I-TEAM: Family continues to seek justice for Paul Tarashuk
AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A federal ruling has set a new legal precedent in South Carolina — emergency medical services and emergency medical technicians cannot claim qualified immunity, protecting them from lawsuits, if they deliberately ignore the medical needs of someone in their care.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit against the Orangeburg County Sheriff’s Office and EMS.
Tarashuk’s parents want justice.
They say they did not find it in the criminal legal system, so they filed a civil lawsuit.
Even an untrained eye could see something was seriously wrong with Paul Tarashuk on the night of Sept. 9, 2018.
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“I don’t think you’re going to believe me or not, but I just had a naked guy walking up to me on the side of the road and I took off and he jumped on my catwalk,” a truck driver reported.
Law enforcement found the 26-year-old on top of the tractor-trailer, naked and disoriented.
“He told me chickbaka,” a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper said. “I said, ‘What the h--l is that?’ He said, ‘Well, it’s from China.’ I said, ‘What?’ I said, ‘Don’t even say no more.’”
Tarashuk ran off the side of the road before stripping off his clothes and wandering down Interstate 95. His parents believe an accident triggered his schizoaffective disorder.
“I am getting ed this thing down,” a deputy said. “He ain’t going to jail, I can promise you that. He ain’t my fish. I ain’t cleaning it. I’ll get him some medical help.”
But the paramedic is as annoyed as the deputy.
“Tell us your d--n name, please,” a paramedic told Tarashuk. “Acting stupid, you’re a grown man. If you tell me your name and we will let you go, so I can go back to bed.”
EMT: “She is being serious.”
Paramedic: “I am being f-----g serious. I’m sleepy. Give me your d--n name so I can go home for real. I’m tired.”
EMS did not take him to the hospital, despite him not answering or reacting to the smelling salts they shoved up his nose.
“Instead of helping him and recognizing what they should have been trained to recognize, they insulted him and called him names and mocked him,” said Tarashuk’s mother, Cindy.
“Come on, I am going to give you a ride. Don’t walk on the interstate, the side of the road. You are not going to jail. You are not under arrest. I am going to give you a ride,” a deputy told him.
“And then the police officer took him and drove him 18 miles to Santee and dropped him off at a closed gas station near a highway,” said Tarashuk’s mother.
The same EMS crew that failed to take him to the hospital is called to respond again a few hours later.
This time, Tarashuk is dead.
“I think I just hit a person on the interstate,” a driver told a dispatcher.
South Carolina’s Department of Health and Environmental Control investigated and found the EMS workers guilty of misconduct, but the agency’s power only extends to sanctioning the certifications and licenses of EMS workers.
DHEC demoted the paramedic and put the EMT on probation.
Any criminal charges would be up to the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division, but state Solicitor David Pascoe decided — despite both Orangeburg EMS workers cited for misconduct, despite that nobody took Tarashuk to a hospital to be evaluated and despite that the Orangeburg County deputy drove Tarashuk to a closed rural gas station and left him there — that none of these actions were criminal misconduct in office.
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“The state of South Carolina has chosen not to prosecute. They are not going to hold anybody able for Paul’s death,” said Tarashuk’s mother.
Failing to find justice through South Carolina, they turned to the Department of Justice, filing a federal lawsuit against the agencies they say failed their son and contributed to his death.
But to get their case to go to trial, the family first needed to win the battle against qualified immunity.
Qualified immunity protects government officials from liability for civil damages.
Last year, the Court of Appeals affirmed the Orangeburg County deputy, EMT and paramedic with Orangeburg EMS heard and seen in the body cam violated Tarashuk’s constitutional rights.
The 14th Amendment right of pretrial detainees requires that government officials not be deliberately indifferent to any serious medical needs of the detainee.
The Appeals Court judge writes:
“A reasonable EMT or paramedic would have known that their conduct was not only unlawful but also created a substantial risk of serious harm, failing to ensure the detainee is transported to someplace where he can receive adequate medical care for those needs violates this constitutional right.”
“If they aren’t held able when they do this, it will just open it up to disregard more people,” said Tarashuk’s mother.
The paramedic named in the lawsuit and seen in the body cam ed away earlier this year, but this case now puts the actions of all paramedicals under a legal microscope.
The lawsuit names not only the deputy and EMS workers but also the government agencies that employed them.
The case is set for trial in September.
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