obviously the scenario changed from a mental health observation to one of custodial. i mean, once they placed him under arrest then they started following procedures based on a typical arrest scenario. reporter: officers take lambert from outside the hospital to the police station. by the time they arrive he appears to be unconscious. an ambulance was called, but lambert could not be revived. his family has filed a $25 million lawsuit alleging, quote, the officers conduct constitutes murder saying excessive force and negligence contributed to his death. the south boston police department and the three officers involved have denied these claims. a statement from their attorney says in part, quote, we are vigorously defending the case. our position is reaffirmed by the reports of two independent well-qualified experts in the field. while taser logs appear to show the officers pulled the trigger at least 18 times in a span of 30 minutes with one of the officers using a taser 15 times
we know now from the discovery that taser logs, that the tasers were discharged 20 or more times. and that is contrary to the policies of the south boston police department. it s contrary to the recommendations of the justice department. it s contrary to the warnings and recommendations of the manufacturer of the taser. the conduct is unconscionable. how surprised were you that there are no charges in this case? remember, this happened two years ago. here s the fascinating thing about these cases, it s that if you look at the case law, the vast majority of these cases deal with people suing law enforcement agencies. they don t deal with the decision of a prosecutor to charge or really not charge an officer you can t sue them civilly for not having charged. it s whether or not there should be civil action against them. the guy s dead, that s the problem here. the guy s dead. it s not you shouldn t have used the taser.
excessive force and negligence arguing in part that quote while the defendants were depriving him of necessary medical treatment, lambert suffered cardiac arrest and death in violation of his rights. south boston police department and three officers involved denied these claims. a statement from their attorney says in part quote, we are vigorously defending the case. our position is reaffirmed by the reports of two independent well-qualified experts in the field. taser logs show the officers pull the trigger 18 times with one officer using the taser 15 times, it s unclear how many times lambert was actually struck. it is a common practice for multiple officers to fire their taser because you need the darts to correctly seat into the person s body. every time you use that taser, every time you zap somebody with that taser even after you deploy it, you have to give a reason why. there has to be a reason why you continue to use that taser. reporter: while lambert s