Two Denver-area paramedics were convicted Friday for giving a fatal overdose of the sedative ketamine to Elijah McClain in 2019 — a jury verdict that experts said could have a chilling effect on first responders around the country.
The case involving the 23-year-old Black man’s death is the first of several recent prosecutions by offenders opposed to medical first responders to go to trial, potentially setting the bar for prosecutors in long-term cases.
It also was the last of three trials against police and paramedics charged in the death of McClain, whom officers stopped following a suspicious person complaint. He was injected with the sedative after being forcibly restrained. The case received little attention until protests over the 2020 killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
An Aurora police officer was convicted of homicide and third degree assault earlier this year, while two other officers were acquitted.
On Friday, the jury found Aurora Fire Rescue paramedics Jeremy Cooper and Peter Cichuniec guilty of criminally negligent murder after a week-long trial in state district court. They face a sentence of up to years at the time of sentencing.
The jury also found Cichuniec guilty on one of two second-degree assault charges, which brings the possibility of an enhanced prison sentence and required that he be taken into immediate custody. Cooper was found not guilty on the assault charges and was not taken into custody.
Paramedics Jeremy Cooper, far left, and Peter Cichuniec, far right, enter the Adams County, Colo., Justice Center, Friday, Dec. 22, 2023, in Brighton, Colo. A Colorado prosecutor says the two paramedics failed to properly care for Elijah McClain when they overdosed the Black man with a sedative that he didn’t need. McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, died after being stopped and forcibly restrained by police officers and then injected with ketamine in 2019 in the Denver suburb of Aurora. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
McClain’s mother, Sheneen, raised her fist in the air after the verdict. “We did it, we did it, we did it!” he said as he walked away from the courtroom.
Cicuniec’s wife had her head bowed as officers handcuffed him. Cooper’s wife sobbed beside him.
Neither the paramedics nor their lawyers spoke outside the courthouse. They did not immediately respond to emails and phone messages from The Associated Press seeking comment.
The result may set a precedent for how the emergency worker corps responds to conditions in which other people are in police custody, said Alex Piquero, a criminologist at the University of Miami.
“Imagine if you were a paramedic,” Piquero said. They might hesitate. They might say, ‘I’m not going to do anything’ or ‘I’m going to do less. I don’t need to be found guilty. “
The International Association of Fire Fighters said in a statement that in pursuing the charges, Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser had criminalized split-second medical decisions and set “a dangerous, chilling precedent for pre-hospital care.”
Weiser, who convened the grand jury that indicted the first responders, said he was pleased with the verdict.
Sheneen McClain, right, is comforted by Omar Montgomery, president of the Aurora NAACP, outside the Justice Center in Adams County, Colorado, after a verdict was returned in the murder of her son Elijah McClain, the December 22, 2023, in Brighton, Colorado (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
“We remain confident that filing those instances is the right thing to do for justice to be served for Elijah McClain and for the healing of the Aurora community,” he said in court.
The city of Aurora said Friday night that the two paramedics had been fired following their convictions.
The verdict was announced after two days of deliberations. When jurors told the judge Friday afternoon that they were stuck on one of the charges, the judge told them to keep looking for a verdict.
Police arrested McClain as he walked home from a convenience store on Aug. 24, 2019, following a complaint from a suspicious user. After one officer said McClain grabbed an officer’s gun, a claim disputed by prosecutors, another officer grabbed him by the neck and rendered him temporarily unconscious. Officers also blocked McClain before Cooper injected him with a ketamine overdose. Cichuniec, the senior officer, stated that his resolution was to use ketamine.
Prosecutors said paramedics failed to perform critical medical checks on McClain, such as taking his pulse, before administering ketamine. The dose was too high for a user of his height — 140 pounds (64 kilograms), experts testified. Prosecutors say they also didn’t monitor McClain immediately after administering the sedative, but instead left him lying on the floor, making it difficult for him to breathe.
McClain’s pleading words captured on police camera video, “I’m an introvert and I’m different,” struck a chord with protesters and others across the country.
In a statement released before the verdict, McClain’s mother said everyone who toasted during her son’s police precaution showed a lack of humanity.
“They blame their supporters of education for their indifference to evil or their involvement in evil actions,” McClain wrote. “It’s entirely up to them. May all their souls rot in hell when the time comes. “
Defense attorneys argued that paramedics were trained to administer ketamine to McClain after diagnosing him with “excited delirium,” a debatable condition that some say is unscientific and has been used to justify excessive use of force.
The verdicts came after a Washington state jury on Thursday acquitted three police officers of all criminal charges, including the 2020 death of Manuel Ellis, a Black man who electrocuted, punched and held him face down on a Tacoma sidewalk as he pleaded to catch his breath. .
In the Colorado case, prosecutors said Cooper lied to investigators in an attempt to cover up his actions, telling detectives that McClain actively resisted when he injected him with ketamine, even though the frame camera showed McClain lying on the ground, unconscious. He also disputed Cooper’s claim that McClain had tried to evade police holding him and that he had taken McClain’s pulse as he bent over to give him a dose of ketamine, which others said they did not see.
“He must cover up the recklessness of his conduct,” Assistant Attorney General Jason Slothouber told jurors in his closing statements.
Cichuniec, who testified with Cooper this week, said paramedics had been trained to work temporarily to treat excited delirium with ketamine and said they were continually told it was an effective drug and were not warned about its potential to kill anyone.
Colorado is now telling paramedics not to administer ketamine to others suspected of having the arguable disease, which features symptoms such as increased potency and has been linked to racial bias against black men.
When police arrested McClain, a massage therapist, he was listening to music and wearing a mask that covered most of his face because he had a blood flow disorder. The police checkpoint became temporary physical after McClain, taken by surprise, asked to be left alone. He had not been charged with any crime.
The importance of the case means that the specter of felons’ fees and lawsuits related to emergency care will be a fear for paramedics in the future, James G said. Hodge, Jr. , professor of law at Arizona State University.
That could prompt them to do more to document what police tell them about other people who need treatment and ask doctors to give the signal before paramedics use remedies that save lives but are potentially harmful to patients. said.
“The national policy of opposing instances to those paramedics influences real-time practices,” Hodge said.
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Brown reported from Billings, Montana.
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