A Caller Reported a Man Walking Beside Interstate 81. Troopers Tased Him Repeatedly, and He Died. West Virginia Paid $1 Million.
After trial: Settled and approved by the Circuit Court of Kanawha County in 2024; final. The court separately allocated the proceeds among the decedent's son and four brothers, which is distribution of one estate's recovery and not multiple claimants. Suit was filed in Kanawha County because the State Police is a Charleston-based state agency; the death occurred in Berkeley County. West Virginia's noneconomic damages cap in W. Va. Code 55-7B-8 reaches only medical professional liability and did not apply.
Won by Atkinson & Frampton, PLLC.
Edmond Exline, 45, a paranoid schizophrenic apparently in the middle of a mental-health episode, was walking beside Interstate 81 near Martinsburg when three State Police troopers detained him. Tasers were deployed multiple times. He became unresponsive and was pronounced dead. The State Police settled for $1 million.
What happened
In February 2023 someone called to report a man walking along the side of Interstate 81 outside Martinsburg, West Virginia, who appeared to be intoxicated.
He was not intoxicated. Edmond Exline was 45 years old and a paranoid schizophrenic, and according to his friends and family he was most likely in the middle of a mental-health episode.
Three West Virginia State Police troopers detained him. Tasers were deployed multiple times during what the agency afterward described as a struggle. Exline became unresponsive. He could not be resuscitated, and he was pronounced dead at Berkeley Medical Center.
His son, Edmond Exline II, brought suit as executor of the estate, alleging that the troopers had unlawfully detained his father and used excessive, wrongful and deadly force against a man in psychiatric crisis. Then-Governor Jim Justice publicly called the incident very concerning.
In 2024 the Circuit Court of Kanawha County approved a settlement of $1,000,000, and the court allocated the proceeds among Exline's son and his four brothers.
The estate was represented by John-Mark Atkinson of Atkinson and Frampton in Charleston.
Sources
This account is drawn from contemporaneous public reporting and the court record.
- 1.Charleston Gazette-Mail: the $1 million settlement approved in the wrongful death lawsuit against the WV State Police; the Kanawha County venue before Judge Kenneth Ballard, the February 2023 death of Edmond Exline, 45, after troopers detained him beside Interstate 81 near Martinsburg, the repeated Taser deployments, the allocation among his son and four brothers, and the statement that the lawsuit was filed by Charleston attorney John-Mark Atkinson on behalf of Exline's son
- 2.WCHS: the $1 million settlement approved in the wrongful death lawsuit filed against the West Virginia State Police, confirming court approval and the final figure
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