Police officers, paramedics acquitted in death of intoxicated woman after towel placed in her mouth

A court has acquitted two police officers and two paramedics charged in connection with the death of a woman in her 40s who suffocated after they placed a towel in her mouth to stop her from biting her own tongue while intoxicated.

The Changwon District Court's Criminal Division 4, presided over by Judge Oh Dae-seok, found the four defendants — police officers A and B and firefighting civil servants C and D — not guilty of professional negligence resulting in death, legal sources said Thursday.

The four were charged over an incident in August 2022 in Geoje, South Gyeongsang Province, in which an intoxicated woman in her 40s, identified only as E, began biting her own tongue in an apparent act of self-harm. In an attempt to stop her, they placed a towel in her mouth, and she subsequently died of suffocation.

At the time, E had been arrested for obstruction of official duties after striking officers A and B and grabbing them by the collar when they responded to a report of an intoxicated person. She then began biting her own tongue while in custody.

Officers A and B obtained a towel from a nearby convenience store and used it to try to prevent E from harming herself. Even after E indicated several times that she was having difficulty breathing and attempted to remove the towel herself, however, the officers pushed it back into her mouth.

Paramedics C and D, who arrived at the scene later, were told by the officers that E might harm herself and did not remove the towel, instead helping to keep it in place.

The defense for A and B argued that the officers had acted swiftly in an urgent situation to protect E's life and denied the charges. They contended it had been difficult to tell whether E had grown quieter because she was oxygen-deprived or because she had stopped resisting.

C and D similarly denied the charges, arguing that they had arrived late and had no choice but to defer to the officers' instructions in their initial response.

The court acknowledged it was "somewhat regrettable" that the defendants had not removed the towel or found an alternative once E's vital signs had weakened and the immediate self-harm risk had passed. It ruled, however, that the evidence fell short of establishing a breach of the duty of care serious enough to warrant criminal liability for her death.

The case was tried as a citizen participation trial, and all seven jurors returned a unanimous not-guilty verdict.