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Woman who settled tasing lawsuit with Warren PD dies at 47
By Sarah Lehr
WARREN
A woman who settled a high-profile lawsuit against the city of Warren in 2010 after being repeatedly shocked with a stun weapon by a police officer died Wednesday at age 47, a Trumbull County Coroner’s Office spokeswoman confirmed.
The coroner’s office is investigating the exact cause of Heidi Gill’s death and will perform an autopsy today. Gill of Liberty died in St. Joseph Warren Hospital.
The hospital, however, initially failed to report the death to the coroner’s office, a coroner’s office spokeswoman said.
The spokeswoman added the delay in reporting the death would not adversely affect the autopsy or the investigation.
Gill’s complaint arose after Warren Police Officer Richard Kovach repeatedly shocked her outside Up a Creek Tavern in September 2007. The case gained national attention, and dashboard camera footage of the incident was widely circulated.
Analysis determined Kovach shocked Gill a total of seven times. He shocked her both before and after placing her in handcuffs. At one point, Gill fell to the ground and was knocked unconscious.
Youngstown lawyer Mark Hanni, who represented Gill for a time, said Thursday, “It was an atrocity that it happened. It was a prime example of police brutality that had been happening all across the country.
“I think it was the beginning of a national trend of media attention about police brutality,“ he added.
Further, he said, he believes the tasing “affected her mental ability for years afterward.”
At the time of the incident, Gill registered a blood-alcohol content of 0.30. The legal intoxication limit in Ohio is 0.08.
She originally was charged with falsification, assault on a police officer, resisting arrest, disorderly conduct and unauthorized use of a motor vehicle.
According to Vindicator files, tavern security personnel had escorted her out of the establishment for causing a disturbance. At one point, Gill ran into a security guard’s car and refused to leave.
Kovach, who was on patrol, came to assist tavern security. He shocked Gill before and after she was placed in a cruiser.
After the incident, a judge determined the police department violated its protocols because police did not photograph the areas on Gill’s body where she had been shocked and because the department reported misplacing the clothing Gill wore when she was shocked.
After an internal investigation, then-police Chief John Mandopolous disciplined Kovach with a 60-day unpaid suspension.
The U.S. Department of Justice cleared Kovach of all criminal charges. The city dropped charges against Gill.
When Gill’s case rose to prominence, stun weapons were a relatively new policing tool. A then-Warren city councilman told The Vindicator in 2007 Warren police began using them less than a year before Gill’s case.
Gill filed a federal lawsuit against the city and then-mayor Michael O’Brien told media outlets in 2010 it was settled out of court for about $300,000.
Kovach was fired in December ‘07 for an improper search, unrelated to Gill’s case. An arbiter overturned that and Kovach regained his job with back pay.
In ‘09, a Mahoning County judge sentenced Gill to 30 days in jail and two years’ probation after she attacked an 18-year-old woman at a Denny’s restaurant.