Gwinnett County Deputy Impleads Taser Company in Death of Hog-Tied Black Man

• "Are we supposed to believe that a healthy 31-year-old Black man who was athletic, who did not drink or do drugs, who had no history of heart problems, somehow died of a heart attack?" [more]

A former Sheriff's deputy who blamed a Taser stun gun manufacturer in the death of Gwinnett County inmate this week amended his claim that the manufacturer's intentionally mislead law enforcement with their marketing and training tools. In the initial cross claim, lawyers for former Sheriff's deputy Michael Mustachio said Taser International misrepresented its product as being safe and used biased scientific studies to demonstrate its effectiveness. The amendment filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Northern District of Georgia in Atlanta sought to omit those damning statements. Mustachio's lawyers still maintain that Taser International - not Mustachio - should be held liable if a judge decides 31-year-old Frederick Jerome Williams died because he was stunned with a Taser.  Following Williams' death on May 27, 2004, his widow, Yanga Williams, sued Gwinnett County, the Sheriff's Department, Sheriff Butch Conway and six deputies for wrongful death. Mustachio's attorney, Terry Williams said, "we still dispute whether the Taser caused this death. We don't have any specific evidence at this point that necessarily says Taser is responsible to the plaintiff for this death, but in the event that information wasn't passed along to law enforcement we want to pursue our right to have Taser held liable." Frederick Jerome Williams, 31, a Liberian native who lived in Lawrenceville, died of brain damage from a heart attack after the altercation in May, according to the final autopsy report in the case [more]