Coroner's jury rules drowning of handcuffed man at Lake of the Ozarks an accident
UPDATED at 3:45 p.m. with results of inquest.
A coroner's jury has ruled the death of a handcuffed man who drowned while in the custody of a Missouri state patrol trooper at the Lake of the Ozarks in May an accident.
The ruling from the six-member jury in Morgan County, Mo., comes amid disputed versions of what happened to Brandon E. Ellingson three months ago on the Gravois Arm of the lake, about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis. A prosecutor will consider the jury’s findings when deciding whether to file charges.
The jury took about 10 minutes to unanimously rule the death an accident after hearing from witnesses, including emotional testimony from the state water patrol trooper who arrested Ellingson.
In response to questions from his own attorneys, longtime Missouri Highway Patrol Trooper Anthony Piercy said
he had limited training after volunteering for duty with the water patrol division in 2012 and wasn't specifically trained in how to arrest a suspect on the water, what kind of life vest to use on a suspect or what to do in a rescue situation.
"I realize more training is needed," Piercy said before a six-member jury in Morgan County, Mo., convened to look into the death of Brandon E. Ellingson, a 20-year-old student from Iowa, on the lake on May 31.
Piercy arrested Ellingson that day for boating while intoxicated and was taking him to a water patrol station
when Ellingson somehow went overboard on the Gravois Arm of the lake, about 140 miles southwest of St. Louis. Piercy said Ellingson stood up and then went over the side.
Piercy had put a life jacket on Ellingson after handcuffing the man, but the life jacket came off in the water. Witnesses told Highway Patrol investigators that the jacket wasn't appropriately secured.
An emotional Piercy described trying to extend a hooked pole to Ellingson, then jumping into the water to try to save the young man. He says he reached Ellingson about eight or ten feet underwater and tried to bring him to the surface, but lost his grip.
"I guess I used to think that when I went to work, I could handle just about any situation that was thrown at me," Piercy said when asked how Ellingson's death had affected him. "I guess it's let me know how vulnerable I am. It's affected me professionally. It's affected my personal life. It's distracting — I think about it all the time. It's hard."
Piercy said he was confident in his abilities on the road, but in response to questions from his attorneys said
he had limited training for the water patrol division, which merged with the Missouri Highway Patrol in 2010. Piercy, 43, has been with the Highway Patrol since 1996 and was cross-trained for the water patrol in 2012.
He said he had a week or so of basic boating training and later a four-week marine operations class that covered many of the same concepts. But he said that didn't cover how to make an arrest or rescue operations.
Missouri Highway Patrol Capt. Rex Scism testified that the agency's policy is for troopers to use a Type I or Type II life jacket for suspects. Piercy put a Type III jacket on Ellingson. The Coast Guard says Type III jackets are good for calm, inland waters, or where there is a good chance for fast rescue. Those jackets aren't able to flip over an unconscious person who is facing down in the water. It's unclear whether a different type of jacket would have stayed on Ellingson.
Piercy said he grabbed the closest life jacket at hand and hadn't been trained about which kind to use. He said there were Type I, Type II and Type III jackets on the patrol boat.
In taped testimony, friends of Ellingson who saw the arrest said Piercy put the life jacket over Ellingson's head and shoved it down on his shoulders. Piercy said he put it around Ellingson and buckled it. But Ellingson's hands were cuffed behind his back and his arms were not through the arm holes of the jacket.
Ellingson's body was found in 69 feet of water late that night.
The Ellingson family’s lawyer, Matt Boles, said he thinks the trooper’s speed in choppy water caused Ellingson to fall overboard. Boles said a preliminary investigation showed Piercy drove more than 40 mph.
“It should’ve never happened,” Ellingson's father, Craig Ellingson, told the Post-Dispatch Wednesday. “That guy just didn’t do the basics. If he’d have put the jacket on before handcuffing him, my son would be alive today.”
On Thursday, Craig Ellingson said he was disappointed the coroner's jury ruled his son's death an accident.
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Originally Posted by Anti Federalist
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