Jim Rogers: Tasered again and again, dead the next day
In 2021 Pittsburgh police used a Taser on Jim Rogers repeatedly. He died the next day. Two years later the City of Pittsburgh settled with his estate for $8 million. It is the case that explains why the number of Taser cycles matters more than the first one.
A public record, not a client of this firm. Everything on this page comes from the court file, the government announcement or the reporting cited at the end. Usher Law Group did not represent anyone in this matter, we publish no results of our own, and nothing here predicts the outcome of any other case.
Jim Rogers was Tasered by Pittsburgh police in 2021. Not once: repeatedly. He died the next day. In April 2023 the City of Pittsburgh settled with his estate for $8 million.
A Taser is sold as the alternative to force that kills. The cases that reach a settlement like this one are almost never about a single use. They are about the second cycle, and the third, and the ones after that, on a person who is no longer doing whatever justified the first. The public record on Mr. Rogers uses one word, repeatedly, and that word is the case.
Pittsburgh is in Pennsylvania, where the state's Tort Claims Act shields cities from nearly every damages claim that is not about negligence. The $8 million was paid to resolve a federal civil rights claim, because in Pennsylvania that is the only claim a city can be made to answer for a death like this one.
What the law calls it
Every Taser cycle is a use of force judged by objective reasonableness (Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989)). Federal courts have held it clearly established that significant force, including a second Taser cycle, may not be used on a person who is no longer resisting and poses no threat (Jones v. Treubig, 963 F.3d 214 (2d Cir. 2020)), and that eight to twelve cycles on a non-resisting person were grossly disproportionate, with no qualified immunity (Oliver v. Fiorino, 586 F.3d 898 (11th Cir. 2009)). There is no rule that restraining a person prone is reasonable merely because the person resisted (Lombardo v. City of St. Louis, 594 U.S. 464 (2021)).
Under 42 Pa.C.S. 8541 and 8542, a local agency is not liable for damages outside nine negligence categories; an officer found to have engaged in willful misconduct loses official immunity and the city's indemnity (8550). The federal claim borrows Pennsylvania's two-year period (Kach v. Hose). Police video in Pennsylvania must be requested in writing within 60 days of the recording under Act 22 of 2017.
What it cost
Estate of Jim Rogers
Repeatedly Tasered by Pittsburgh police in 2021; died the next day.
Source: WESA. A public record of someone else's case, not a result of this firm and not a prediction.
What it means for you
If you or a family member was Tasered, the record that decides the case is the device itself. Modern stun devices log every trigger pull and its duration, and the body camera shows what the person was doing between pulls. Both must be demanded at once; in Pennsylvania the written video request has a 60-day window. Our Tasers, chokeholds and restraints page explains how a repetition case is built, and how to get body camera footage covers each state's request.
In Pennsylvania the claim is federal or it is nothing. Two years, no notice of claim, no cap, and the city answers under Monell for its training and policy on stun devices. Our Pennsylvania page and what Pennsylvania pays explain the immunity statute and what survives it, and wrongful death explains who brings the claim for a person who died.
The pages this story points to
Tasers and restraints
Repetition, the device log, and the cases that hold a second cycle unreasonable.
Read →What Pennsylvania pays
Why the Tort Claims Act makes the federal claim the whole case.
Read →Body camera footage
The 60-day Pennsylvania request and the rules in New York, New Jersey and Florida.
Read →Sources. WESA, "Jim Rogers wrongful death settlement" (April 27, 2023); Jones v. Treubig, 963 F.3d 214 (2d Cir. 2020); Oliver v. Fiorino, 586 F.3d 898 (11th Cir. 2009); Lombardo v. City of St. Louis, 594 U.S. 464 (2021); 42 Pa.C.S. 8541, 8542, 8550; Act 22 of 2017 (openrecords.pa.gov).
Common questions
Is one Taser use excessive force?
Not by itself. The question is the same as for any force: was it objectively reasonable given the crime, the threat and the resistance at that moment (Graham v. Connor). The cases that produce liability are usually about repetition: a second cycle on a person who has stopped resisting, or many cycles on a person who was never a threat.
Can the family sue the City of Pittsburgh under Pennsylvania law?
Pennsylvania's Tort Claims Act bars damages against a local agency except in nine negligence categories, none of which covers a use of force. The state claim, if any, is against the individual officers for willful misconduct, and the claim that carries a Pennsylvania case is the federal one under Section 1983.
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