Parolee's death after swallowing drugs
ruled accidental choking

By Ari Barak and Emmett Berg, Bay City News Service

February 27, 2007

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN) - Accidental choking, and not an overdose, caused the death of a 42-year-old San Francisco man who swallowed a bag of crack cocaine during an arrest in January, a San Mateo County coroner's office spokeswoman said Monday.

The man was identified as Herbert Watt, 42, the spokeswoman said. Watt, a parolee, was pulled over in the 100 block of Ralston Place in San Francisco on the afternoon of Jan. 18, after officers noticed his vehicle was without license plates, according to San Francisco police Sgt. Steve Mannina.

Police then found a golf ball-sized bag of crack cocaine on Watt, Mannina said. The drugs were placed on the hood of the police car as they began handcuffing him, according to Mannina.

A struggle ensued and Watt was able to somehow consume the drugs and "went into distress immediately," Mannina said.

Watt was taken to a hospital in Daly City where he was pronounced dead.

After an autopsy, the coroner's office ruled Watt's cause of death to be accidental asphyxiation with cardio-pulmonary arrest, as a result of choking on the drugs, according to the coroner's office spokeswoman.

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