Lawsuit filed against Taser

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Jason Yeagley's widow holds a photo of their family.

A Bay area widow has filed a civil suit against the makers and sellers of Tasers.

Georgina Yeagley says the device that is billed as "less than lethal" is responsible for her husband's death.

A Polk County Sheriff's deputy used a Taser to detain Jason Yeagley after she found him wandering into traffic and acting erratically in the summer of 2004. Yeagley said her husband had a medical condition.

This 911 call came in that day:

• Caller: "There's some guy that's either on drugs or something. He's like standing in the road. He almost got hit by a car."

• Dispatcher: "Okay, I've already got somebody on the way to him."

Yeagley's widow has filed a 26-page civil lawsuit against the manufacturer and Florida distributor of Tasers because she believes the device caused her husband to have a fatal heart attack.

"I think the police are using them a little too quickly sometimes because they haven't been given the knowledge that they need as far as how harmful that they can be," Yeagley said. "And that the people that they're using them on, they don't know their conditions, and the Taser people haven't informed them of that."

The Polk County Medical Examiner's Office that Yeagley's death was not related to the use of the Taser. The medical examiner said Yeagley died from excited delirium, which is one of the symptoms of withdrawal from the drug Xanax, which Yeagley had a prescription for.

Yeagley's lawyer, Joseph Saunders, says Taser issued a warning about its device related to excited delirium.

"Taser recently just this spring has issued a warning directed to exactly this excited delirium, to warn police departments," Saunders said.

Saunders says he'll try to prove in court that if Taser had issued that warning last year, Yeagley might not be a widow today.

Taser International released this statement in reaction to the Yeagley lawsuit:

"We are not aware of any litigation filed by the Yeagley family and have not been served any papers. We stand firm in our belief in the life-saving value of Taser technology and will rigorously and aggressively defend such claims."

Yeagley chose not to sue the Polk County Sheriff's Office because she believes the deputy who used the Taser on her husband was only trying to help him, and using the device as instructed by the manufacturer.

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