SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., TASER Int’l Inc., a manufacturer of electronic control devices, announced that a stipulation for dismissal with prejudice was filed by the parties in the James Borden wrongful death lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana. The filing of this stipulation for dismissal by the plaintiffs brings the lawsuit to a conclusion with each party bearing their own costs.

According to TASER, this is the fifth wrongful death or injury lawsuit that has been dismissed against the company in the past 18 months.

On Nov. 6, 2003, James Borden died while in police custody in Indiana. The following day, Dr. Roland M. Kohr, M.D. performed a 90-minute autopsy on Borden where he concluded Borden’s cause of death as “[C]onsistent with cardiac dysrhythmia secondary to hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, pharmacologic intoxication and electrical shock.”

Kohr’s inclusion of electrical shock by a TASER device as a contributory cause of Borden’s death resulted in significant public criticism of TASER devices in media reports as well as the filing of this litigation against TASER.

In July 2004, on the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather, Kohr, stated that the TASER device “definitely” triggered Borden’s heart attack. However, in his deposition in March, Kohr admitted his statement on CBS News was “reckless.”

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