaluated, the judge said.
When police pursued McCue on Main Street, he tripped and fell in the roadway. Kuhn and Farrar repeatedly ordered McCue to give them his hands, but he refused, swore at the officers and threatened to kill them.
Eventually police placed McCue in a five-point restraint, also known as “hog-tying,” Nivison said. Donnell used her Taser on McCue after he refused to give up, but he continued to resist vigorously the officers’ efforts to restrain him.
It was not until police lifted McCue off the ground and carried him to a police vehicle a few yards away they realized he was unresponsive, the judge wrote. Emergency responders were called and arrived to find that McCue had no cardiac rhythm. He was taken to Eastern Maine Medical Center.
Nivison found that the “apprehension and detention of Mr. McCue were supported by probable cause for the protection of the public and for Mr. McCue’s own protection.”
Nivison’s decision is subject to review by U.S. District Judge John Woodcock.