Jury rules in favor of officer in man's death

After roughly six hours of testimony and less than 30 minutes of deliberations, a Clark County coroner’s jury found excusable Las Vegas police officer Kevin Koval’s actions that led to the death of Dustin James Boone Nov. 4.

Koval applied what is known as a lateral vascular neck restraint following a struggle at Boone’s home. Police were called to the scene by a state mental health worker after she became concerned Boone might not have taken the medicines he used to address schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Boone’s family is not happy. Their attorney, John Burton of Pasadena, Calif., said now that the family has heard the entire story, they can decide whether to pursue a civil wrongful death lawsuit.

The incident began when Melanie Torres, at the time an Easter Seals mental health worker under contract with the state, called police after checking on Boone, who died on the eve of his 30th birthday.

According to Torres’ testimony, Boone was normally “easygoing and eager to please,” but he didn’t always take the psychotropic and anti-depressant medicines doctors prescribed.

Torres said there were strong indicators Boone was off his meds the day he died. She said he didn’t recognize her when she arrived at his home to check on him in the early evening.

Torres’ supervisors decided to contact police and have them transport Boone to a facility that handles mental health patients.

Koval and officers Jerry Ybarra and Michael Rowley all testified Boone, who stood about 5 feet, 9 inches tall and weighed more than 340 pounds, was naked, wearing only a pair of black-framed sunglasses when they entered his home.

A struggle ensued that continued on Boone’s back patio. Boone, they said, exhibited tremendous strength and would not allow police to handcuff him.

After several minutes of struggle, Koval applied the neck restraint from behind and Ybarra and Rowley were able to place the man in handcuffs. Boone never regained consciousness and died.

According to Dr. Lary Simms, a forensic pathologist with the coroner’s office, Boone died of cardiopulmonary arrest due to neck restraint.

However, Simms told jurors the injuries to Boone’s neck were not all attributable to the neck restraint. The trachea was not damaged, which he said is normal when the maneuver is properly deployed. In ideal circumstances, he said, a person subjected to such a hold would lose consciousness in a matter of seconds but would survive.

Although there was bruising to the back of the neck and near the spinal column due to the pressure Koval applied, Simms said the majority of injuries to Boone were the result of the insertion of a breathing aid and other resuscitation efforts. Deaths that do occur following the move are normally attributed to underlying health conditions or an improperly applied hold, Simms said.

Simms said Boone’s heart was abnormally enlarged and his liver was also enlarged. No illegal substances were detected in Boone’s system, said Simms, but the enlarged heart could have played a key role in his death.

Koval, Ybarra and Rowley are all veteran officers and have received specialized training to deal with people who have mental disorders. They are members of the department’s Crisis Intervention Team.

Their mission that night was not to arrest Boone, each testified, but to take him into custody and transport him to a hospital or mental health facility so he couldn’t hurt himself or others.

The officers each testified they were concerned Boone was suicidal and was trying to blow up his home by turning on the gas to the fireplace.

“He wasn’t trying to hurt himself or anyone else,” Boone’s father, James, said after the hearing. “His birthday was the next day. He was excited. He knew we were going to take him (out) and he didn’t want to go to the hospital.”

The elder Boone said his son was watching game 6 of the World Series prior to the fatal altercation. “He was a sweet, sweet kid, watching some baseball. He wasn’t looking for trouble.”

Officer Ybarra testified Boone was showing signs of being in “extreme delirium,” and was unable to realize the men were police and there to help him. Ybarra said Boone kept saying “you’re here to hurt me,” and “what are you doing here.” Persons in such a high state of agitation, he said, are at a high risk of sudden death because they expend significant amounts of energy in a short period of time.

Boone’s mother was reduced to tears when she spoke of the night her son died. “The state called and told me these police were trained to deal with people like D.J. They said he was going to be fine,” said Dorothy Boone. “The next time they call and said, ‘you better come. He’s on a gurney and he’s not breathing.’”

Paramedic Amanda Meagher said she and her partner, along with the three police officers, tried valiantly to revive Boone.

“He took a deep breath, exhaled and his head just kind of tilted to the side,” Koval testified in describing Boone’s final moment.

Contact Doug McMurdo at dmcmurdo@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-8135.

Comments

Note: Comments made by reporters and editors of the Las Vegas Review-Journal are presented with a yellow background.

1. whtlsugt Dec. 19, 2009 | 1:03 a.m. Report Abuse

   OK now say its not so.....A metroman has been found innocent of any wrong doing as to someone losing their life while he choking them ... Yea wonder what part of the training manual that manuever is in...Last i remember restraining someone and choking someone is two entirely different things.... Maybe this is metro training being applied at its finest and to think it was some mentally impaired person that it was done to...Restraining and Choking hmmmm... If you remove the s from restraining you come up with what metro should be doing about their choking to kill a innocent person that just needed to get the right meds in his system so he could realize where he was and why all these people came to hurt him....Funny how he knew what was going to happen and metro couldnt see it.... They were there to hurt him and they did....Good job metro and keep up the crappy work you do.......

2. Loyal Employee Dec. 18, 2009 | 11:19 p.m. Report Abuse

   I'm glad you're back to posting here (Patrick, not-so-much, ha!)
   I'm really wondering if you've been made aware of the ridiculous threats against (your) posts about a previous story. I posted a couple comments to you, but they were both deleted. Seems Goofball wanna-be-politician-unemployed-attorney-shot-while-running-from-the-police-armed-and-with-multiple-warrants thinks you shouldn't be allowed to make comments in the RJ! Heard anything about that?

3. patrick Dec. 18, 2009 | 11:12 p.m. Report Abuse

   Prometheus:
   
   How would we know if that happened?
   
   Do you think the police would tell us?
   
   Never mind.

4. Loyal Employee Dec. 18, 2009 | 11:01 p.m. Report Abuse

   Wrongful death suit? Yeah, right! Five-foot-nine, three-hundred-fifty-pound-naked-chain-smoker, off-his-meds, and playing with fire? Ha! Good luck with that case, Vermin-Personal-Injury-Attorney-John-Burton-of-Pasadena! I guess you ENJOY it when YOUR mentally-ill neighbors try to blow up half the houses on your street because they don't feel like complying with the police (for everyone's safety). P.S. Thanks for the hilarious quote about how the family can NOW decide whether to pursue a civil lawsuit! That was even funnier than the "victim's" description.

5. patrick Dec. 18, 2009 | 10:42 p.m. Report Abuse

   I'm going to be serious for a moment here folks, and say something that you probably won't; its time to save the taxpayers some money and end the charade they call an inquest.
   
   It makes no sense to continue to spend taxpayer dollars on this farce, it serves only to rubber stamp the actions of the officers who kill civilians and accomplishes nothing.
   
   By nothing I mean, nothing. It doesn't prevent lawsuits, it doesn't change the behavior of the police, and it doesn't change the attitudes of the people who receive the results; it is a simple waste of time and resources and it MUST come to an end.
   
   I make no judgement about the officer involved in this case, or for that matter any of the other cases that have come before the inquest. That is not my point. The point is that we all know the result of the inquest BEFORE a civilian is shot and we know that the officers will NOT be found to have acted unjustifiably and the police department will NOT, at least as a result of the findings of justifiable homicide, change their policies or procedures (I mean, why would they right?) and all of this happens at great cost, and regularly in this city.
   
   Its time for all of us to say enough is enough, END THE CHARADE.
   
   Its nothing but a bad joke.

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