The Associated Press for Chron.com has reported that the family of a man that died from "mechanical asphyxiation", due to the way police restrained him during an arrest, have received a $500,000 award from the state of Wyoming.
The federal lawsuit was fought by the state through to the U.S. Supreme Court. Wyoming argued that police troopers didn't violate the rights of B.J.W., 42, during an arrest after a traffic accident.
Though B.J.W. was handcuffed, he allegedly continued to struggle with troopers which prompted them to put weight onto his back.
The autopsy revealed that B.J.W. died from mechanical asphyxiation - the medical term means that he died because he was unable to continue to gain enough air to breathe with the applied weight to his back.
Other states and police groups - from around the United States - agreed with the procedure that the Wyoming officers had performed. Their mutual belief, and attestation to the Supreme Court, was that if the trial proceeded it could discourage officers from arresting people, and thereby, put the public in danger.
In May of 2009 the Supreme Court declined to consider the case.
Per G. Bryan Ulmer, a Jackson-based attorney representing the family and estate, the settlement not only included the cash award, but also requires that the state of Wyoming send a copy of the court ruling to all of their law enforcement agencies statewide - citing that the court had found their tactics too harsh.
Ulmer said, "There is a positive that is coming out of this, and that is to educate and further inform law enforcement in Wyoming with the hope that this sort of thing wouldn't happen again."
The Wyoming attorney general, Greg Phillips, declined to give a comment or make a copy of the settlement public.
When Wyoming's U.S. District Judge Alan Johnson approved the settlement in June, he had ruled that the Wyoming troopers, and other defendants in the state, were immune from being sued in this case. He did this as he felt that the conduct of the troopers, under existing law, was reasonable.
But by the fall of 2008, after the family appealed Judge Johnson's ruling, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals' panel of three judges overturned his decision.
The ruling stated that if the family's assertions were true and accurate, then unconstitutional force was used on B.J.W.
Of their ruling, Judges Stephanie Seymour and Harris Hartz wrote, "...(T)he law was clearly established that applying pressure to Mr. (B.J.W.) upper back once he was handcuffed and his legs restrained, was constitutionally unreasonable due to the significant risk of positional asphyxiation associated with such actions."
The one dissenting opinion, from Judge Terrence O'Brien, was that if the officers had taken the chance and let B.J.W. get up from the ground he could have hit the officers, or civilian bystanders, with his head or legs.
If you have lost a loved one in an altercation with a member of a police force, you may have grounds for a wrongful death lawsuit. Look through our directory and contact a wrongful death attorney near you.