Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

Maricopa Co. Attorney won't prosecute officers who pepper sprayed woman

http://www.12news.com/news/local/valley/maricopa-co-attorney-wont-prosecute-officers-who-pepper-sprayed-woman/358326406

The Maricopa County Attorney's Office has decided not to prosecute two Phoenix police officers accused of lying about giving medical aid to a homeless woman they pepper sprayed last year. The decision comes despite the fact that the MCAO took it to a grand jury, which returned an indictment against the men and both were formally charged and arraigned. Clearly the process was well underway with pre-trial conferences and comprehensive trial conferences already scheduled to begin in January 2017.

Officers Chris Tiona and Logan Egnor told investigators that they had pepper sprayed an aggressive homeless woman in May of 2015 and stayed with her to treat her, but data from their vehicle locator and footage from their body cameras bring the medical aid into question.

Both officers were indicted by a Maricopa County grand jury on October 25, on one felony count each for tampering with a public record. The indictment alleged Tiona and Egnor knowingly, with the intent to defraud or deceive made false written reports following the May 24, 2015 encounter with the homeless woman.

The footage also brings up the question of whether the pepper spray was necessary, as well as their characterization of the woman's aggressive behavior.

So why, then, did the prosecutor Ed Leiter change his mind? The State's motion to dismiss reflecting the decision to toss out the case has not yet been released, but MCAO spokesperson Amanda Jacinto released this statement to 12 News:

“Upon further review it was determined that based on the facts of the case the office declined prosecution as there was no reasonable likelihood of conviction.”

Last week, 12 News reported that Tiona and Egnor were back under investigation by Phoenix PD. They previously served 240-hour unpaid suspensions of their peace officer certification after entering into consent agreements with the Arizona Peace Officer Standards and Training Board, which certifies all police officers in the state.

Phoenix Police Department spokesman Sgt. Jonathan Howard said the department would continue its internal investigation and the officers would remain on administrative leave.

Bob Kavanagh, attorney for officer Tiona, acknowledged the State filed a motion to dismiss the case against his client. He went on to say that he has not seen an order from the judge granting the State's motion. Kavanagh tells 12 News, "I will not be commenting further."

We also contacted attorney Jess Lorona, who is defending Egnor. He did not appear to know the prosecutor moved to dismiss the case against his client but said he was going to find out. We have not yet heard back from Lorona.

[Andrea]

Keith Lamont Scott killing: No charges against officer, DA says

http://www.cnn.com/2016/11/30/us/keith-lamont-scott-case-brentley-vinson/index.html

Charlotte, North Carolina (CNN)[Breaking news update at 12:16 p.m. ET]
The announcement that no officers will be charged in the shooting death of Keith Lamont Scott "doesn't end our inquiry," Scott family attorney Charles Monnett said Wednesday.

"We still have concerns," Monnett said. "We still have real questions about what decisions were made that day," such as whether police could have used better de-escalation techniques that may have prevented Scott's death.

[Breaking news update at 11:40 a.m. ET]
Charlotte police Officer Brentley Vinson's deadly use of force was lawful the day he killed Keith Lamont Scott, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said Wednesday.

He said no charges will be filed in the case, and that 15 prosecutors reached the decision unanimously.

Murray urged the community to remain calm.

"I know some are going to be frustrated," he said, but Vinson "was justified in shooting him."

The district attorney said he met with Scott's family before making the announcement, and that the family was "extremely gracious."

[Breaking news update at 11:16 a.m. ET]
In response to public speculation about whether Keith Lamont Scott was armed the day he was killed by police, Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray said "all the credible evidence" leads to the conclusion Scott was armed.

His DNA was found on the grip of a gun found at the scene, Murray said.

[Breaking news update at 11:04 a.m. ET]
Mecklenburg County District Attorney Andrew Murray is holding a news conference, describing new details from the day Keith Lamont Scott was killed by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police officer Brentley Vinson.

Murray showed surveillance footage from a convenience store shortly before Scott was shot at an apartment complex. The footage showed a bulge around Scott's ankle. Murray said the bulge is consistent with the holster and gun later described by officers.

The district attorney also said at least three officers reported seeing Scott holding a gun before he was shot, though dashcam video did not show that detail.

[Previous story, published at 10:23 a.m. ET]
Two months after Keith Lamont Scott was killed by a police officer at a Charlotte apartment complex, the local district attorney is expected to announce whether the officer will be charged.

The 43-year-old black man's death sparked protests and added more fuel to the national debate over whether police are too quick to use deadly force, particularly against African-American men.

The officer who shot Scott, Officer Brentley Vinson, is also black.

Police said they were looking for someone with an outstanding warrant when Scott, 43, exited a vehicle with a gun.

Scott's family said the father of seven children didn't have a gun. But police say Vinson opened fire after Scott stepped out of a vehicle with a gun in his hand and didn't obey commands to drop it.

Scott's death led to public pressure on local police to release video of the shooting. The night after Scott's death, hundreds of protesters gathered. Many said they were angry about what they said was unnecessary police action. Some protests were peaceful, others turned violent.

In October, officials released footage of the incident. Video taken by Scott's widow shows a different perspective of what happened.

Dashcam footage shows an officer in plain clothes with his weapon drawn on Scott as Scott exits an SUV and begins walking backward. Vinson then shoots Scott four times.

Attorneys for Scott's family have said the videos show he wasn't aggressive when police surrounded him. Scott's daughter said her father was in his SUV reading a book, waiting for a son to come home from school. But police said no book was found at the scene.

Cell phone video recorded by Scott's wife, Rakeyia, shows a different angle of the incident. In that video, a man repeatedly yells for someone -- apparently Scott -- to "drop the gun."

"He doesn't have a gun. He has a TBI (traumatic brain injury)," Rakeyia Scott says, referencing an injury Scott sustained during a motorcycle accident. "He's not going to do anything to you guys. He just took his medicine."

The videos don't clearly show whether Scott was armed. And critics say there's one key element missing from the body camera video released by police: sound.

An autopsy report later revealed the cause of Scott's death as gunshot wounds to the chest and abdomen.

Tests of Scott's blood indicated the presence of diazepam, amantadine, babapentin, nicotine, nordiazepam and promethazine. Scott's family attorney said the drugs were being used to treat Scott's traumatic brain injury.

[Andrea]

Baltimore officer indicted on assault, misconduct charges

http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/bs-md-ci-cop-indicted-20161202-story.html

Body camera footage helped a grand jury indict a Baltimore police officer who investigators say used unnecessary force to make an arrest.

Donald B. Gaff, a three-and-a-half-year veteran, faces assault and misconduct charges in the Sept. 11 incident near East Patapsco Avenue, police said.

Police said he used "unjustified force" but provided no details Friday on the case, including the type of force Gaff was said to have used.

Internal investigators were doing a "routine review" of body camera footage, when they saw the alleged abuse. The detectives presented their findings to the Baltimore State's Attorney's Office for prosecution. Gaff's police powers have been suspended, police said. He was assigned to the Southern District.

"This incident again demonstrates our capacity and willingness to hold police officers engaged in misconduct accountable," Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis said in a statement. "His actions do not represent the professionalism exhibited by the men and women of the Baltimore Police Department on a daily basis."

Police said they will not release the footage of the incident, and have turned it over to prosecutors.

A call to Baltimore police union president Lt. Gene Ryan was not immediately returned Friday afternoon, and no attorney was listed in court records representing Gaff.

In January 2015, Gaff fatally shot a man at a child's birthday party in the 1900 block of McHenry Street after he was flagged down by a resident. Police said a man was carrying a knife at the party and threatening to stab people. After being asked to drop the knife, police said, Gaff shot him once in the upper chest, killing him.

In that case, then-deputy police commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gaff had "courageously" confronted the man and was in the "right place at the right time."

"I think it's safe to say that through the officer's quick actions and the fact that the officer was deployed here and was able to quickly respond, this scene could've been a lot different," Rodriguez said at the time.

[Andrea]

Retired Corrections Officer Claims Garden City Police Mistakenly Beat Him

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2016/12/02/corrections-officer-sues-garden-city-police/

A retired Nassau County corrections officer claims he was beaten by officers in a case of mistaken identity.

Ronald Lanier said he was shopping in the Western Beef Supermarket in Mineola on Nov. 30 when he was tackled, handcuffed and beaten by officers with the Garden City Police Department.

“I’ve never been cursed, physically abused, beaten and treated like a slave as I was two days ago,” Lanier said, breaking down as he described how he landed in handcuffs and in a hospital. “For somebody to grab me by the neck in the supermarket, and I’m telling you, ‘I’m one of you,’ and you disrespect it — it was like you’re just another black dude.”

“They cursed at him, they abused him verbally, they then start to beat him,” his attorney, Fred Brewington, told 1010 WINS. “He was taking blows with his hands cuffed behind him as he laid facedown.”

Lanier, who retired after two decades as a Nassau County corrections officer, claims he complied and explained to the officers that he was law enforcement, but they just laughed.

The officers, who are white, claimed they were searching for a black shoplifting suspect, who was later apprehended on the roof of the building.

“They didn’t have a good description of who they were looking for. That doesn’t give you the right to go into a store and grab the first black person you see and throw them to the ground,” his attorney, Fred Brewington, told 1010 WINS. “The fact that he happened to be a black male in the store does not make him a culprit, it does not make him a suspect.”

Lanier intends to sue the Garden City Police Department, accusing them of violating his civil rights. He wants the officers stripped of their badges.

“I’m tired of hearing officers constantly talking about we have to retrain. We don’t have to retrain, we got to let them be held accountable for their actions,” Lanier said. “Imagine if I had my gun at that time. It could have went either way.”

“We are hoping Garden City Police Department will come forward with respect, identifying their officers, disciplining their officers,” said Dennis Jones, with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives.

The Garden City Police Department declined to share its side of the story with CBS2, but provided context, saying they were chasing a fleeing shoplifting suspect who abandoned a getaway car on the railroad tracks and fled into the supermarket, Carolyn Gusoff reported.

Brewington said his client spent 20 minutes inside a squad car before he was let go without receiving an apology.

“The sergeant, without any apology or any other way of making it clear that they were acknowledging the mistake that they had made, just said cut him loose,” Brewington said.

Western Beef does have interior security cameras, but would not share the video with CBS2.

[Andrea]

Former Roanoke police officer pleads no contest to sexually assaulting female prisoners

http://www.roanoke.com/news/crime/roanoke/former-roanoke-police-officer-pleads-no-contest-to-sexually-assaulting/article_aead7093-cdae-5096-aa3b-a393cf8904bd.html

A former Roanoke police officer has resolved the two criminal cases against him, both involving sexual assault claims by prisoners who were in his custody.

Francisco Alberto Duarte, 30, was indicted earlier this year on charges of aggravated sexual battery and forcible sodomy.

He was due to go to trial on the former case on Thursday morning and on the latter case in January.

At a hearing Thursday in Roanoke Circuit Court, Duarte pleaded no contest to amended counts of felony carnal knowledge with an inmate and misdemeanor sexual battery.

Through a plea agreement with prosecutors, Duarte received six months to serve on each charge, with five years in suspended time. He likely will end up serving about three months on the misdemeanor offense and another six on the felony. He was taken into custody as soon as the hearing ended.

Based on the statute under which Duarte was charged, he will not have to register as a sex offender, his lawyer said.

In a summary of the prosecution’s evidence, Roanoke Assistant Commonwealth’s Attorney John McNeil said the two offenses occurred while Duarte was on duty and was taking female prisoners to the Roanoke City Jail.

In the first instance, which occurred Dec. 2, 2015, McNeil said security camera footage showed Duarte bringing a woman into the jail, talking with her briefly, then leaving with her and going back out to his car.

McNeil said the woman can be heard telling Duarte, “No one has to know.”

The woman later told investigators they rode a short distance from the jail, parked and then engaged in oral sex.

“The mere fact that she was in custody and he was a police officer made her feel like she had no choice in the matter,” McNeil said.

He said the woman reported the incident while she was being processed into custody. Duarte was interviewed by police officials and “taken off the road” within hours.

A police spokesman said earlier this year that Duarte’s last day with the force was Dec. 3, 2015, but he declined to elaborate, saying it was a personnel matter.

The second incident came to light in March. McNeil said a woman charged with a petty offense in Roanoke County told investigators that she had been arrested on a shoplifting charge in Roanoke in September 2015. While being taken to jail by Duarte, he had stopped in a motel parking lot where he parked, exposed himself and placed her hand on his privates, she said. McNeil said she rejected the advance and they continued on to jail from there.

Neither woman is being identified in this story because The Roanoke Times does not name victims of sexual assault.

“These are cases we have wrestled with for months,” McNeil told Judge David Carson. He said the circumstances of the cases complicated the prospects of going to trial. Both witnesses had expressed reluctance to testify, he said, and they approved of the agreement.

“They both want to move on,” he said.

Defense attorney David Damico added that there were “significant issues that would’ve potentially affected the credibility of the witnesses,” and that there was little evidence that force had been involved in either case.

Under the initial indictments, Duarte had faced the possibility of maximum sentences of life plus 20 years in prison.

“He exercised monumentally bad judgment,” Damico said. “We see this as a pragmatic solution to a difficult situation.”

Asked by Carson whether he wanted to make a statement before his conviction, Duarte declined.

Both sides in the case have exercised extreme discretion as the matter has moved forward through the courts. Most relevant court documents were placed under seal, and members of the media were barred from an evidentiary hearing in September — on a motion from the defense — while recordings were played. The windows of the courtroom doors were also covered during that hearing.

[Andrea]

Video: Miami Cops Throw Legless Woman to Ground

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheats/2016/12/07/video-miami-cops-throw-legless-woman-to-ground.html?via=desktop&source=copyurl



Video emerged Wednesday of two Miami-Dade police officers handcuffing a legless woman and throwing her to the ground from her wheelchair. Mary Luis Brown, 52, was panhandling outside as gas station on Saturday night when cops arrived to ask her to leave. Bystanders filmed the unnamed officers manhandling Brown, cuffing her and throwing her to the ground as she shouted, “Stop hurting me!” The police department admits the two officers acted improperly and noted that “we need to provide our law enforcement officers additional resources to aid them in facilitating the transport of disabled individuals, so that situations such as these are handled in a more amicable manner in the future.” Brown was arrested for trespassing and transported to a local hospital for treatment.

Andrea: Clink link for video

[Andrea]

Cops Gagged and Smothered a Man to Death, Then Fist-Bumped

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/12/08/cops-gagged-and-smothered-a-man-to-death-then-fist-bumped.html?via=desktop&source=twitter


Police handcuffed Ben Anthony C de Baca, threw him on his stomach, pulled a mask over his face, and planted their knees in his back. While he cried that he couldn’t breathe, the officers were busy laughing at a joke. They stopped laughing when they realized he’d gone limp.

“Anthony,” one officer said, wiggling the dead man’s arm. “Anthony.”

“Fuck,” another one said.

He was dead.

Twelve minutes after that, two officers fist-bumped.

Medical examiners ruled C de Baca’s Sept. 6, 2015 death a homicide from “excited delirium (cocaine intoxication) complicated by means of physical restraint.” An investigation by New Mexico’s Rio Rancho Police Department found no criminal intent by any of the three police agencies involved in the arrest. But C de Baca’s family says his death was a senseless act of police brutality and incompetence.

The family is planning a wrongful death suit against the three law enforcement agencies involved in his arrest, family attorney Ahmad Assed told The Daily Beast. Meanwhile, Sandoval County District Attorney’s Office prosecutor told The Daily Beast it is investigating C de Baca’s death for potential criminal charges.

C de Baca had a history of mental illness, his wife said, according to a police report. Doctors had recently changed his medication, and he had been “acting very paranoid all week,” she said. On the day of his death, his wife said he had experienced “schizophrenic episodes,” which came to a head at a McDonald’s.

While waiting in the drive-through line, C de Baca began acting irrationally, telling his wife that there were people in the trunk. She humored him, promising to check the trunk, at which point he flung his legs into the driver’s side of the car and slammed on the gas, sending the car speeding into another vehicle.

C de Baca then fled on foot to a nearby Wal-Mart, where he began throwing soda and smashing televisions. He shouted, “‘You are all murderers, you killed my kid’ and other things that didn’t make sense,” a Wal-Mart employee told police.

Workers called 911. Officers from three departments arrived on the scene, due to the Wal-Mart’s location near the intersection of three jurisdictions. An officer from the Rio Rancho Police Department responded to a report about C de Baca’s car crash outside the nearby McDonald’s, while officers from the neighboring Bernalillo and Santa Ana police departments responded to the call from inside the Wal-Mart. (The Rio Rancho Police Department decline to comment on this story. The Santa Ana and Bernalillo police departments did not return The Daily Beast’s requests for comment.) Bernalillo and Santa Ana officers found C de Baca in the store, where they cuffed him on the floor, body camera footage shows.

“Stand up or we’re going to drag you out, one way or another,” an officer is seen telling the restrained man. But C de Baca continued to struggle, allegedly biting one officer on the leg.

“A fucking bite mark, dude,” the officer is heard telling another on camera. “This cunt fuck bit the fuck out of me, dude. I had to punch his ass off of me.”

Officers pulled C de Baca outside, where they placed him on his stomach in the parking lot, shackled his legs, and placed hands and knees on his back. They placed a spit sock over his head to prevent him from biting again, the police report says. An officer began questioning him, presumably for an incident report. C de Baca initially cooperated, giving his name. Then he cried for help.

“I can’t breathe,” he said.

“Anthony, what’s your date of birth?” the officer taking the report called.

“I can’t breathe,” C de Baca repeated.

“What’s your date of birth?” the officer asked again. His colleagues continued placing pressure on C de Baca’s back, pinning his cuffed hands behind him.

“I’m dying,” C de Baca pleads. No one appears to listen. The conversation returns to the bite mark on one of the officer’s pant legs.

“He hit bone?” an officer asked, alluding to the other cop’s penis.

“Always with the jokes,” the bitten officer said, confirming that the bite didn’t break the skin.

The officers were still laughing when they realized C de Baca had gone limp under their hands and knees. An officer shook his arm, then his shirt, attempting to rouse him. The “spit sock” was still over his face.

As police watched the paramedics attempt to revive him, one officer’s body camera showed two officers fist-bumping near the body, apparently in greeting. It was one of several casual gestures that may appear insensitive in the immediate aftermath of C de Baca’s death. Later, two different officers are seen discussing the man’s death.

“You alright?” one officer asked another several minutes after C de Baca’s pulse stopped.

“Yeah, I’m good, dude,” the second answered. “I fucking hate when people put us in a position like that.”

“No, I’m asking are you OK,” the first asked. “I don’t care about that,” he said in apparent reference to C de Baca’s death. “Are you OK?”

Assed, a lawyer for C de Baca’s family, said conversations suggest a fundamental lack of concern for C de Baca’s life.

“He’s telling him essentially that Mr. C de Baca has passed, and he’s like ‘I don’t care, I’m asking how you’re doing,’” Assed told The Daily Beast. “It’s really telling if you look at that particular part of the video.”

Assed said C de Baca’s family is preparing a civil suit against the three police departments involved in the arrest. But Assed said his primary concern is not the officers’ attitude on camera, but their treatment of C de Baca during what should have been a routine arrest.

“I’m really more concerned about why they hogtied him, dragged him out, placed him face down with three guys kneeing him in the back,” Assed said. “A guy is screaming for his life saying he can’t breathe and that he’s hurting, and then they claimed to put a spit sock on him for what reason I have no idea, because it doesn’t prevent anything.”

The use of the spit sock in C de Baca’s death is central to claims that the officers mishandled his arrest.

Spit socks are intended to prevent individuals from spitting at officers, but are not meant to prevent the person from biting, or to impair their breathing. But C de Baca’s case was unusual. Police placed the sock over his head after he allegedly bit an officer.

The spit sock was mesh, with a “thick cotton portion,” a sergeant reported during an investigation into C de Baca’s death. During C de Baca’s arrest, the spit sock’s cotton had covered C de Baca’s “face, nose, and mouth,” while the mesh bunched up around his forehead, the sergeant told investigators, adding that “he had not seen a spit sock used in that fashion before.”

An independent report by the New Mexico Medical Examiner’s Office confirmed that an “improperly placed” spit sock has the potential to suffocate a person. The examiner wrote that they could not rule out suffocation as a contributing cause in C de Baca’s death.

“They used it in a different fashion than in the training I hope they received,” Assed said. “I doubt they received any training. If there was training, it certainly wasn’t consistent with how they used it.”

The Bernalillo Police Department, which placed the spit sock on C de Baca’s head, did not return a request for comment. The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office, a separate entity from the Bernalillo Police Department, outlines a standard spit hood policy in their officer manual.

“When Deputies are faced with prisoners who spit, have spat, or indicate they are likely to spit, the following procedures will be followed,” the document reads (PDF). “No other methods will be utilized to control or prevent this action. The Transportation Hood will only be used to deter spitting and will NOT be used for any other purpose.”

The Bernalillo County Sheriff’s officer manual also outlines policies that could have saved C de Baca’s life. Police are required to pay special attention to individuals displaying signs of cocaine psychosis, which medical examiners identified as a contributor in C de Baca’s death.

“Deputies will seek immediate medical attention for the prisoner if signs or symptoms of cocaine psychosis, excited delirium or positional asphyxia are observed,” the manual reads.

The manual also warns against placing a handcuffed person on their stomach.

“Deputies must guard against leaving the individual or allowing the individual to go to the chest down position as this could cause Positional Asphyxia,” the manual says. The police sergeant who told investigators that the spit sock had been misapplied also said that he instructed officers to not to place C de Baca on his stomach, a suggestion that went ignored.

While law enforcement’s internal investigation into C de Baca’s death found no criminal intent by the officers involved, charges might still come from a district attorney in New Mexico’s Sandoval County.

David Foster, an attorney with New Mexico’s 13th Judicial District told The Daily Beast that the incident was under investigation, but could not comment on the nature of the ongoing probe.

But Assed said the family planned to sue all three police departments for wrongful death. The pending lawsuit will likely address the officers’ apparent lack of training about the spit sock, in addition to their overall conduct during the arrest.

“They placed it in a way that I believe wholeheartedly contributed to Mr. C de Baca’s death,” Assed said. “To place him on his face and place that spit sock on him, with three people on him, it’s ridiculous. It’s crazy."