The judge overseeing the first two Aurora police officers’ trial over the 2019 death of Elijah McClain urged attorneys to work more efficiently on Wednesday, a day that involved much legal maneuvering over technical testimony on the police department’s policies.

“This is really starting to become a mammoth caught in La Brea. We need to move things along,”  said District Court Judge Mark Warner on Wednesday.

Doctor declines to assign fault for Elijah McClain's death

The trial for Aurora officers Randy Roedema and Jason Rosenblatt could last through Oct. 13, just as the trial of the third officer facing charges for McClain’s death is set to get underway.

Prosecutors’ only witness of the day, former Aurora police Capt. Stephen Redfearn, spent all of Wednesday afternoon testifying about the department’s policies.

Parts of his questioning by the attorneys were peppered by a near-constant stream of objections from both sides. Warner had said Redfearn could testify about the Aurora Police Department’s policies but could not offer expertise about training.

In particular, the attorneys scuffled about whether Redfearn could answer questions concerning what an officer can do if they believe they have reasonable suspicion of a crime to detain someone and the person refuses to cooperate. Warner tended to grant prosecutors’ objections that did not fit the scope of Redfearn’s expertise.

Redfearn spoke generally about policies such as use of force, field interviews and interrogations, and stopping someone with reasonable suspicion. But he did not offer any opinions about the specific actions of the officers during their encounter with McClain.

The day followed about a full day of testimony from David Beuther, a pulmonary and critical care physician, who gave his opinion that ketamine was the most significant factor in McClain’s death but that health complications from his struggle with officers contributed. In part, prosecutors spent several hours playing body-worn camera footage of the encounter and asked Beuther to discuss what he believed McClain’s body went through at each stage.

Elijah McClain already at risk of death before ketamine injection, physician says

Roedema and Rosenblatt each face charges of assault, manslaughter and criminally negligent homicide for McClain’s death. The case accuses them of stopping him the night of Aug. 24, 2019 without reasonable suspicion he’d committed a crime, pinning McClain to the ground, using a neck hold and ignoring his pleas he couldn’t breathe. 

A paramedic called to the scene injected McClain with the sedative ketamine. He went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing, and was declared brain dead Aug. 27.

Along with Officer Nathan Woodyard, Roedema and Rosenblatt had responded to a 911 call reporting a suspicious person walking down the street. Defense attorneys for the two officers on trial say McClain violently resisted them, and at one point tried to grab Rosenblatt’s gun.

Correction: This article incorrectly stated which officer’s gun Elijah McClain allegedly reached for. Defense attorneys allege he reached for Jason Rosenblatt’s weapon.