From The Oregonian, January 21, 2010
James Chasse Jr. is pictured cuffed face down on the sidewalk. Chasse died later by broad-based, blunt force trauma to his chest, as ruled by the state medical examiner.
The ambulance company that responded in 2006 to a police call involving James P. Chasse Jr. and the paramedics who examined him without taking him to a hospital are settling their part of a wrongful death federal lawsuit.
American Medical Response Northwest Inc. is the second party to the federal lawsuit to settle before a scheduled June trial, leaving the City of Portland and its officers as the remaining defendants.
Last summer, Multnomah County settled for $925,000, and the settlement by AMR is reportedly about $600,000.
AMR’s move comes after U.S. District Judge Garr M. King threw out allegations that paramedics acted with negligence and discrimination against a patient with mental illness, but allowed a wrongful death claim to proceed.