27°
The troopers had handcuffed Sergio Rodriguez, 51, and led him to their marked SUV after finding heroin in his car during a stop outside their substation on Minnisink Road, just off Route 80 in Totowa, on June 27, 2020.
Rodriguez had been using a cellphone while driving, Acting New Jersey Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin said.
Body camera footage shows a trooper asking Rodriguez if they should call EMS after he tells them he's low on insulin.
Rodriguez -- who's sitting in the back of the cruiser with the door open and his feet outside -- says he doesn’t want his family finding out, the footage shows.
But the trooper insists.
“Listen, bro. I don’t want you dying,” he says. “You said you’re a diabetic.”
“I had three heart attacks,” Rodriguez responds.
Given those factors, the trooper tells him they’re going to play it safe and get medical help so that nothing happens to him. The trooper then radios for an EMS unit.
Moments later, troopers help Rodriguez out of the vehicle as he suffers some type of episode.
They lay him on the grass nearby, remove his handcuffs and administer emergency aid -- including Narcan, shocks from a defibrillator and CPR.
Recordings from two NJSP body cameras and a dashcam can be found here: Rodriguez Recordings from Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) and Mobile Video Recorder (MVR)
Rodriguez "became responsive and verbal for a short period of time," Platkin said, "but after the arrival of EMS, he again became unresponsive."
He was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center in Paterson and pronounced dead at 1:05 p.m., a little over an hour and a half after the incident, the attorney general said.
A Medical Examiner conducted an autopsy and ruled that the cause of death was "a pre-existing medical condition and acute combined drug toxicity due to certain specified drugs," Platkin said.
State law and his own guidelines require Platkins's office to investigate deaths that occur “during an encounter with a law enforcement officer acting in the officer’s official capacity or while the decedent is in custody," no matter what the circumstances are, he said.
The guidelines guarantee that the investigation is done “in a full, impartial and transparent manner," removing politics or personal agendas.
Once the investigation by Platkin’s Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA) was complete, the results were presented to the state grand jury in Trenton.
Evidence included witness interviews, forensic findings, the recorded video and the autopsy results, Platkin said.
The panel concluded its deliberations on Monday, March 14, with a majority "no bill" finding that "no criminal charges should be filed against any officer involved in the fatal encounter," the attorney general said.
Click here to follow Daily Voice Towson and receive free news updates.
