Trial for officers involved in death of Elijah McClain to begin Monday
The trial for suspended Aurora Police Officer Randy Rodema and former Aurora Police Officer Jason Rosenblatt will begin Monday, Sept. 18. They are two of the five people charged in the death of Elijah McClain.
They are each charged with 32 counts of manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide and one count of assault and one count of crime of violence.
David Kaplan an attorney in Denver says the prosecution will try to prove that their actions on the night Elijah McClain was arrested were excessive.
"And if it was excessive, resulting in serious bodily injury or death as a result of their actions, that they will be found guilty," said Kaplan.
The defense for the two men will likely argue that the amount of force the former officers used was justified.
"What they're going to tell the jury is that they reacted appropriately for the information they had and the danger they perceived," said Kaplan.
The jury will also have to weigh whether the actions of the police officers contributed to Elijah McClain's death at all.
"The jury is going to have to decide whether all of the participants were responsible for what resulted, which was the death of Elijah, or whether the officers perhaps conducted themselves in an appropriate manner. But the paramedics did something wrong, and that's what caused the death," said Kaplan.
And they will have to ignore all the attention this case has gotten.
"If the jury does their work appropriately and seriously and responsibly, then they'll make a decision that's independent of some of the kind of social pressures that exist," said Kaplan.
