Court narrows claims in Md. wrongful death case

Published October 16, 2014 9:52pm ET



BALTIMORE (AP) — A federal court has dismissed all claims against Regal Cinemas Inc. in a lawsuit stemming from the asphyxiation death last year of a Maryland man with Down syndrome.

A U.S. District Court judge in Baltimore ruled Thursday that the Knoxville, Tennessee-based company didn’t violate the Americans with Disabilities Act by asking three Frederick County sheriff’s deputies, moonlighting as mall security guards, to remove Robert Ethan Saylor from a Frederick movie theater. Saylor didn’t have a ticket for a second viewing of a film.

He stopped breathing during a struggle with the deputies.

The judge also dismissed a simple negligence claim against the deputies and a wrongful death claim against the state.

Claims that the deputies were grossly negligent and that the state failed to train them will go forward.