CAMDEN -- A U.S. District Court judge ruled that a woman can continue to sue the two officers who placed her brother in the back of a police cruiser where he died in 2012, but not the other officers or EMTs who were there.

Judge Noel L. Hillman also said the the suit can continue against Haddon Township and Police Chief Mark Cavallo on the grounds that department training or policies could have played a role in the death of Sherron Norman, 37.

He was found dead in the cruiser two minutes and 49 seconds after township Officers William Benham and Joseph Sullivan placed him on his stomach on the back seat, with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs bent up, according to the judge's written decision.

The state medical examiner ruled his death an accidental overdose, but an expert hired by the plaintiff, Juanita Norman, said it was a homicide.

Hillman wrote that a special jury will decide that and other disputes in the facts, at which point he may reconsider whether the suit should be dismissed against Benham, Sullivan, Cavallo and the township.

Sherron Norman was under the influence of cocaine when he caused a disturbance, pulled down his pants, damaged items and pushed someone in the Crown Fried Chicken on Mount Ephraim Avenue, the judge wrote.

Officers, as well as an ambulance, were dispatched for a "psych emergency."

Benham said under oath that he arrived first and struggled with Norman until the latter was lying on his stomach on the ground. Norman bit Benham during the struggle and was hit several times by Benham and Sullivan, both of whom said in depositions that they were trying to get Norman to release his bite.

After they cuffed him, they put him stomach-down in the car with his face toward the back of the seat, Hillman said. He kicked and yelled for less than a minute before going silent, the judge said.

After another minute, an officer on scene noticed he was unresponsive in the car.

Juanita Norman was suing for wrongful death, false arrest or imprisonment, and civil rights violations.

She also sued officers and EMTs who were on scene, and the jurisdictions they came from, for failing to intervene in an excessive force incident or when they knew that her brother needed medical attention.

Hillman dismissed the suit for those parties in his June 29 decision. They were from Oaklyn, Woodynne, Collingswood, and Camden.

His reasoning for continuing the suit against the Haddon Township officers and chief, he said in the decision, was that there was enough conflicting information that needed to be decided before the court could rule on whether the death was due to the officers' actions.

Because even some basic facts are in question, Hillman said, he will use "special interrogatory procedures" to have a jury decide what actually happened that night.

First, the special jury will have to decide what happened when Benham first arrived on scene and during the struggle, as the dashboard camera only caught sounds -- including a "wail" from Norman -- but was not positioned to get video footage.

The cause of death is also disputed. Dr. Hisham A. Hashish, then the county's medical examiner, ruled the death a result of cocaine intoxication and said airway or neck injury did not contribute to the death.

But Dr. Michael Baden, a medical expert hired by Juanita Norman concluded that her brother died from asphyxia and cardiopulmonary arrest during restraint and his death was a homicide.

After a jury determines the facts, Hillman wrote, he will decide whether the officers should be immune to the suit because they were simply performing their duties. Going into that decision, he said, will be whether the use of force was reasonable and whether the officers were indifferent to Norman's serious medical needs.

The lawsuit will be back in federal court for a final pretrial hearing in September.

Rebecca Everett may be reached at reverett@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @rebeccajeverett. Find NJ.com on Facebook.