Jury Decides Officers Did NOT use Excessive Force After Shooting Man in Back

HOUSTON

A jury decided Friday that four LaPorte police officers did not use excessive force when they shot and killed a mentally ill man seven years ago.

Read Court Document:
Plaintiffs' Original Complaint

During the trial, the Meadours family used a detailed recreation of the shooting to try to prove the officers used excessive force. The family said they called police in October 2001 to try to get help taking Bob Meadours to a mental hospital. They said he was paranoid and delusional.

The officers said they shot Bob Meadours when he rushed one of them with a screw driver.

"These officers were exonerated by their own department, they were exonerated by the District Attorney's Office and now they've been exonerated by a jury of their peers," defense attorney William Helfand said.

A key witness for the family, a ballistics expert, testified that at least six shots hit Meadours in the back as he ran from the officers. One of the shots penetrated Meadours' upper leg as he stood atop a dog house, the expert said.

The defense put on witnesses who testified the plaintiffs’ analysis can’t be backed up scientifically – that there’s not a way to tell with both Meadours and the officers moving, their exact positions when it happened.

"A life was taken and that's never easy," said Sgt. Steve Ermel, one of the officers who was sued. "That's something the Meadours family has to live with. That something each one of us has to live with."

The Meadours' family asked for what its attorney describes as "substantial" damages from the four officers involved. The family said it was not happy with the verdict but it accepted the jury's decision.