BRIGHTON, Colo. (AP) — A former paramedic who injected Elijah McClain with a powerful sedative avoided prison Friday and was sentenced to 14 months in prison with work release and probation for the murder of the Black man who helped fueling protests against racial injustice in 2020.
Jeremy Cooper faced up to three years in prison after being convicted of criminally negligent homicide during a jury trial last year. He administered a dose of ketamine to McClain, 23, who had been forcibly restrained after police arrested him as the massage therapist walked home in a Denver suburb in 2019.
The conviction caps a series of trials which spanned seven months and resulted in the conviction of a police officer and two paramedics. Criminal charges against paramedics and emergency medical technicians involved in custody cases are rare.
Cooper, who was fired after his conviction, was sentenced to four years of probation, including 14 months in prison under a program that will allow him to leave for work and return to prison at night and on weekends, said Lawrence Pacheco of the Colorado Attorney General. Desk.
The other paramedic involved in McClain’s death received a harsher sentence after being convicted of an additional charge of felonious assault.
Judge Mark Warner said the evidence showed Cooper did not intentionally give McClain a ketamine overdose, rejecting prosecutors’ claims that the paramedic acted with indifference.
McClain’s mother told the judge before Friday’s sentencing that she blamed McClain’s death on everyone present that night, not just those who had been convicted.
“Eternal shame on all of you,” Sheneen McClain said.
She said Cooper “did nothing” to help her son after he was restrained by police – he did not check his pulse, breathing or ask how he was – before inject him with an overdose. of ketamine.
On the verge of tears, McClain finished by raising his right fist in the air and saying out loud, “From my heart to my hands, long live Elijah McClain, always and forever.” »
She later told reporters she didn’t expect much from the trials and wasn’t surprised Cooper avoided prison. “We won, Elijah won,” she said.
Experts say these convictions would have been unheard of before 2020, when the killing of George Floyd sparked a nationwide reckoning over police racism and deaths in police custody.
At least 94 people died after being sedated and restrained by police between 2012 and 2021, according to findings by The Associated Press in collaboration with FRONTLINE (PBS) and the Howard Centers for Investigative Journalism.
McClain’s name became a rallying cry during protests against racial injustice in policing that swept the United States in 2020.
“Without consideration of criminal justice and the fact that people of color suffer far more from police use of force and violence, it is very unlikely that anything would have come of this, that there would have had charges, let alone convictions,” said David Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh and an expert on racial profiling.
Harris added that juries are often reluctant to question the actions of police and other first responders.
“It’s still very difficult to convict,” he said.
Cooper said during the hearing that he was sorry he couldn’t save McClain.
“I want you to know that I would give anything to have a different outcome, Elijah,” Cooper said as if talking to McClain. “I never wanted anyone to hurt you.”
He added that he wished he had known more at the time, implying that he could have used that knowledge to help McClain.
Sheneen McClain left the courtroom while Cooper spoke, but returned later.
Prosecutor Jason Slothouber had asked the judge to incarcerate Cooper and argued that the paramedic was “singularly responsible” for McClain’s death because Cooper gave him a “massive overdose” of ketamine.
Cooper’s attorney, wife and fellow firefighters urged the judge to show leniency. They described him saving people from fires, jumping into floodwaters to help an elderly woman and using CPR to try to save a child who died in a fire.
Cooper was not taken into custody after the hearing. He declined to comment as he left the courthouse with his wife and supporters.
Judge Warner had already sentenced ex-paramedic Peter Cichuniec to five years in prison in March. He faced the most serious charges in the case. This was the shortest sentence allowed by law.
Warner sentenced Officer Randy Roedema to 14 months in prison on conditional release for criminally negligent homicide and assault.
Prosecutors initially declined to pursue charges related to McClain’s death after an autopsy failed to determine the circumstances of his death. Democratic Governor Jared Polis ordered the investigation reopened in 2020.
The second autopsy found that McClain died because he was injected with ketamine after being forcibly restrained.
Since the killings of Floyd, McClain and others highlighted deaths in police custody, many departments, paramedic units and those who train them have reexamined how they treat suspects.
Medical experts said that by the time he received the sedative, McClain was already in a weakened state from restraint that rendered him temporarily unconscious.
McClain was neither armed nor charged with breaking any laws. He suffered a cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital and died three days later.
The Colorado Department of Health has since asked paramedics not to administer ketamine to people suspected of suffering from excited delirium, described in a since-retracted emergency physicians’ report as exhibiting symptoms including an increase in strength. A group of doctors called it an unscientific definition rooted in racism.
The protests against McClain and Floyd also marked the start of a wave of state legislation aimed at limiting the use of neck holds. At least 27 states, including Colorado, have placed some limits on these practices. Only two of them had bans before Floyd’s death.
Sheneen McClain said outside the courthouse Friday that the only closure she got was that the trials and convictions were over.
“It doesn’t matter what anyone else does to wipe my son’s blood off their hands,” she said. “It’s already there.”
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AP reporter Thomas Peipert contributed.
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