Pubdate: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 Source: Austin American-Statesman (TX) Copyright: 2005 Austin American-Statesman Contact: http://www.statesman.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/32 Author: Tony Plohetski MAN KILLED BY POLICE TESTS POSITIVE FOR MARIJUANA Small Amount Of Drug Found In Second Test On Daniel Rocha, A Reversal Of Earlier Finding A man shot and killed by an Austin police officer last month had a small amount of marijuana in his system, despite an earlier ruling that he had not used drugs, the Travis County Medical Examiner's office said Monday. Daniel Rocha, 18, had used marijuana in the days or hours before he was shot to death by Officer Julie Schroeder, Chief Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo said. However, the amount of drugs in his system, and the fact that marijuana is a depressant, likely would not have caused Rocha to become combative as Schroeder tried to arrest him. "It would make people softer, but not agitated," Bayardo said. "Not trying to attack or fight." Schroeder has said she shot Rocha after getting into a struggle with him near the intersection of Quicksilver Boulevard and Pleasant Valley Road. She has said that she thought Rocha had taken her Taser stun gun and was about to use it against her or her sergeant, who had come to her aid. According to a two-page report Bayardo released Monday, a test performed on Rocha's urine shortly after his death produced false negative results. He said that an Austin police detective called him July 13 and asked him to perform a more thorough blood test because marijuana had been found at the scene. Bobby Taylor, an attorney representing the Rocha family, expressed anger and questioned whether police had pressured Bayardo to find drugs in Rocha's system. "It shows what kind of drastic steps the police are willing to take to paint a negative picture of Daniel," he said. - --- MAP posted-by: Derek