A judge has ruled that the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office must change its autopsy findings to remove all references to the Taser stun gun as a contributing cause of death in the cases of three men who died during encounters with county law enforcement officers.

In one of those cases — the August 2006 death of 28-year-old county jail inmate Mark D. McCullaugh Jr. — the judge ruled the manner of death must be changed on the official autopsy report and death certificate, from ''homicide'' to ''undetermined.''

What effect Friday's decision will have on the criminal cases against five Summit sheriff's deputies was not immediately clear, but Sheriff Drew Alexander applauded the judge's ruling.

Alexander, in a written statement, said it was more evidence that his deputies ''acted appropriately'' in their treatment of McCullaugh.

Deputy Stephen Krendick, 34, faces the most serious charge in the McCullaugh case. He is charged with murder.

The decision by visiting Judge Ted Schneiderman — released Friday after a four-day civil trial in Common Pleas Court last week — stated that there is ''simply no medical, scientific or electrical evidence to support the conclusion that the Taser . . . had anything to do with the death of Dennis S. Hyde, Richard Holcomb'' or McCullaugh.

Hyde, 30, died on Jan. 5, 2005, after a confrontation with several Akron police officers. They used a Taser on him after he broke into a Triplett Boulevard home, shouted that he was the devil and struggled with responding officers.

Holcomb, 18, was involved in a confrontation with a Springfield Township officer on May 28, 2005. The officer was responding to a trespassing report at a private home and shot Holcomb with the Taser when he allegedly charged at her despite repeated warnings to stop.

McCullaugh died Aug. 20, 2006, after a struggle with deputies in his cell in the jail's mental health unit. In what the sheriff's office said was an attempt to get him under control, deputies used a Taser on him and a jail nurse injected him with two drugs, Geodon and Ativan, which are used to treat anxiety and mood disorders.

Taser's civil lawsuit

The civil lawsuit prompting Schneiderman's decision was filed by Taser International Inc., with the city of Akron joining in the action, against the medical examiner, Dr. Lisa J. Kohler.

Kohler declined to comment about the 14-page ruling, deferring all questions to the Summit County Prosecutor's Office.

In his findings of fact and conclusions of law, Schneiderman said that Taser's lawyers ''proved their claims for changing the reports of autopsy and death certificates . . . by more than a preponderance of evidence.''

Taser, relying on a ''multiple number of experts . . . in the area of sudden and unexpected death while law enforcement attempted to obtain custody provided overwhelming credible medical and scientific evidence to support their positions,'' Schneiderman ruled.

Quoting passages from Kohler's autopsy report on McCullaugh, Schneiderman stated that the inmate's death ''shall be ruled undetermined and any reference to death by 'asphyxia due to the combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint,' as well as any reference to 'homicide' due to 'multiple restraint mechanisms with beating and anal penetration' shall be deleted from both the death certificate and the report of autopsy.''

Kohler's autopsy findings for McCullaugh, released Oct. 16, 2006, ruled his death a homicide. The cause was multiple forms of restraint and blows, including an unspecified anal injury, according to the official ruling.

Medical examiner

Although Kohler would not comment about Schneiderman's decision, the chief medical examiner for the state of Tennessee, Dr. Bruce Levy, did comment, contacting the Beacon Journal soon after reading a story about the judge's ruling on the newspaper's Web site, ohio.com.

Levy said by telephone from his office that he was shocked by Schneiderman's decision.

''Judges should not be practicing medicine, and that is clearly what the judge is trying to do in this case,'' Levy said. ''I, for one, would never sign my name to reports that I did not write myself, or agree with myself.

''And that is literally what the judge is asking Dr. Kohler to do, which is to change her report and sign her name to something she, in her professional opinion, does not believe.''

Levy, who has been the state medical examiner for 10 years, said he has had a few cases in which a Taser was involved.

''I don't think there is any way that you can say definitively that Tasers do not play some role in what is going on in these [three] cases,'' he said. ''The ones I've dealt with are usually very complicated deaths involving a multitude of factors, and it is commonly accepted practice to include all of the factors that could play a role.

''That is not saying the Taser somehow electrocuted these people. But the stress of the confrontation and the stress of being tased can certainly push somebody . . . over the edge.''

Schneiderman, who retired from the Common Pleas Court bench in 2003, presided over the trial as a visiting judge.

In his findings on the McCullaugh case, Schneiderman wrote that ''the testimony and the exhibits presented by the plaintiffs' experts demonstrated that the Taser devices did not cause, nor did they contribute to asphyxia, as found by the medical examiner.

''More likely, the death was due to a fatal cardiac arrhythmia brought on by severe heart disease, his schizophrenia, the struggle and possibly the Geodon injection. There was no expert evidence to indicate that Taser devices impaired respiration.''

A lawsuit filed against Taser and the city of Akron by Hyde's family was dismissed last year by a U.S. District Court judge. The family voluntarily dismissed Taser as a defendant, and Judge Peter C. Economus granted the city and its officers immunity, ending the case.

Court records do not reflect any financial settlement.

Holcomb's family reached a settlement in its lawsuit against Springfield police and Taser in 2007 for $70,000, according to Summit County Probate Court records.

After paying attorney fees and expenses, Holcomb's mother, Kimberly Miller, received $13,762. It is unclear from court records whether Taser shared in the settlement with Springfield Township.

Comments on case

Sheriff Alexander said he was pleased by Schneiderman's ruling, saying it ''supports my initial beliefs that my employees acted appropriately.''

''I am particularly encouraged as to his findings that [McCullaugh's] death is 'undetermined' and not a homicide and . . . that the findings claiming McCullaugh's death was caused by asphyxia due to combined effects of chemical, mechanical and electrical restraint . . . and anal penetration were ordered deleted from both the certificate of death and the report of autopsy,'' the sheriff said.

Alexander declined further comment, citing pending civil and criminal court cases.

Steve Tuttle, vice president of communications for Taser, based in Scottsdale, Ariz., said in an e-mail that Schneiderman's findings backed up what the company has said all along on behalf of ''the 15 police officers and medical personnel who have been indicted for criminal charges . . . or sued in civil lawsuits'' in connection with the device.

''Taser International believed from the beginning that these determinations of cause of death must be supported by facts, medical research and scientific evidence,'' Tuttle said.

John Manley, head of the county prosecutor's civil division, said he will review Schneiderman's ruling with Kohler and will be preparing a response.

Lawyers for Krendick, the deputy charged with murder, did not return messages seeking comment.

Krendick's trial is scheduled for June 16. A spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Prosecutor's Office, which is handling the case by appointment as special prosecutor, said its lawyers ''are prepared to go forward'' on the charges against all five deputies.