Original Article 1st Taser liability trial opens Former deputy says stun gun hurt his back Robert Anglen The Arizona Republic Dec. 1, 2005 12:00 AM The first product-liability trial against Taser International opened Wednesday in Phoenix with allegations from a former sheriff's deputy who said that a one-second jolt from a stun gun in 2002 fractured his back and ended his law enforcement career. Lawyers for former Maricopa County Sheriff's Deputy Samuel Powers claimed Taser officials misled officers about the safety of the stun gun by misrepresenting medical studies, failing to perform adequate tests and downplaying the potential for injury. In their opening statements, lawyers said that before being shocked during mandatory training, Powers was given constant reassurances that the stun gun "did not, has not, and could not . . . cause any long-term injuries." Taser's lawyers countered by challenging Powers' medical history, saying evidence showed he had years of back problems and a bone disease that left him vulnerable to the shocks. They denied Taser misled police departments about the safety of its stun guns. High stakes for Taser The case before county Superior Court Judge Paul Katz is critical for Scottsdale's Taser International, which says it has never lost an injury claim. Powers' trial comes at the end of a year in which questions about Taser safety led some police departments to shelve the stun guns, prompted an investigation by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and caused the price of Taser stock to drop by nearly 80 percent. Tasers are supposed to provide a safe way for officers to immediately incapacitate suspects with 50,000 volts of electricity. Although Taser maintains that its guns have never caused a serious injury or death, coroners have cited them as a cause, a contributing factor or have been unable rule them out in 21 deaths since 1999. In September, Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard said Taser agreed to change the way it marketed its stun guns after an inquiry raised questions about company claims "that we felt may have understated the risks of serious harm." Powers' claims cut to the heart of Taser's key marketing strategy, which involves selling guns to police departments by getting officers to first experience the shock in training. Taser officials for years said their safety claims were backed by more than 100,000 police officers who had been shocked during training without suffering serious injury. But an investigation by The Arizona Republic found that officers nationwide have complained about severe injuries after being shocked during Taser training. In August, police officers in five states filed lawsuits against Taser. Among them is a Missouri police chief who says he suffered heart damage and two strokes when he was shocked while hooked up to a cardiac monitor as a way to demonstrate the stun gun's safety. Others alleged injuries including multiple spinal fractures, burns, a shoulder dislocation and soft-tissue injuries. Powers' case In the Powers case, a doctor hired by Taser International found that the stun gun was responsible for fracturing the deputy's back. In a 2004 memo to Taser lawyers, Phoenix orthopedic surgeon Stephen Brown said Powers was at risk for the injury because he suffered from osteoporosis. Were it not for the bone disease, Brown said it is unlikely the stun gun would have caused the fracture. In court Wednesday, Taser lawyer Christina Reid-Moore focused on Brown's findings. She said osteoporosis would have forced Powers to resign whether he suffered any damage from the shock. Powers was a 16-year veteran of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office. He is now 47, lives in Ohio and works as a home inspector. Taser originally blamed the Sheriff's Office for Powers' injury. A day after Powers filed suit, Taser said that the Sheriff's Office should be held responsible for "unreasonably requiring" officers to be shocked. "If there is evidence that the shock from the (Taser) caused any injuries or damages to the plaintiff," Taser said in a Feb. 24, 2004, motion, "(the Sheriff's Office) and/or Sheriff Joe Arpaio are at fault for unreasonably requiring the plaintiff to be shocked by the Taser . . . as part of its non-lethal weapons training." A judge tossed out the motion. Pictures of Powers getting shocked were shown to jurors Wednesday. They showed Powers standing between two deputies, who were supposed to keep him from falling. Electrodes were attached to his left ankle and right shoulder. The shock, which lasted no more than a second, appeared to cause Powers to yell in pain as his body contracted and he fell forward. Before being shocked, Powers watched 12 other deputies get shocked and sat through a training course that included videos of other officers receiving the shock. Reid-Moore told jurors that Powers was given ample warnings about the stun gun's risks and, despite his previous back injuries, agreed to go forward. "The warnings provided to Samuel Powers, as well as warnings to any other police departments, were adequate," she said. Reid-Moore dismissed claims made by Powers' lawyers that Taser intentionally misreported Powers' injury as way to avoid admitting the stun gun hurt an officer. Simple mistake? In repeated filings to the SEC, Taser said Powers was alleging that he "injured his shoulder" and that the company made no mention of the fracture. Reid-Moore called it a simple mistake. "What the big beef here is they just didn't amend SEC filings," she said. But lawyer John Dillingham, who represents Powers, said Wednesday that it wasn't the first time Taser had misreported critical information. He pointed to a study that Taser cited for years as proof of the stun gun's safety. The study, a 1987 report by a California emergency-room doctor, compared gunshot injuries and Taser injuries. Dillingham said the company used the study to say that Tasers caused "0 percent long-term injuries" without mentioning that was only when compared with gunshot wounds. Reid-Moore said the study's findings were reported accurately. Gary Ordogg, author of the study, who is expected to testify, has previously said that Taser misused his study and that he has believed for two decades that stun guns can cause deaths.