Denver police arrested a former ambulance paramedic from Denver Health Medical Center on Thursday afternoon on suspicion of severely beating a patient while transporting him to the hospital last month.
Alan Miller, 30, was arrested on suspicion of first-degree assault after the patient’s wife told police that her husband had been beaten.
According to an investigative affidavit, Suzanne Lawrence, 46, called for an ambulance just after midnight Jan. 3, saying her husband had suffered a seizure and hit his head.
The ambulance picked up the husband, Tim Smith, 39, on the southwest side of town and headed for Denver Health. Lawrence drove herself to the hospital.
She told police that when she saw her husband at the hospital, he had a broken nose, a broken eye socket and a fractured skull, injuries he didn’t have when the paramedics loaded him into the ambulance at their house.
A short while later, according to the affidavit, paramedic Shaunna King told the wife that she and her partner, Miller, had to stop the ambulance near Federal Boulevard and West Sixth Avenue because Smith had come out of his restraints.
Four police officers arrived and assisted the two paramedics in restraining Smith again, the affidavit stated.
Lawrence filed a complaint six days later at District 4, on Jan. 9.
When police contacted the paramedic division at Denver Health, they were told that the division had conducted its own investigation of the incident but wouldn’t share the findings without a court order.
The next day, Jan. 10, Denver County Judge Larry Bohning signed a search warrant for the paramedic division offices, resulting in documents and two e-mails being turned over to Lawrence and police.
Mike McPhee: 303-954-1409 or mmcphee@denverpost.com
