Denver7 is following the trial for two Aurora officers, Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt, who have pleaded not guilty to charges of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault in connection with the arrest of Elijah McClain. McClain died a few days later.
The 23-year-old massage therapist encountered police on Aug. 24, 2019 after a person called 911 to report a “sketchy” man walking in Aurora. Officers with the Aurora Police Department (APD) responded and put McClain, who was unarmed and had not committed a crime, into a neck hold. Paramedics administered a sedative called ketamine, which officials said led to cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. He was declared brain dead days later and died Aug. 30, 2019. A pathologist found he was given a higher dose of ketamine than recommended for somebody of his size and, as a result, he overdosed.
The City of Aurora settled a civil lawsuit with McClain's family in November 2021 for $15 million.
All five people facing jury trials pleaded not guilty to the charges against them in January 2023 in the wake of a grand jury indictment. In addition to Roedema and Rosenblatt, a third officer, Nathan Woodyard, has a trial beginning Oct. 13 for the charges against him of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault. He is accused of putting McClain in the carotid hold. Two Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics — Peter Cichuniec and Jeremy Cooper — have trials beginning Nov. 17 and 27, respectively, for charges of reckless manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault, plus sentence enhancers. The paramedics are accused of injecting a significant amount of ketamine into McClain, causing him to overdose.
Scroll down to read updates from the Tuesday, Oct. 3 proceedings.
THURSDAY, OCT. 5
Thursday, prosecutors called former Washington, D.C., medical examiner Dr. Roger Mitchell to the stand as an expert witness in forensic pathology, cause of death, manner of death, in-custody death and excited delirium, which the defense has argued Elijah McClain was exhibiting symptoms of when he was arrested.
Senior prosecutor for the Colorado Attorney General Jason Slothouber asked Dr. Mitchell to testify to his prior experience reviewing autopsies and why he could render an opinion on an autopsy he did not perform himself.
Dr. Mitchell said in addition to the medical examiner taking photos and documentation of the autopsy to render a decision on a cause and manner of death, the doctor aggregates that information for a report that another forensic pathologist could look at and come up with the same or similar findings as the first autopsy- both for peer review and judicial proceedings.
Dr. Mitchell also explained how he came to Colorado and spent hours reviewing the body-worn camera from the officers involved in McClain's arrest, the report and photos from Dr. Stephen Cina's autopsy, EMS and EMT reports, pediatric medical records and statements by law enforcement and EMS personnel.
When Slothouber asked Dr. Mitchell if there was a direct link between law enforcement and Elijah McClain's death, Dr. Mitchell testified, "Elijah McClain was a healthy 23-year-old when he was in an altercation with law enforcement that resulted in a carotid neck hold that created evidence of decreased oxygen in his body. That restraint and altercation that occurred created an environment in his body called acidosis. Hypoxia and acidosis caused him to vomit and then aspirate."
Slothouber then grabbed a pad of paper on an easel and a marker.
Asking questions of Dr. Mitchell, Slothouber drew up a chart for the jury on the pad of paper to explain what brought Dr. Mitchell to his professional medical opinion on McClain's death.
It broke it down similarly to this, according to Dr. Mitchell and Slothouber:
- Medical results of the restraint:
- Hypoxia
- Causes of hypoxia:
- Carotid neck hold
- Aspiration
- Evidence of hypoxia:
- Somnolence
- Vomiting
- Aspiration
- Causes of hypoxia:
- Acidosis
- Causes of acidosis:
- Hypoxia
- Physical restraint
- Evidence of acidosis:
- Somnolence
- Vomiting
- Medical records from laboratory results
- Causes of acidosis:
- Aspiration
- Causes of aspiration:
- Vomiting
- Body position
- Somlonent
- Evidence of aspiration:
- Lung tissue
- Body-worn camera video
- Mask McClain was wearing
- Causes of aspiration:
- Hypoxia
Slothouber then drew connections between pieces of evidence in the case that Dr. Mitchell used to make the aforementioned determinations on McClain's cause and manner of death, including pictures of McClain's eyes, jaw and body-worn camera from Randy Roedema and Nathan Woodyard.
DEFENSE QUESTIONS "ADVOCATE PHYSICIAN"
After the lunch break, both the prosecution and the defense continued questioning Dr. Mitchell about what he could medically diagnose the night of McClain's arrest.
Mitchell told the court he could see examples of hypoxia and acidosis based on the sounds coming from McClain at the time of the struggle with police after ketamine had been administered.
Had officers checked McClain's breathing, officers would have realized McClain "was having troubling breathing here," he told prosecutors, adding that the physical restraint contributed to the risk the overdose of ketamine posed for McClain that night.
In cross examination, Don Sisson, one of Roedema's attorneys, tried to paint Mitchell as a biased and unreliable witness in the case given the former medical examiner billed himself as an "advocate physician" on social media, who wants to use his craft "for the true liberation of our (Black) people... and the eradication of African-American in-custody deaths."
Sisson further made his case by pointing to the fact that Mitchell has never examined any cases of a white person dying of a carotid hold while in the custody of police.
Mitchell was then questioned by Sisson about his prior grand jury testimony in which he said McClain had the potential to aspirate prior to the administration of ketamine, and how it contradicted Thursday's testimony that McClain "definitively" aspirated before the the administration of the powerful sedative.
The witness pushed back on claims he was changing his testimony by stating that at the time of the grand jury testimony he "wasn’t asked where point by point he (McClain) aspirated," and argued that in court Thursday, questions were more about which points in the body worn camera video presented to him there were signs of aspiration.
The defense for Rosenblatt focused on several things including aspiration, restraint and resistance, acidosis, and the fact that paramedics didn't check on McClain before ketamine was administered and did "nothing to assist his breathing," as the defense put it.
In the redirect, senior prosecutor for the Colorado Attorney General Jason Slothouber focused on Dr. Mitchell's advocacy work for in-custody deaths, asking him about why it was important for the witness to do advocacy work, to which Mitchell replied that advocacy was important to improve accuracy in in-custody deaths
Slothouber then asked whether this invovlement improved the accuracy of McClain's cause of death.
"Yes," Mitchell said, because he "started asking questions that brought up information that even the original forensic pathologist didn't have for the cause of death," which led to a change in McClain's autopsy cause of death from "undetermined" to "ketamine administration following forcible restraint."
Court then went into recess for the day and jurors were asked to be there by 8:30 a.m. so court could resume by 8:45 a.m.
PREVIOUS COVERAGE OF THE TRIAL:
Day 1 - Wednesday, Sept. 20
Day 2 - Thursday, Sept. 21
Day 3 - Friday, Sept. 22
(No court on Monday, Sept. 25)
Day 4 - Tuesday, Sept. 26
Day 5 - Wednesday, Sept. 27
Day 6 - Thursday, Sept. 28
Day 7 - Friday, Sept. 29
Day 8- Tuesday, Oct. 3
Day 9- Wednesday, Oct. 4
