Larimer County will pay $225,000 to the family of a man who died after being repeatedly hit with a Taser by sheriff’s deputies, a decision that may have implications in other Taser cases, an attorney representing a Lafayette family said Tuesday.

“I think police departments should have concerns about lawsuits like this,” said Martin Beier, who is helping represent the family of another man who died after being hit with a Taser. Ryan Wilson was hit while running from Lafayette police — a case that is still pending.

The settlement between Larimer County and the family of Timothy Mathis means his estate will receive payments of $100,000 and $125,000 from the county’s risk-management fund to an annuity for his daughter. The child can collect the money when she turns 21, Larimer County Attorney George Hass said.

The settlement ends what could have been an expensive trial for everyone involved in the case, Hass said.

Beier said the settlement in the Larimer County case should prompt Lafayette and other police departments to rethink the use of Tasers.

“I find it encouraging that there is a focus on the inherent risk of police departments using Tasers,” Beier said.

Wilson, 22, was running from Lafayette officers who were investigating a report of marijuana plants growing in the area of 2000 W. South Boulder Road.

The coroner’s office ruled that Wilson died of an irregular heartbeat caused by a combination of the exertion from running from police, the Taser shock and a heart condition present since birth.

The Wilson family sued the city of Lafayette and the Taser manufacturer in 2007.

In the settlement announced Tuesday, Larimer deputies encountered Mathis, 35, on Oct. 3, 2005, when they were called to the 1000 block of South St. Louis Avenue in Loveland. Mathis, reports said, was covered with blood and acting erratically.

Mathis — who had a criminal record — did not respond to orders to show his hands, and he was hit with the Taser. That did not stop him from advancing toward the deputies with a large stone. He was hit again, and during his arrest, he stopped breathing.

Deputies resuscitated Mathis, and he was taken to McKee Medical Center in Loveland, but he never regained consciousness. He died Oct. 25, 2005, in the hospice ward of the hospital.

The coroner’s office ruled the death a homicide, caused by a combination of electrical shock from stun guns and illicit drugs in his system, according to reports. Deputies were cleared of wrongdoing in the case.

Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com

Taser safety remains disputed

Results of a three-year Wake Forest University School of Medicine study released in January found that of 1,201 reviewed incidents in which law enforcement used electrical weapons on criminal suspects, only three — less than 1 percent — resulted in significant injuries. While two subjects examined by the study died in police custody, “medical examiners did not find conducted electrical weapon use to be causal or contributory in either case.”

But a December 2008 Amnesty International report lists more than 330 incidents in the United States between June 2001 and August 2008 in which a person died after encountering a Taser or similar type of weapon at the hands of law enforcement. Eight of these incidents took place in Colorado, including the October 2005 death of Timothy Mathis in Larimer County.

Sources: Amnesty International; Annals of Emergency Medicine; Denver Post archives. Compiled by Barry Osborne, The Denver Post