Attorney asks to drop 2004 Taser case, judge refuses

A former Monroe County jailer who shocked a Bedford man in custody with a Taser gun two years ago will still face trial for his alleged contribution to the man's subsequent death. \nDavid Shaw received charges in 2004 for two counts of battery resulting in serious bodily injury, which is a class C misdemeanor. \nOwen Circuit Judge Frank Nardi, who is presiding as the special judge on the case, denied a request from Shaw's attorney last month to drop the case on grounds that her client has had to wait too long for the trial to get underway. \nIn a written statement, Nardi explained that he would not dismiss the case because "the acts of the defendant ... have been the cause that the case has not proceeded to an early trial." \nThe judge scheduled Shaw's trial for Oct. 16. \nJames L. Borden died in police custody Nov. 6, 2003, after he was booked for violating his probation issued in Lawrence County. Emergency Medical Services reports stated that Borden was incoherent and disoriented at the time of his arrest, yet he did not receive medical attention against the advice of paramedics on the scene. \nShaw shocked Borden three times with his stun gun for "uncooperative" behavior, according to police reports. \nDr. Roland M. Kohr, the coroner who performed the autopsy on Borden, concluded in his cause of death report that the man suffered from cardiac arrest, caused by "pharmacologic intoxication and electrical shock." \nKohr reported that traces of two drugs -- pseudoephedrine, a mild stimulant, and an antihistamine, a depressant -- were in Borden's body when he was shocked by the Taser. Kohr told the IDS in October 2005 that he believed the electrical shock was the catalyst for the man's death. \nIn October 2005, the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana dismissed a wrongful death lawsuit against the manufacturer of Taser guns. Borden's family received $500,000 from Monroe and Lawrence Counties in a civil suit in January 2005 but never recovered a settlement from Taser International, Inc.