Pubdate: Tue, 11 Jul 2000
Source: Bergen Record (NJ)
Copyright: 2000 Bergen Record Corp.
Contact:  http://www.bergen.com/cgi-bin/feedback
Website: http://www.bergen.com/

DRUG TESTS OF POLICE VICTIM ORDERED TURNED OVER TO FAMILY

NEW YORK - A Manhattan judge Monday ordered the city medical
examiner's officer to give the family of Patrick Dorismond, an unarmed
man who was shot by police, reports of toxicology tests done on his
body.

State Supreme Court Justice Louise Gruner Gans had told the Dorismond
family in May that if they filed the proper petition, they would be
entitled to the report, which said tests showed marijuana in
Dorismond's body.

Dr. Cyril H. Wecht, the coroner of Allegheny County, Pa., said in an
affidavit filed with the family's petition that he needs the report to
determine the accuracy of the finding of marijuana in Dorismond's body.

Wecht, noting that the body is decomposing continually, said the
report also will help him decide whether Dorismond's corpse needs to
be exhumed.

Dorismond, 26, a security guard, was shot in the chest by an
undercover officer on March 16 outside a Manhattan bar. Police said he
got angry and hit one of the officers after the cops asked where they
could buy marijuana.

After the public outcry over the shooting, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani
publicized the Brooklyn native's juvenile arrest record and an autopsy
report that included the positive toxicology test for marijuana.

In April, Dorismond family lawyers asked the court to let them see
reports from the autopsy and toxicology tests. They said they needed
the information for wrongful death lawsuits they planned to file.
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