‘I have a problem with this inquest’: lawyer

Grant McLeod died of a lethal cocaine dose, a six-person coroner’s jury ruled Friday afternoon at the close of an inquiry into the 39-year-old Whitehorse man’s death.

Grant McLeod died of a lethal cocaine dose, a six-person coroner’s jury ruled Friday afternoon at the close of an inquiry into the 39-year-old Whitehorse man’s death.

They classified his death as accidental following presiding coroner Julius Debuschewitz’s instructions that “when there is an unforeseen death to a person as a result of an intended or unintended act done to that person or the intervention of a non-human agency” it is ruled an accident.

He highlighted the “unforeseen aspect of the death” as being vital to the accidental classification.

Susan Roothman, who represented McLeod’s daughter during the public inquiry into his death, said today it was inappropriate for the jury members to make a medical finding and that they should simply have said whether the death was natural or unnatural.

“It was clearly stated they can’t make any legal conclusions,” Roothman said, referring to the instructions the jury was given at the end of the hearing.

“That means they can’t make any legal medical conclusions.”

Chief coroner Sharon Hanley said the jury members did what they were supposed to do in listing the medical cause of death.

“We said at the very beginning, it was ‘Who, what, when, where and how’ and that is what they came back with.”

Roothman said she was disappointed there was nothing in the jury’s findings to indicate the role the police played in McLeod’s death.

Shortly before his death, McLeod wrestled with police, one of whom had him in a choke hold for several minutes. The officer said she was using an approved “lethal-force technique” which is only supposed to be used when there is a “threat of grievous harm or death to an officer or members of the public.

“It seems to me they went out of their way to clear the RCMP,” Roothman said. “I have a problem with this inquest in that it goes out of its way to completely ignore what the RCMP did.”

The jury’s cause-of-death finding echoes the evidence of two expert medical witnesses who testified during the week-long inquest.

Toxicologist Walter Martz found a large amount of cocaine in McLeod’s system, but noted there is no rule as to how much cocaine will kill a person.

Regular users develop a tolerance to the drug and can survive with twice as much in their blood as McLeod had when he died, Martz said.

Pathologist Charles Lee determined the cause of death to be cocaine intoxication. He dismissed the assertion, made by Roothman, that the choke hold was a contributing factor in McLeod’s death.

The three men and three women also recommended that surveillance cameras be installed in the hallways, stairwells and exits of the Chilkoot Trail Inn where McLeod died.

McLeod was not a resident of the Fourth Avenue motel at the time of his death, but he had lived there in the past and was a familiar face to some, including the front desk clerk who called police when she saw McLeod stumbling around the lobby with a needle in his hand.

McLeod stopped breathing shortly after being restrained by the police.

The jury did not direct any recommendations to the RCMP or emergency medical services personnel, the two groups who dealt with McLeod in his final moments.

The one recommendation they did make is “not enforceable,” chief coroner Sharon Hanley explained today.

“I’ll be forwarding it to (the owners of the Chilkoot Inn) right away and we’ll see what they say,” she said.

“But as you can imagine, it’s a private enterprise, so if they flatly refuse there isn’t anything we can do.”

The jury’s suggestion does not come with any financial backing so a surveillance system would come out of owner Gurmeet Gill’s pocket.

Contacted by the Star this morning, Gill had not heard about the jury’s recommendation and said he did not want to talk about the events surrounding McLeod’s death.