Family sues Harford County over death of Tasered man   

Posted: 7:00 pm Sun, January 31, 2010
By Steve Lash
Daily Record Legal Affairs Writer

The family of a man who died after allegedly being stunned by a Taser and beaten by Harford County sheriff’s deputies has filed a $145 million federal civil rights lawsuit against the state, county and several officers.

Dwight Jerome Madison, a homeless 48-year-old Navy veteran, was “stalked and killed by renegade police officers,” according to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Baltimore by his parents, brother and sister.

Harford County Attorney Robert S. McCord did not respond to a telephone message seeking comment on the case.

The Sheriff’s Office, which declined to comment on the lawsuit, said in a news release after Madison’s June 13 death that officers had properly arrested him for trespassing in Bel Air and appropriately restrained him when he became “combative” at the Harford Detention Center.

The family’s complaint says three county correctional deputies and a civilian employee assaulted Madison around 9:10 a.m. June 12 and used a Taser electronic control device on him, causing severe head injuries. Madison died from his injuries the next day, according to the lawsuit.

The sheriff’s office stated in June that Madison initiated the confrontation by grabbing and choking an officer, which prompted a deputy to show Madison a Taser device and warn him to stop.

The plaintiffs’ attorney, Omar J. Simpson of Edgewood, said the litigation is not solely about money, but about parents and siblings trying to clear a family member’s name.

“The impression that was left was that he was just some wandering bum,” Simpson said. “He was a veteran.”

The suit alleges Madison never should have been detained.

At 8:50 p.m. on June 11, two sheriff’s deputies approached Madison, who said he was looking for a friend in the 900 block of Hillswood Road.

Two hours later, the deputies again approached Madison on Hillswood Road and he repeated that he was looking for his friend. The officers arrested Madison for trespassing and brought him to the detention center, according to the suit.

The sheriff’s office said the officers initially told Madison to leave the area, which was private property, after he was unable to remember his friend’s last name. The officers returned and arrested Madison in response to a complaint that a suspicious person was banging on doors, the sheriff’s office said.

Last week’s filing follows the December release of a state task force report that concluded electronic control devices, including Tasers, are potentially lethal. The Task Force on Electronic Weapons urged Maryland police officers to use the devices only on individuals who pose an imminent threat of serious physical injury to themselves or others.

Madison is mentioned in the report as “one of nine individuals in Maryland who have died after being shocked by an ECW since 2004.”