Peter Cichuniec was one of two paramedics to arrive at the scene of an encounter between Elijah McClain and three members of the Aurora, Colorado police department. McClain was face down on the ground, handcuffed, and terrified. He was having trouble breathing. There was fresh vomit on and around his face. Cichuniac and his partner decided to administer a sedative for so-called "excited delirium," a condition unrecognized by the American Psychiatric Association and most commonly diagnosed in young black men while being physically restrained by police. McClain was injected with 500mg of ketamine, a dosage well above the safe therapeutic level for men his size.
Elijah McClain went into cardiac arrest in Cichuniac’s ambulance on the way to the hospital. He was pronounced brain dead three days later. He died on August 30, 2019. His cause of death was marked as "undetermined." The District Attorney declined to press charges against Cichuniac, his partner, or any of the three officers who forcibly restrained McClain.
Little happened in the case until 2021, when the city of Aurora settled a civil rights lawsuit with the McClain family for $15 million and a consent decree from the Aurora police and fire departments to address a pattern of racial bias found by a state investigation. It was a victory, but many in the community felt it wouldn’t be complete until the five perpetrators faced justice.
Steps in the Right Direction
In September 2021 a Colorado grand jury indicted Cichuniec, his partner, and all three officers on 32 total counts of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide. Two of the officers were also indicted on one count of assault and one count of a crime of violence. Cichuniec and his partner also faced three counts of assault and six counts of criminally negligent homicide and second-degree assault.
There was no motion in the case until September 2022, when the chief coroner of Adams County made a surprise announcement: the grand jury investigation had turned up new evidence, and McClain’s autopsy report had been updated. Instead of "undetermined," McClain’s autopsy report now listed his cause of death as "complications of ketamine administration following forcible restraint."
Officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt were tried in July 2023. Officer Nathan Woodyard’s trial was held separately in September 2023. Cichuniec and his partner Jeremy Cooper’s trial began in November of the same year.
Mixed Results
Nathan Woodyard was acquitted of all charges after his attorneys convinced the jury that it was the ketamine that killed McClain, not Woodyard’s use of the carotid hold that rendered McClain briefly unconscious. Carotid holds are now illegal in Colorado (thanks in large part to McClain’s death) but at the time Woodyard was not technically breaking the law – just APD policies requiring officers to de-escalate situations and call for medical follow-ups after using the hold. He has since reportedly returned to work in the police department in a non-public-facing capacity.
Jason Rosenblatt was also acquitted of all charges. His attorneys echoed the defense used in Woodyard’s trial: that it was the ketamine, not Rosenblatt’s actions that killed McClain. They also argued that he was the most junior officer on the scene, and was just following along with the other two officers. Body cam footage also showed him stepping away from scene for several minutes before McClain was injected with ketamine.
Randy Roedema wasn’t quite as lucky as his fellow officers. The jury in his trial saw fit to find him guilty of criminally negligent homicide and third-degree assault, two of the least severe crimes of which he was accused. Roedema was the senior officer on the scene. That fact, his failure to de-escalate the scene, his refusal to heed McClain’s pleas for help, and failure to communicate McClain’s condition to the paramedics all contributed to his conviction. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
Most of the blame for McClain’s death fell squarely on the two paramedics who sedated him. It took less than a month for the trial to run its course, likely hastened by Cooper’s admission that he had misjudged the amount of ketamine needed to subdue McClain. He was convicted of criminally negligent homicide. The jury convicted Cichuniec of the same, as well as an additional count of second-degree assault for his unlawful administration of drugs to McClain.
Cichuniec received a sentence of five years in prison and three years of probation. Cooper is still awaiting his sentencing hearing.
Related Resources:
- Elijah McClain: Trials End with Mixed Results for Colorado Police Officers Charged in Black Man’s Death (FindLaw’s Courtside blog)
- Police Brutality Lawsuits and Section 1983 (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
- Are Police Allowed to Racially Profile? (FindLaw’s Law and Daily Life)
