Hand off Cardall probe

In an effort to conserve valuable public resources, it makes sense that the Washington County Critical Incident Task Force investigate such events that occur in its jurisdiction.

The recent death of Brian Cardall, who died June 9 after he was Tasered twice in the midst of a bipolar disorder episode on state Route 59 outside Hurricane, is not one of those cases. Washington County authorities should ask another law enforcement agency or the Utah attorney general to probe the matter.

First, it would relieve the task force from any apparent conflict of interest. Personnel from both Hurricane City Police Department and the Washington County Sheriff's Office responded to the incident.

Second, this event is atypical because of the intense media coverage of Cardall's death. Some reports paint a drastically different account than that released by Hurricane officials.

As an example, a witness told the St. George newspaper that a responding officer Tasered Cardall after he took a step toward them. "He went down like somebody hit him with a baseball bat," Lorry Stratton of Hurricane was quoted by The Spectrum.

Stratton saw Cardall fall, at which time a second officer ran up to Cardall. "I don't know how they could have figured that man was a threat to them," Stratton said.

Meanwhile, Hurricane city attorney Peter Stirba wrote in a statement issued June 12 that the officer involved acted "responsibly and was fully justified in using a nonlethal level of force to protect the safety of Mr. Cardall, himself and other officers involved." That declaration would appear, at best, premature.

Third, the 911 recordings released Wednesday by the Cardall family raise other questions about Stirba's statement. The recordings indicate that Cardall was Tasered twice during his interaction with police officers. Stirba's statement did not mention this specifically. The family said it released the recordings because it felt that Stirba had "omitted numerous highly significant facts, which we feel the public should know."

We do not intend to conduct an investigation of this tragic death on the editorial pages of our newspaper. Our concern is that the public investigation of these events is as transparent and objective as possible. This does not suggest that the task force could not conduct a thorough and fair probe. But it is in an untenable position given the intense publicity this case has received and the strong emotions it has elicited. Another agency should be asked to take over the investigation.