No charges in arrest
death
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August 18, 2011 |
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Daniel
Middlestadt |
Boundary County Prosecutor Jack Douglas,
concurring with the findings of an Idaho State
Police investigation, will not bring charges
against the Boundary County Sheriff's Deputy
involved in an early morning arrest May 16 that
left a Mt. Shasta, California, man dead.
"The ISP conducted a very thorough investigation
and found no wrong-doing on the part of the
sheriffs officer or the deputy," Douglas said.
"I agree with the assessment that the officer
went by the book, facing a very stressful
situation. He did all the right things at the
right time, but was not able to reverse the
outcome."
The incident began when a woman called dispatch
a few minutes after midnight May 16, saying that
a vehicle was blocking a side road on U.S. 95
near milepost 526, and that when she'd stopped
to see if the driver needed assistance, a naked
man exited the car and began behaving
erratically. She sped off, going home by another
route, and made the call.
Deputy Clint Randall responded, and when he
arrived on scene, the man, Daniel Middlestadt,
56, was still in the road, nude. According to
the ISP investigation, Randall attempted to
determine the situation, but the man was
agitated and uncooperative, at one point
grabbing at Randall's safety gear and trying to
fight off the deputy, at which point Randall
deployed the Taser, at which point Middlestadt
went to the ground.
As he was cuffing the man, Randall noticed that
Middlestadt was having diffifulty breathing.
Randall immediately uncuffed his arrestee, the
ISP report said, called for medical assistance,
and applied emergency first aid, including CPR,
for the duration of the 20 minutes it took the
ambulance to reach the scene.
The ISP investigation revealed that Middlestadt
had a long history of medical issues, both
mental and physical. He had long suffered from
heart disease and had undergone open-heart
surgery, and had battled mental health issues
most of his life, spending considerable time
confined to mental institutions.
According to the Idaho State Police, Middlestadt
appears to have been looking for an uncle who
lives in Moses Lake, Washington, but had gotten
lost.
"Deputy Randall actually did an outsanding job,"
said Sheriff's Chief Deputy Rich Stephens. "He
held his composure. He went from protecting
himself from this man to trying to save this
man's life within a matter of minutes. He
followed procedure every step of the way, and I
can't say enough how well he did in that
situation."
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