A 56-year-old man who died in Davis police custody earlier this year had a history of chronic drug abuse, his cause of death attributed to methamphetamine intoxication that brought on a life-threatening irregular heartbeat.
“Decedent overdosed on methamphetamine, which induced excited delirium leading to contact with law enforcement,” Yolo County Deputy Coroner Laurel Weeks ruled in the coroner’s report released this week for James Kenneth Dugger.
Dugger died Feb. 5 after being detained by officers outside his South Davis apartment complex, where neighbors said he had been acting erratically in the parking lot.
Although family members told The Davis Enterprise at the time that Dugger’s meth addiction issues were “in the past,” toxicology reports indicate he had a deadly amount of the illicit drug in his system when officers encountered him.
Specifically, the findings showed Dugger had more than four times the potentially lethal level of methamphetamine in his bloodstream — 4,100 nanograms per milliliter, according to Weeks’ report.
California Department of Justice figures typically put lethal meth levels at 1,000 nanograms per milliliter, though that can vary depending on a person’s state of addiction.
Dugger also tested positive for nicotine and Naloxone, a medication used to block the effects of opioids and likely was administered at the hospital to combat the drug overdose.
Relatives said Dugger had a history of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and was participating in the Greater Access Program — an outreach program for people with mental illness — when he moved to Davis in the spring of 2015. His GAP case manager told coroner’s officials he had not failed any of his random drug screens, and that he had last spoken with Dugger on Feb. 4.
Early the next morning, Feb. 5, Dugger’s neighbors at the Pacifico Housing Cooperative on Drew Circle reported hearing Dugger “making noise” in his apartment and an adjacent common room between midnight and 4 a.m.
One neighbor who checked on Dugger reported finding his apartment in a state of disarray. Dugger “had a flashlight and was complaining of hearing digging in the walls,” the coroner’s report said. Later, “he stripped off his boxer shorts and went outside.”
That’s when Davis police were summoned to the scene, arriving at about 5:40 a.m. to find Dugger naked and screaming in the parking lot.
In an interview that day, Police Chief Darren Pytel said officers handcuffed Dugger without a struggle or use of force, and he was seated on the ground when he suddenly slumped over and stopped breathing. Medical personnel already on scene immediately began CPR, but Dugger died more than an hour later at Sutter Davis Hospital.
It marked the Davis Police Department’s second in-custody death to occur in less than four months. On Oct. 15, 2015, officers were dispatched to the La Quinta Inn & Suites on Research Park Drive to investigate reports sounds of screaming and items breaking inside one of the hotel rooms.
The occupant, 54-year-old David Elwood Shurtz Jr., reportedly tossed responding officers about the room and withstood two Taser deployments and multiple baton strikes before being detained. He became unresponsive and died a short time later despite receiving medical intervention at the scene.
Like Dugger, Shurtz’s toxicology tests registered lethal levels of methamphetamine — 6,400 nanograms per milliliter, as well as marijuana, according to his coroner report.
An investigation by the West Sacramento Police Department into the actions of the four officers involved in the Feb. 5 incident has been completed and is under review, Pytel said, and the Davis Police Department’s internal investigation into the incident is continuing.
“It’s obviously a very tragic incident,” Pytel said Thursday. “The officers didn’t use force and really treated this like a medical emergency. It’s very unfortunate the drug level was so high and they weren’t able to save him.”
— Reach Lauren Keene at lkeene@davisenterprise.net or 530-747-8048. Follow her on Twitter at @laurenkeene