A man Tased 11 times dies. A Fresno judge must rule if police can keep the details secret

Is the Fresno police department’s use of a Taser on a man that resulted in 11 puncture wounds and the burning of the flesh around his groin considered great bodily injury?

That’s the issue Superior Court Judge Robert M. Whalen Jr. must decide in a civil lawsuit that seeks public records in the Aug. 20, 2004, death of 40-year-old Michael Sanders, who was Tased at least 10 times before he stopped breathing.

Investigative journalist Brian Howey sued the City of Fresno in April after it denied his request for records related to the Sander’s case.

The city’s argument is that the request does not meet the requirement for releasing the documents, in part, because the injuries were not considered “great bodily injury.”

Attorney David Loy with The First Amendment Coalition, who is representing Howey, argued that the city is narrowly defining the use of the term great bodily injury to prevent the records from being released.

Loy said that under 2018’s Senate Bill 1421 a police department must disclose records to the public where force was used that resulted in great bodily injury. He said the city’s definition is too narrow.

Tony M. Sain, who is representing the City of Fresno, said Loy is the one who is misinterpreting what great bodily injury means. While he accepts that the police officers used their Tasers against Sanders, he does not believe the injuries he suffered amount to great bodily injury.

An autopsy determined Sanders’s cause of death to be “complication of cocaine intoxication” and the manner of death was “accident,” according to court documents.

Sain said the definition of great bodily injury is much more serious than a Taser wound and can include death, unconsciousness, or disfigurement.

“If we adopted the petitioners definition of great bodily injury, essentially all use of force would be disclosable,” Sain said. “And we know that was not the Legislature’s intent.”