Fan favorite porn star and adult industry veteran performer Sledge Hammer passed away early this morning. He was 39.
Sledge Hammer (born Marland Anderson) had been in a coma since the morning of Monday, April 9, 2012 after an altercation with police on Sunday night that resulted in him being shot with a taser gun.
Porn director Stoney Curtis confirmed Sledge's passing to XBIZ. Curtis has been a close friend of Sledge for 20 years. According to Curtis, Sledge had been dealing with various forms of depression during the last several years, and his marijuana use made the depression worse.
Stoney Curtis: "It turned out he genetically had a mild form of schizophrenia, and it wasn't a problem until he started smoking pot and taking various things for depression. It got worse and he would have thoughts of extreme paranoia and anxiety."
On Sunday night in Reseda, CA, Anderson suffered a severe anxiety attack and his girlfriend called 911 to prevent him from harming himself.
Stoney Curtis: "She felt as though he was mentally unstable. She was requesting an ambulance to come get him, but the police showed up with an ambulance and the police walked him down to the ambulance."
According to what Curtis was told, Anderson did not want to be inside the ambulance and his anxiety worsened, so the ambulance personnel let him out and called the police back to the residence.
Stoney Curtis: "The police came and instead of trying to talk to him or grab him and get him to the ground or the paramedics giving him a sedative, they decided to break out their tasers and just tasered him excessively until the point where he went into cardiac arrest. After he went into cardiac arrest, they rushed him to the hospital and revived him. But they estimated that his heart had stopped beating for 10 minutes. They got his heart beating again and put him on a respirator, but he had massive swelling in the brain from the loss of oxygen."
Sledge Hammer fought for his life all week, but doctors told his mother that he likely would never come out of the coma and if he did, he would not regain cognitive functions. So his mother decided to take him off the respirator Thursday night.
Stoney Curtis: "The family felt as though he was never going to be the same and never going to wake up, so the mother made the decision to pull the respirator, it was her call. He passed away at 5 o'clock in the morning at Northridge Hospital."
Marland Anderson was born in Seattle, WA. He performed as Sledge Hammer in over 800 porn movies since 1995. No one knew him or his work better than Curtis, who made him a star with his numerous scenes for Celestial Productions and then Lethal Hardcore.
Stoney Curtis: "You won't find too many people that would have a bad thing to say about Marland. He was a very warm-hearted, funny guy who loved his comic books, loved heavy metal, and was very respectful to every girl he ever worked with. And I think most of the guys that worked with him would say the same."
Curtis met Anderson at the Pizza Hut where Anderson worked not long after graduating from high school in Mission Viejo, CA.
Stoney Curtis: "He didn't have much confidence in himself, but I looked at him and said you should have all the confidence in the world in yourself. The guy was built like a brick-house. I wasn't even in porno yet and the two of us knew each other. I'm probably his oldest friend and I just feel horrible."
Curtis told XBIZ he is in the process of launching a full-scale investigation into the event that caused Anderson to be subdued by police.
Stoney Curtis: "We believe there was excessive force used and investigators and attorneys will be called to get to the bottom of what happened to Marland Anderson. Stoney Curtis will see to it that he does not die in vain. What I would like to see is a separate number called for people with psychiatric issues where the police are not involved, because the police do not know how to handle someone who is having a mental breakdown. They just break out their clubs and tasers. People shouldn't be dying just because they are having a mental breakdown. Marland was not a violent person. He had no police record, none. He had no weapon on him. They were the ones that walked him down to the ambulance. He was already frisked. They knew he wasn't armed. Why did he get tasered so much. If they wouldn't have done that, Marland Anderson would still be alive today."
I had the pleasure of getting to know Sledge Hammer and keeping in touch with him throughout the years. He was a big supporter of mine, as was I of him. He was featured in one of our earlier interviews for In Bed with Papi Chulo and he was the first interview recorded for my solo interview series on Papi Chulo RADIO 1on1 with Papi Chulo. He was a kind man. He was an underrated and flawless performer. The mark Sledge Hammer made on the industry won't be forgotten. And Marland Anderson, the man, will be sorely missed.
We will be replaying the installment of 1on1 with Papi Chulo featuring Sledge Hammer throughout the night tonight starting at 12am ET / 9pm PT on Papi Chulo RADIO. We will also be replaying it throughout the night on Saturday, April 14 as well starting at 8pm ET / 5pm PT.
May he rest in peace...
For more on Sledge Hammer, CLICK HERE.
~Papi Chulo~
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