Man Dies After Bizarre Chase, Dive in Water : Arrest: Death is blamed on a combination of drugs and hypothermia. Victim was bitten by a police dog while in a flood-control channel.

By MARLA CONE

Nov. 30, 1992 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

FOUNTAIN VALLEY — A 34-year-old man died, apparently of a combination of hypothermia and drug use, after he led police on a chase and jumped into a flood control channel, where he was wounded by a police dog, authorities said Sunday.

The Orange County district attorney’s office is investigating the death of Richard John O’Gorman of Huntington Beach, who had recently been paroled from state prison after serving a sentence for armed robbery. Such an investigation occurs whenever a suspect dies during an arrest or in the custody of police.

Fountain Valley Police Lt. Robert Mosley said an autopsy on Sunday showed that O’Gorman had two collapsed lungs, which might have resulted from a mix of heroin in his body and exposure to the cold water. Police said that they found a hypodermic needle and fresh blood in O’Gorman’s car, and that relatives told them he was a heroin addict undergoing treatment.

“It appears he had injected himself with some kind of narcotic just prior to the pursuit. But the actual cause of death probably won’t be known for six weeks, when the coroner issues a report,” Mosley said.

The unusual incident started shortly before 10:30 p.m. Saturday, when Officer Herb Poe saw a car in a parking lot of Los Amigos High School driving at a high speed with no headlights on. The driver fled, leading officers on an 80-m.p.h. chase through Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach that involved three squad cars as well as a police helicopter.

The chase ended near the Edison power plant in Huntington Beach when O’Gorman crashed into a chain-link fence at a large flood-control channel at Magnolia Street near Pacific Coast Highway.

Police said O’Gorman fled on foot and dived into the water in the channel. When he refused to respond to commands to surrender, a police dog was sent in to force him out. The dog bit O’Gorman on both arms during the struggle in the water.

“The dog got him to come to the shoreline, and then he complied with police commands and was taken into custody,” said Fountain Valley police Sgt. Norm Satterfield.

Huntington Beach paramedics administered first aid to O’Gorman, who was arrested and taken by ambulance to Hoag Hospital in Newport Beach.

O’Gorman was pronounced dead at the hospital at 12:45 a.m. Results of toxicology tests that detect drug use will not be available for several weeks.

O’Gorman was in the water about five or 10 minutes, Mosley said. “The water is pretty cold out there. . . . Basically, his system just shut down on him,” he said.

Mosley said O’Gorman “was very combative in the water, flailing around. He would talk to us but you couldn’t really understand what he was saying.”

Police officers at the scene, including Mosley, said they were surprised to learn he had died at the hospital.

“Shocked was a real good phrase for it, because absolutely, at no time, did any officer use any kind of force on the individual at all, in any way. He was fighting with the dog, but he surrendered to the officers and they simply cuffed him. He didn’t fight with the officers at all. . . . There was no baton or hitting or anything of that nature at all,” Mosley said.

The autopsy showed bite wounds on both arms but no evidence of blunt-force trauma.

On Sunday, four large patches of bloodstains, apparently from O’Gorman’s bite wounds, were still evident on the asphalt near the flood-control channel as crews repaired the broken fence. Blood also had stained the rocks in the channel.

Some witnesses said they thought police allowed the dog to be too rough on O’Gorman. But they also said his injuries did not seem severe.

“There were no bandages on his neck or anything, it was just his arms that were bandaged up,” said one resident who lives nearby and saw O’Gorman being treated by paramedics. “He was conscious. They had put him on a gurney, with his hands handcuffed behind his back. They took him off, then hosed him down with a small hose because he had been rolling in the dirt, and then put him back up on the gurney. He seemed to be in pain, but OK. The dog did try to get him out of the water, and that seemed to be the gist of his injuries.”

Mosley said the wounds were caused when O’Gorman tried to fight off the dog.

“As the dog bit, (O’Gorman) pulled away, which would cause the wound to open up,” he said. “If he had not been fighting with the dog, he wouldn’t have been bitten other than the once. The way the dogs are trained, they hold on until the officer comes.”

Police arrested O’Gorman at the scene on suspicion of felony evading arrest and felony assault on a police officer, stemming from an alleged attempt to drive into a police car.

“He attempted to run head-on into an oncoming police car once the chase was initiated. He made a U-turn and came right back on” the officer’s car, Satterfield said.

Mosley said officers did not know why O’Gorman was driving recklessly through the high school parking lot in full view of a police officer, who was parked there writing a report. During the chase, he rammed into a thick cable and metal post at the flood-control channel and drove up the embankment before jumping into the water.

“It was very desperate, bizarre behavior,” Mosley said. “He apparently told a nurse at Hoag hospital that the reason he was running is that he didn’t want to go back, referring to prison.”