Oak Harbor man dies while in police custody

An Oak Harbor, Ohio, man who won $600,000 in a police brutality lawsuit seven years ago died last weekend after Sandusky County Sheriff's deputies shocked him multiple times with a Taser. Craig A. Burdine, 37, was being booked into the jail on assault and criminal damaging charges when the police used the Taser because "he was going crazy," Fremont Police Chief Monte Huss told the Toledo Blade. In 2000, a jury awarded Mr. Burdine $600,000 after finding a Port Clinton police officer used excessive force following a 1996 drunk-driving arrest. Two Ottawa County Sheriff's deputies also were held partly responsible for not intervening, The Blade reported. Tasers, which deliver electrical jolts to a person police are trying to subdue, have been blamed as contributing factors in a number of deaths across the country. In 2005, two men died in Lucas County and Akron after police used Tasers to gain control over them.