by Dave Waddell
news analysis posted Oct. 29
The pain of the taser was “searing … like a baseball bat swung hard and squarely into the small of your back. That sensation, which is actually two sharp steel barbs piercing your skin and shooting electricity into your central nervous system, is followed by the harshest, most violent spasm you can imagine coursing through your entire body.” – Journalist Matt Stroud in his book “Thin Blue Lie.”
SACRAMENTO — Three years ago, the New York Times published a deeply reported story on how paid experts help exonerate police in killing cases. This month, that “cottage industry of exoneration,” including one expert who has made a fortune minimizing the dangers of tasers, operated at full gear on the 15th floor of the Robert T. Matsui Federal Courthouse.
Several experts with long and lucrative ties to that exoneration industry testified in support of Chico police in a civil suit brought by the parents of Tyler Rushing. After an eight-day trial in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, an eight-person jury decided Oct. 17 that officer Alex Fliehr did not use excessive force when he tased the thrice-shot, motionless Rushing in 2017.