Fire Law Blog Fire Service and Public Safety Legal Issues Blog by Curt Varone
Criminal charges have been dismissed against a Pennsylvania paramedic who prevented a patient from being tasered by police last April. Medic Jodi L. Kerr-Rummel, 31, of the Lower Burrell Volunteer Fire Department, was facing misdemeanor counts of obstruction of justice and disorderly conduct for allegedly interfering with a police officer who was trying to taser a suicidal female patient.
Westmoreland County Judge John Blahovec dismissed the charges ruling there was insufficient evidence to prove that Kerr-Rummel intended to interfere with the police officer's efforts to taser the patient. The officer involved alleged he ordered Kerr-Rummel to move out of the way and leave the patient alone, but that she got between the patient and the officer and put her hands on the patient's arm.
The District Attorney’s office has not decided whether to appeal. Left unanswered are some important questions: Does a medic’s obligation to protect a patient from further harm provide a legal justification for protecting the patient from unnecessary use of force by police? Then there's the ICS question that keeps coming up in these police-fire disputes: who was in charge and legally calling the shots (pun intended)? How about this: Can a police officer lawfully order a medic not to treat or care for a patient at the scene of a medical emergency? A recent case in Leadville, Colorado began with a firefighter being arrested on an EMS run for not obeying the sheriff, and ended with a sheriff being charged with interfering with a firefighter…..
