DETROIT — Grounding wires, or safety straps worn around a wrist to prevent static electricity inside a hyperbaric oxygen chamber, were found inside a "junk drawer" at a Troy medical facility where a chamber exploded, killing a boy, and could've saved the child's life, according to testimony by a Troy police detective.

A transcript of Detective Danielle Trigger's testimony to 52-4 District Court Magistrate Elizabeth Chiappelli, given March 7, sheds new light on the Jan. 31 explosion at the Oxford Center. Thomas Cooper of Royal Oak was inside the hyperbaric chamber when it exploded and died.

Thomas,5, was on his 36th treatment out of 40 in the hyperbaric chamber, which creates a pressurized environment of pure oxygen, when it exploded. His mother, standing nearby, tried to rescue her son and was burned on her arms. Police have not revealed what the boy was being treated for.

CCTV footage of the oxygen chamber gave police insight into what preceded the tragedy: Cooper lay in the chamber wearing pajamas and holding a gray blanket. His head rested on a pillow with a patterned pillowcase, according to transcripts from the March 7 hearing.

"Cooper is moving around within the chamber, moving the blanket and sheet around with him. He rolls onto his side and pulls his knee up towards his chest, which results in a visible ignition," Trigger said. "The chamber immediately begins to burn internally and in what could only be described as a fireball, ultimately killing Thomas Cooper. At the time of the initial ignition to the time the inside of the chamber is fully engulfed in flames, killing Cooper, is approximately three seconds."

Police found the grounding wrist straps in a "junk drawer" in the facility's laundry room, Trigger said. She described the cords as oxidized, like they hadn't been used or moved for an extended period. They also found a multimeter in the drawer, which is used to test grounding, Trigger said.

"The multimeter was still in the bag with the caps on both ends of the cords and the cords appeared to have never been unraveled, which was consistent with it never having been utilized to test grounding," Trigger said.

Tamela Peterson, the Oxford Center's owner and CEO, was arraigned Tuesday in 52-4 District Court on second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter charges, as was Gary Marken, the facility's primary manager, and safety director Jeffrey Mosteller. If bound over for a trial, a jury will decide where either charge fits the defendants' conduct.

Aleta Moffitt, the operator of the hyperbaric chamber that exploded, was charged with involuntary manslaughter and intentionally placing false information on a medical record. All four pleaded not guilty.

Second degree murder is punishable by up to life in prison, while involuntary manslaughter can result in a sentence of up to 15 years behind bars.

The Michigan Attorney General's office, which filed the charges, has accused the Oxford Center's CEO and employees of disregarding safety protocols and using the chamber in ways it wasn't intended to be used. The Oxford Center has said the "safety and well-being of the children we serve is our highest priority."

Moffitt's lawyer Ellen K. Michaels said Thursday Moffitt was an hourly worker at the Oxford Center who was adhering to the corporate policies presented to her by the center's decision-makers.

"Everything that has been presented to the court to this point are allegations, not facts, not evidence," Michaels said in a Thursday statement. "We look forward to reviewing the information that will be given to the defense through the discovery process and performing our own investigation. We believe in letting this process unfold."

No grounding wire

Investigators made copies of hyperbaric chamber maintenance and service records at the scene and learned that the chamber that exploded was from 2013, while the other two in the facility were only a few years old, Trigger said. They also found a manual showing a wrist strap that patients should use when receiving treatment in the chamber to ground them. CCTV footage showed that Cooper did not have one, Trigger said.

"Photos taken of the scene at the time that the incident occurred were also re-reviewed," Trigger said. "I observed what appeared to be a grounding wire for the chamber involved in the incident was wrapped in electrical tape and was clearly in worse condition or inconsistent with the other chambers in the room."

The other patient receiving treatment at the time of the explosion and previous patients and employees at the Oxford Center all told police that a grounding wire had never been used in their hyperbaric treatments there, Trigger said. Employees who expressed concern to Peterson, Mosteller, and Marken about this policy were told that grounding wrist straps were not necessary, she added.

Police also found that starting in 2019, the Oxford Center removed items related to checking the chamber and patient grounding from daily and weekly checklists performed on the chambers.

Representatives from Sechrist, the hyperbaric chamber's manufacturer, were shown a photo of the chamber that exploded and the electrical tape wrapped around the grounding wire.

"Sechrist personnel advised that they would have never repaired a wire in that way," Trigger said. "They further advised that had a wire been repaired by an outside electrician, they would have had to tag out the chamber as being unusable. They would then have had to return to the location to inspect the work in the chamber before it could be used again. That did not occur."

Trigger also claimed that one previous Oxford Center employee told her superiors she would no longer administer hyperbaric treatments due to the lack of safety practices and was fired.

The police consulted with two industry experts with "decades of experience in hyperbaric oxygen treatments," according to Trigger. They also asked hyperbaric facilities at multiple hospitals and a privately run facility for insight into safety protocols, she said.

"The experts were able to determine, based on their opinion, that had Cooper been wearing the grounding wrist strap, he would still be alive," Trigger said.

Mosteller told Trigger in an interview that Peterson had advised him that grounding straps were not necessary and said he performed his own testing to "convince himself to agree with that theory," the detective said.

"Mosteller indicated that he would occasionally check the chamber grounding, but it was not done regularly," Trigger said. "Employees were both advised of and shown an 'experiment,' that Jeff Mosteller had conducted that he felt made the grounding wrist straps unnecessary in order to justify not using them."

At her Tuesday arraignment, Peterson's attorney Gerald Gleeson said her parents both used the facility's hyperbaric chambers, discounting the idea that she was operating the machines with "reckless abandon."

'Whatever gets bodies in those chambers'

Hyperbaric chambers are approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat 13 conditions, ranging from decompression sickness to severe burns. The Oxford Center advertises their use for treatment of over 90 different conditions, including Alzheimer's Disease and diabetes.

Upon reviewing Peterson's cellphone and laptop, police found messages in which people ask whether the company was promoting hyperbaric treatments for erectile dysfunction, Trigger said.

"Peterson responds stating, 'Whatever gets bodies in those chambers, lol,'" the detective said.

Police also found messages containing still photos from CCTV footage of Cooper burning in the chamber.

"In the message exchange along with those photos, she stated something to the effect of, 'If my leg was on fire, I would at least try to hit it and put it out. He just laid there and did nothing,'" Trigger said.

When police attempted to execute a search warrant for Peterson's cellular devices and laptops at the Brighton facility, she initially ran from investigators, Trigger said. She also allegedly told investigators that she'd had her son wipe her laptop days after the explosion, Trigger said.

"Conversations with investigators at the attorney general's office made Troy investigators aware that the CEO of the company, Tamela Peterson, along with her IT personnel had a history of tampering with and/or destroying evidence, specifically CCTV footage and records related to the investigation that the AG's office had previously been conducting," Trigger said.

Investigators observed nine inconsistencies between internally recorded time stamps for Cooper's treatments provided by Peterson's attorney and CCTV footage of the treatments, Trigger said.

Cooper's records that police recovered from the facility show that on the day of the explosion he continued to receive treatment after the fire occurred and he had died.

Rolling back machines

Two previous employees told police they observed Marken manually manipulating the hyperbaric chamber's cycle counters, which measure the lifespan of the machine, Trigger said.

"They reported that they had personally observed Marken using a screwdriver to remove the panel from the side of the chamber, remove the cycle counter, and roll back the number in order to make the cycle count look lower and to extend the life of the chamber," the Troy detective said. "They advised that they were confident that this was likely done at the direction of Peterson due to her level of involvement in the ongoings of the company."

Previous employees also told police that Marken was Peterson's "muscle" and they were "one and the same," Trigger said.

Marken's attorney Raymond Cassar said at his arraignment that he had not been to the Oxford Center facility in Troy in over three years.

"I don't know where the information is coming from that he is rolling back any of these things, but I can tell you that we're confident he hasn't been to that facility because he worked at the Brighton facility," Cassar said Tuesday.

Employees of the hyperbaric chamber manufacturer Sechrist told police that the last time they conducted routine maintenance on the chambers in Troy was 2022, at which point the cycle count on the chamber that exploded was over 20,000, Trigger said.

"I reviewed photos of the chamber cycle counter from the date of the incident that were taken on scene, which showed that the chamber cycle count on that date was 19,894, which would be consistent with the rollbacks reported by ex-employees," the detective said.

Emails between Sechrist employees and Peterson between Nov. 11, 2024, and Nov. 13, 2024 show that Peterson asked the manufacturer to perform service on the chambers at the Troy and Brighton facilities, Trigger said. Sechrist reportedly said it could not service the chamber that exploded because it had performed over 20,000 cycles as of 2022. When Peterson asked for proof of this, Sechrist provided a maintenance report and Peterson told them the chamber had been sold and was no longer in use.

Safety and clothing guidelines

The National Fire Protection Association's guidelines for hyperbaric chambers indicate that there should be a safety pause before a patient enters one to check that the clothing they wear is 100% cotton and that they don't have any lotions or medical patches on, Trigger said. CCTV footage of Cooper's entire visit shows that this did not occur, she said.

The experts that police consulted with also advised that a physician is required on scene for hyperbaric oxygen treatments, although one was not present for Cooper's treatment, Trigger said. Of the defendants, Mosteller is the only one with a current certification to administer the treatments and none are physicians or nurses, she added.

While on scene at the Oxford Center in Troy, the experts noted that pillows inside the chambers were filled with 100% polyester, which is not allowed inside them, partially due to fire risk, Trigger said. The disclosure forms and waivers that patients and parents signed did not mention the risks of fire or death.

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