Death certificate can be changed

MANSFIELD — A local court can order the county coroner to correct the death certificate of a 28-year-old man who died after a confrontation with corrections officers at the Richland County Jail in September 2019. In this photo, Alex Rios is on life support at the hospital after he was taken there from the Richland County Jail Provided photo State law "allows the court of common pleas of the county in which the death occurred, after a hearing, to direct the coroner to change their decision as to such cause and manner and mode of death," Dr. Frank Miller, the elected coroner in Lorain County, wrote in a memo to the family of Alex Rios. Miller, who previously served as the elected coroner in Cuyahoga County and as a deputy coroner there and in Lorain, Trumbull and Stark counties, is a forensic pathologist. He was hired by Rios' parents to review the autopsy and medical records, a jail surveillance video and other records. "If you would like the death certificate of Alexander Rios changed by (Richland County) coroner Daniel Burwell, the judge who hears Ohio v. Cooper and any related prosecutions will be well-informed and very well-suited to conduct such a hearing," Miller wrote in the Jan. 2 memo. Mark Cooper, one of five jail guards who struggled with Rios the day he was injured at the jail, was arrested on Dec. 16 after a grand jury indicted him on charges of reckless homicide and manslaughter. The indictment came more than three years after Rios died and six weeks after the Register first reported about the family's frustration with the legal system and the delays. Cooper can be seen in the jail surveillance video appearing to stand with his full weight on Rios' back near the neck area as other guards knee him in the groin, punch him in his head and electroshock Rios with a Taser weapon. Rios can be seen turning blue and his body goes limp during the 5½-minute video. He died in a Mansfield hospital eight days later, never having regained consciousness. Burwell, the Richland County coroner, wrote on the death certificate that Rios died from "excited delirium," and the manner of death was accidental, mirroring the findings of an autopsy conducted by the Montgomery County coroner's office. "In my opinion, both the cause and manner of death are incorrect," Miller wrote. "Excited Delirium (is) a diagnosis used loosely by a small group of physicians." Excited delirium is not a recognized cause of death in Ohio, and it is not recognized by the American Medical Association. Rios' death was caused by an absence of oxygen and the manner of death "is best classified as a homicide," Miller wrote. Miller's findings are similar to the finding of another expert, Dr. Paul Matus, the former Lorain County coroner, from 1993 to 2011, who also reviewed the autopsy report, the video and medical records before offering an opinion. Another expert, Edwin C. Voorhies, a former prison warden, regional director and senior policy advisor for the state prison system, also reviewed the surveillance video and records and determined the corrections officers improperly restrained Rios. Voorhies call the way they handled the incident more disturbing than what happened to George Floyd. Burwell and the Montgomery County coroner, Kent Harshbarger, have refused to say how they determined the cause of death, or say if they ever viewed the surveillance video or other evidence before ruling on the cause of death. They also have refused to say if they have considered changing the death certificate and autopsy report.