Medical experts say practice led to player's death

The Jefferson Commonwealth's Attorney's Office on Thursday disclosed two expert medical witnesses who will testify that former Pleasure Ridge Park High School football coach Jason Stinson's Aug. 20 practice, in which players were allegedly made to run until someone quit, caused the death of a 15-year-old player who collapsed from heat stroke.

Dr. Doug Casa, director of athletic training education at the University of Connecticut and a national leader in heat-stroke prevention, will testify that Stinson created an environment where Max Gilpin believed he could not stop running “even if it was medically necessary to do so,” which caused the massive heat stroke that led to the teen's death, according to court records.

And another witness, Dr. Larry Shoemaker, will testify at Stinson's Aug. 31 trial on reckless homicide and wanton endangerment that Max died of “exertion-induced heat stroke.”

At the same time, on Thursday, Stinson's attorneys filed a motion asking a judge to dismiss the wanton endangerment indictment against the former coach, claiming he was denied an opportunity to speak to the grand jury.

On Tuesday, seven months after Stinson was charged with reckless homicide, a Jefferson County grand jury indicted the former coach on a new charge of first-degree wanton endangerment in the death of Max, who collapsed Aug. 20 and died three days later at Kosair Children's Hospital, after his body temperature had reached 107 degrees.

Defense attorneys Alex Dathorne and Brian Butler claim that under Kentucky criminal procedure rules, prosecutors must inform grand jurors when a defendant wants to testify before them, though the jurors don't have to allow the testimony....