Kelly Brinson voluntarily checked into Cincinnati's University Hospital in January this year to seek treatment for a variety of disorders, including paranoid schizophrenia, bi-polar disorder and delusions. He never left alive.

Brinson's family recently brought a wrongful death suit against the hospital, the University of Cincinnati police department and various other institutions, alleging that the police used excessive force on Brinson and that the hospital was negligent in caring for him.

While Brinson was in the hospital's psychiatric unit, he became agitated after his cell phone was taken from him. Hospital staff injected him with a tranquilizer and put him into a seclusion room to calm down. While he was doing so, seven police officers entered to arrest him on charges that he had assaulted a police officer when he swung at a security guard shortly before.

Brinson resisted and was shocked with a Taser in the hip area, restrained to a bed and then shocked a second time in the upper abdomen. He went into cardiac arrest and died three days later.

In an investigation of the incident, the Ohio Department of Mental Health questioned the police response and "the intensity with which law enforcement persisted in their efforts to manage a further escalating situation despite the presence of clinical staff and the need for continued clinical intervention." The agency placed the hospital on probation (which was lifted recently after the hospital submitted a plan for addressing similar issues in the future).

The suit alleges that the police "escalated the situation by rushing Brinson and using physical force," and it seeks an unspecified amount of money.

Related Resource: cincinnati.com "Taser, death prompt lawsuit"