Family files lawsuit against Evansville police after son overdoses on LSD, dies following arrest

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WISH) — A family is filing a lawsuit against the City of Evansville and seven Evansville Police Department officers after their son suffered a fatal brain injury after being arrested for an LSD overdose in November 2020.

The family is filing a federal wrongful death civil rights lawsuit. The officers involved in the lawsuit are: Nathan Pitt, Jacqueline A. Duff, Cory Offerman, K. Howard, Trendon Amuzie, Chris Egan and John McQuay.

According to attorneys, 20-year-old Evan Terhune took LSD and experienced a “bad trip.” Terhune gathered with friends to hang out, play video games, and eat pizza. Friends say he started acting “bizarrely” when the LSD kicked in and attacked one of his friends. Police received reports from the friend, saying Terhune “….is on some type of drugs, acting all crazy.”

When police arrived to the house, they say Terhune was recorded on a police camera running into an officer’s vehicle and falling down. When an officer approached Terhune, police say he started screaming and “swung wildly” on the officer, grazing the officer’s lip.

Police say they used a stun gun on Terhune and put him in handcuffs. Police then learned that Terhune had taken LSD, and had blood and vomit on his face. One of the officers said Terhune was “super high.”

Police then agreed that Terhune needed to be taken to a hospital however, they transferred him there in the back of a metal paddy wagon with no seatbelts or restraints, rather than transferring him inside an ambulance. When Terhune was placed in the wagon, police say he was thrashing around for 13 minutes, banging his head and body against the sides of the wagon while riding to the hospital. Attorneys say police did not stop to check on Terhune during the ride to the hospital. When they arrived to the hospital, police stood outside the wagon for seven minutes while Terhune continued screaming and banging his body around in the wagon.

Attorneys say a few of the officers made multiple comments while they stood outside, leaving Terhune inside the wagon alone. Some of the comments included:

• “Acid sometimes gives people a spiritual experience…this guy is having a whole different experience.”
• “It’s not a good day for this guy.”
• “Every time we would start moving (the wagon) it was a bad experience for him,” with a another officer replying saying “I think if you were tripping on acid, being in the back of the wagon…every vibration would get to you.”

When police opened the back door to the wagon, they say he was unresponsive. Medical responders did say Terhune would have never regained consciousness and experienced massive subdural hematoma. He died three days later. Medical responders say his cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head due to hallucinogen intoxication.

Documents say some of Terhune’s last words before he died in police custody on Nov. 14, 2020 were, “I have never been so terrified in my life…Holy (expletive), what is happening?”

News 8 spoke with Wagner Reese Attorney, Stephen Wagner. Wagner said in a statement:

It’s a really tragic case. He is a 20-year-old young man from a good family. He wasn’t a bad kid. He made a mistake and had a problem with drugs including this occasion where he took LSD. He was arrested and detained by the police at the scene and he was displaying obvious signs of medical distress, and police refused to allow an EMT to examine him, and they declined the offer of an ambulance to transport him to the hospital even though an ambulance was present. Instead, they took a man who they knew was overdosing on LSD and placed him in the back of a paddy wagon.

Our issue with the police is number one, why didn’t they transport him in an ambulance? They allowed him to basically bang his head into the sides of the paddy wagon and kill himself. My clients know that a lot of your readers will say ‘He took drugs. He brought this upon himself,’ but that’s not a rational response. Anybody could have a son, daughter, or family member that makes a bad decision to get drunk or take drugs but once they’re under police custody, you expect them to keep them safe, but they didn’t do that here.”

Wagner Reese Attorney, Stephen Wagner