Festival Death Ruled Accidental

Timothy Harden, 38, was a volunteer at last year’s festival at the Priedaine New Jersey Latvian Society in Howell. Harden “had been acting erratically,” according to prosecutors, which led to an altercation with festival security and the police.

He stopped breathing and was taken to a local hospital. His death was determined to be as a result of “drug-induced excited delirium,” according to Asbury Park Press.

Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni declared as a result of the investigation and autopsy “the actions of the officers were lawful and did not violate the Use of Force policies of the Attorney General’s Office or Monmouth County” and “a toxicology test revealed that Harden had cocaine, alcohol and marijuana in his system at the time of death,” the Press reported.

Attorney Thomas Mallon, representing members of Harden’s family in a wrongful death suit, wants to continue with it and told the paper, “Excited delirium is not officially recognized as a cause of death by the American Medical Association, American Psychiatric Association or the World Health Organization,” and it’s used as a condition “to whitewash police brutality.”

The medical examiner discovered Harden “suffered a broken rib, a fractured neck, contusions across his body and other injuries consistent with being suffocated.”