The parents, wife and minor son of a man who died after being shot with an electric stun gun by police is suing the city and the three Honolulu police officers they believe were involved in the incident. 

Lawyers for the family of Sheldon Haleck filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court on Tuesday. 

The lawsuit also names as defendants the city, Corporation Counsel Donna Leong and Honolulu Police Chief Louis Kealoha. The family members believe contend the city is trying to cover up what really happened to Haleck on March 16 on King Street fronting Iolani Palace, their lawyer Eric Seitz said. 

Haleck, 38, of Kapolei, died the following morning at Queen’s Medical Center. He left behind his father, who is retired from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, his mother, his wife and son, who turns three next week. 

The city-issued autopsy report says Haleck was acutely intoxicated with methamphetamine and died from multiple metabolic and cardiac complications due to, or as a consequence of a physical altercation with police. 

The medical examiner’s report says the manner of death is homicide. 

Honolulu police have said that Haleck was running in the middle of the roadway and acting erratically. They said he refused to leave the street, ran away and evaded officers as they approached him and described him as combative. 

Police said pepper spray and two shots from a Taser were ineffective in stopping Haleck but that Haleck later tripped and fell on the street. They said Haleck became unresponsive after officers escorted him to the sidewalk. 

“We don’t believe what the police are saying or have said tersely about this event,” Seitz said. 

Seitz also said he doesn’t believe the autopsy report. 

“I believe it very likely was influenced by the police and other city officials. And that’s one of the reasons that it took so long to issue,” he said. 

The medical examiner released the autopsy report in late-June, more than three months after Haleck died. 

The Haleck family is not suing the Honolulu Department of the Medical Examiner because Seitz said it does not have evidence of collusion. If in the course of pursuing the lawsuit the family does find such evidence, Seitz said it will add the medical examiner as a defendant in the lawsuit. 

The family doesn’t believe the use of a Taser was justified because although Haleck may have had mental health and drug use issues, there is no evidence that he resisted arrest, was threat to or tried to harm anyone, Seitz said. And he said video recorded by cameras attached to police-issued Tasers confirm that. 

Seitz says the city has stonewalled the family’s efforts to get police reports of the incident and other prior events. He said the city gave the family the autopsy report one day after it had released it to the media and never provided the family with the Taser videos. He said the family got the videos from the media. 

According to reports the Star-Advertiser obtained from HPD, officers assigned to the Kalihi District arrested Haleck on Mar. 15 for resisting arrest and refusing an order to stop a motor vehicle. Both charges are misdemeanors. The reports say that Haleck was operating a vehicle involved in multiple motor vehicle collisions in the Kalihi area and refused police efforts to stop him. 

Following the arrests the reports say that police took Haleck to a hospital for injuries where he was treated and released. 

The officers named in the lawsuit involving the Mar. 16 incident are Christopher Chung, a 14-year HPD veteran, Samantha Critchlow, a 10-year police veteran and Stephen Kardash, a nine-year veteran. It was Critchlow who shot Haleck twice with her Taser, according to the lawsuit. All three officers are assigned to the Downtown Honolulu District and remain on full duty. 

The city Department of the Corporation Counsel and HPD declined comment, citing the pending litigation. 

Star-Advertiser reporter Rob Shikina contributed to this story.