Wrongful death suit filed over use of stun gun by L.A. County deputies

In the lawsuit, filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court, Carolina Silva accuses Los Angeles County and Taser International Inc. of the wrongful death of her husband, Cesar.

She alleges that sheriff's deputies "went far beyond any reasonable force necessary to detain or arrest" her husband, and that Taser failed to warn of the gun's lethal potential.

Responding to a neighborhood disturbance call, deputies tried to arrest Cesar Silva, 32, in an unincorporated area of South Los Angeles in November 2007. He fought with at least five deputies, injuring two, before he was shot with the Taser, the Sheriff's Department said last year.

Cesar Silva was unarmed, and deputies beat him with a flashlight and shocked him more than 10 times with the Taser, according to the lawsuit.

An autopsy of his body found cocaine and methamphetamine use, minor facial scrapes and bruising to the back, according to the Los Angeles County coroner's office.

The cause of death was listed as agitated delirium, a controversial diagnosis that is usually attributed to people who die in police custody. The condition causes a person's blood pressure to race and can lead to organ failure.

Jeffrey Korn, an attorney for Carolina Silva, declined to comment on her husband's health or medical condition at the time of his death.

Sheriff's Department spokesman Steve Whitmore declined to comment specifically on the lawsuit.

"We do look forward to telling the whole story that's not being told now," he said.

The Sheriff's Department's internal affairs unit and the district attorney's office are investigating Silva's death.

The Taser gun, which delivers a 50,000-volt shock at five-second intervals, is marketed as a nonlethal alternative to firearms and used widely by the Sheriff's Department.

Civil rights groups have criticized the use of Tasers because more than 320 people have died in the United States since 2001 after being shocked with them.

In the more than 70 wrongful death or injury suits filed against Taser, all but one were dismissed in the manufacturer's favor. In the case that the manufacturer lost, a U.S. District Court judge threw out $5.2 million in punitive damages against the company.

Lin is a Times staff writer.

joanna.lin@latimes.com