Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Jesse]

Lawsuit: South Carolina officers shot unarmed man 19 times

Lawsuit: South Carolina officers shot unarmed man 19 times


BY JEFFREY COLLINS
Associated Press



An unarmed man who was chased and tackled by police in South Carolina was shot 17 times in the back by officers as he lay on the ground, according to a lawsuit filed by the man's family.

The officers were trying to arrest Waltki Williams last Dec. 10 after his estranged girlfriend called 911 saying he had pointed a gun at her car at the Sumter Mall, police said at the time.

Williams drove off, but wrecked a short way down the road. He threw an unknown object out a window and started to run, according to the wrongful death lawsuit filed Friday by Williams' sister, Tomekia Kind, against the city of Sumter and its police force.

Several officers tackled Williams and stepped back before at least three of them fired two dozen shots. Williams was struck by 19 bullets, said attorney Carter Elliott.

"I don't know if it gets any more horrible than officers standing over an unarmed man shooting him," Elliott said Monday. He had investigators take pictures of Williams' bullet-ridden body before it was cremated.

Elliott said Kind has seen police video of her brother's shooting and was shocked. The video has not been released publicly as the State Law Enforcement Division is still investigating the killing.

Sumter Police spokeswoman Tonyia McGirt said later Monday that the police agency hasn't been served with the lawsuit. She also said releasing any specific information about the shooting would be inappropriate given the state's ongoing investigation. Nonetheless, she said the police department denies the allegations made in the suit.

In a news release issued shortly after the shooting in December, McGirt wrote that "there was a brief struggle and then an exchange of gunfire."

Little information has been released about the shooting. Carter said Williams was black. The race and names of the officers haven't been made public.

State police have been reluctant to release police shooting videos in South Carolina until cases are closed, even though First Amendment lawyers said there is no exemption to their release under the state's open records law.

They have made exceptions when the videos don't show the shooting itself, such as releasing dashboard camera footage of the traffic stop of Walter Scott, who was shot and killed after running away from a traffic stop in April 2015 by an officer in North Charleston. The former officer is awaiting a second trial on a murder charge.

The Associated Press filed a Freedom of Information Act request Monday for any video footage of Williams' shooting. State police did not immediately respond to that request.

Elliott has not seen the video, but plans to subpoena the city of Sumter and state investigators. The lawsuit does not ask for specific damages.

Solicitor Chip Finney will decide if the officers face charges. He said Monday he has not received the case file from state investigators and had no comment about the shooting or the lawsuit.

About 50 people marched in Sumter asking for justice about two weeks after the shooting.

[Andrea]

ICE Agent Shot Unarmed Man As He Opened Door

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2017/03/28/ice-agent-shot-unarmed-man-as-he-opened-door/

CHICAGO (AP) — A federal immigration agent shot an unarmed man for no apparent reason as the man answered the door at his Chicago home, a lawyer for the wounded man said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said the special agent was attempting to arrest someone Monday morning when a second person pointed a weapon at agents. ICE officials said the special agent fired his weapon, wounding the second person.

But attorney Thomas Hallock told reporters Monday that he heard a different version of events when he visited the wounded 53-year-old man at a hospital. Hallock said he was told the man heard a pounding at his door, answered it and was shot “without cause.” Hallock says the man was not armed.

“I don’t know if there was some sort of mistake,” Hallock said.

ICE officials said Monday its Office of Professional Responsibility will review the shooting and details of what happened weren’t being immediately released. The Associated Press sent an email seeking an update Tuesday from ICE.

Hallock said the man and his wife arrived from Mexico more than two decades ago and are legal residents of the United States. Seven or eight people were in the home at the time of the shooting, he said.

The agency has not publicly named the target of the arrest warrant and it wasn’t clear if that person was detained. Hallock said he is also representing the wounded man’s 23-year-old son, who was briefly detained.

Chicago police officials said their officers responded to the call of shots fired. They said they are investigating any underlying criminal offenses and working with prosecutors and the Department of Homeland Security.

[Andrea]

VIDEO: Cop who yelled 'I'm going to shoot you in your head!' now under investigation

http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2017/04/video_cop_who_yelled_im_going.html

The Portland Police Bureau has opened an internal investigation into the actions of an officer who threatened to shoot a man in the head -- when the man refused to come out of his motor home.

Officer Matt Bigoni also threatened to shoot the man's dog if the dog came out, made a reference to a funeral bell ringing for the man and warned that "bad things are going to happen" if police had to retrieve him from the motor home. Three police officers ended the approximately 25-minute encounter by bursting into the camper, holding the man down, repeatedly punching the man in the face and fracturing the man's eye socket and nose.

Police said 27-year-old Christopher Lee Fish was resisting their efforts to handcuff him and take him into custody on a warrant for violating the terms of his probation for a prior misdemeanor conviction.

Fish caught about 10 minutes of the officer's threats on cell phone video. The evidence turned out to be a key piece of evidence at trial in February.

"Thank God Mr. Fish turned on his phone," said April Yates, a certified law student who represented Fish, in her closing arguments to the jury.

Multnomah County Circuit Judge Christopher Marshall dismissed a charge of interfering with police, and jurors acquitted Fish of the only remaining charge against him: Resisting arrest.

On March 17, a civil attorney for Fish sent the city a notice of his intent to sue the city for alleged excessive force and lasting psychological damage.

Juror Cheryl Barham told The Oregonian/OregonLive that she's glad to hear that Fish has moved forward with plans to sue. She said the actions of the police officers was disheartening; their testimony during trial was "suspicious" and inconsistent; and it didn't take the six-person jury long to determine that Fish wasn't guilty of the crime charged against him.

"It was shocking to hear and see what they did," Barham said of the officers.

Juror Rachel Siegel said she knows Fish had a criminal record and police had a reason for showing up to take him into custody, but beating him was unnecessary and excessive. Siegel thought Bigoni was escalating the situation of a man holed up in his camper, not de-escalating it.

"The state had a very weak case, and I don't know why they even wasted taxpayer money prosecuting this," Siegel said.

Barham said she is not confident that the police bureau's internal investigation will reach a just conclusion.

"I don't have a lot of faith in those," Barham said. "...I don't want that method of policing to be condoned."

*****

The video

Because the lights aren't on, there's little to be seen on the video that Fish recorded from inside his motor home. But there's much to be heard.

It's about 8 p.m. on Sept. 26, 2016. His motor home is parked near Southeast 122nd and Foster Road. Police had a warrant for Fish's arrest, for failing to meet with his probation officer for an oxycodone conviction and failing to complete domestic-violence counseling for a prior misdemeanor assault conviction.

Fish's recording captures Bigoni threatening to shoot Fish in three separate instances, and threatening to shoot Fish's dog in three separate instances.

The recording begins with Bigoni, the officer, saying "Get your ass out here, Chris. You've got a warrant. You're under arrest. You understand me?"

Bigoni warns: "Put your dog in or we're going to shoot the dog if it comes after me."

The dog is not barking, growling or making any audible noise during any point in the video.

Fish alerts the officers: "You guys are being recorded right now."

Bigoni responds: "That's great."

A few minutes later, Fish still hasn't come out of the trailer and says he wants time to put on his shoes and smoke a cigarette.

"Stop moving your hands around, or I'm going to shoot you!" Bigoni says.

Fish responds: "I'm not doing nothing to hurt you guys."

"Stop moving your (expletive) hands or I'm going to shoot you in your head!" Bigoni says to Fish, before addressing the other officers. "All right. That's it. Pepper. Pepper! Break that window."

A few minutes after that, Bigoni appears to be making a literary reference to a funeral bell, by stating: "Listen to the bell, Chris. It tolls for thee."

The police bureau opened its internal investigation on March 15, more than a month after the trial ended -- and on the same day The Oregonian/OregonLive asked the police bureau about the appropriateness of Officer Bigoni's words.

The news organization also asked about the veracity of the testimony of another officer -- Grigoriy Budey, who said he was holding onto Fish's arm in the darkened motor home but didn't see his colleagues punch Fish.

The next day, Police spokesman Sgt. Pete Simpson responded to the news organization's questions by saying he couldn't talk about specifics because of the internal investigation. When asked, Simpson said the bureau didn't initiate the investigation because of the news organization's questions, and he couldn't elaborate on what sparked the internal review.

"This is a case about officers who went too far -- officers who escalated a peaceful situation and made it violent," said Yates, the certified law student representing Fish. Yates attends law school at New York University and is interning for the Portland-area public defense firm Metropolitan Public Defender Services.

Deputy district attorney Victor Mercado told jurors that Fish took far too long to get dressed, lied to the police by saying they had found the wrong man and could have ended the entire incident before it got started if he just would have stepped out of the motor home in the beginning.

"His tone in the video is not the tone of someone who is scared," Mercado said. "It is the tone of someone who is flippant, cavalier, defiant."

Mercado offered no defense of Bigoni.

"Let's be clear, Officer Bigoni was unpleasant," Mercado said. "I don't think he comes off well in the video."

*****

Fish's testimony

Fish testified that nearly from the start, Bigoni took a "super aggressive" approach. Fish said he didn't want to step out of the motor home and told the officers they had the wrong man because he feared for his life.

"He (Bigoni) instantly said he was going to pepper spray me. And started making threats. Said he was going to tase me or pepper spray me," Fish said. "I was nervous. I had anxiety and shock."

Asked Yates, the certified law student:

"When the officer threatened to shoot you, did you take his threat seriously?"

Answered Fish: "100 percent. ...I could hear it in his voice. You know when someone's sincere. ...If they mean it, you can feel it."

Fish said when police burst in, he dropped to his knees and put his hands behind his back. Police testified, to the contrary, that Fish flailed about and resisted their attempts to handcuff him -- forcing officers Bigoni and Royce Curtiss to have to punch him in the face seven to nine times.

"Hands down, it's the worst pain I've ever gone through," Fish said.

Once in a patrol car, officers wouldn't bring him to the hospital, Fish said, so he lied by saying he swallowed a baggie of heroin -- knowing they would have to bring him to a doctor. Medical staff scanned Fish and found no heroin baggie, but they did treat him for his broken facial bones.

Fish said physically, he still aches. But he hurts psychologically, too.

"I still take PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) medicine," Fish said. "I still get nightmares. And I don't trust cops."

*****

Police testimony

Jurors who spoke to The Oregonian/OregonLive said the inconsistencies between the officers' testimony was obvious.

Curtiss, the first officer to testify, said he didn't recall Bigoni threatening to shoot Fish or his dog. Curtiss said he only remembers that Bigoni made some sort of threats.

Bigoni -- who was the second officer to testify and was caught on the video recording making the threats -- admitted he'd threatened to shoot Fish and his dog. But upon questioning by the defense, Bigoni said he didn't mention those threats in his police report or tell his supervising officer because he didn't think he had to.

"Purely verbal actions on my part do not constitute a use of force," Bigoni said.

Budey, the third officer to testify, didn't mention anything about Fish being punched by his colleagues during direct examination by the prosecutor. On cross-examination by the defense, Budey said he hadn't seen any punches thrown by the officers while he maintained his grip on Fish's arm -- Budey's head no more than a foot or two away from Fish's face.

Budey said it was too dark to see, but he was able to describe in detail other actions of the officers -- including that Fish was "body slamming" the other officers; that one of his fellow officers lost hold of Fish's left arm and that Budey helped by grabbing it; and that another officer was able to wrench back Fish's right arm so it could be handcuffed.

Photos police took of Fish shortly after they pulled him from his camper show his badly bruised and swollen face -- a stream of blood running from a gash on the bridge of his nose.

Simpson, the police spokesman, said that while the internal investigation is ongoing, the three officers -- Bigoni, Budey and Curtiss -- remain on patrol duty.

The Multnomah County District Attorney's Office also is investigating the case in light of questions from The Oregonian/OregonLive. Jenna Plank, the deputy district attorney who oversees the misdemeanor trial unit, said she couldn't answer specific questions because of the bureau's internal investigation.

[Andrea]

New Recording Paints Damning Picture of Cops Who Shot Charles Kinsey

http://www.miaminewtimes.com/news/charles-kinsey-was-shot-after-a-north-miami-cop-called-halt-it-is-a-toy-9254204

Moments before North Miami police officer Jonathan Aledda shot unarmed behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey this past July 18, another cop on the scene warned there was no gun, only a toy.

After the shooting, an assistant chief repeatedly lied to the chief, and the city manager Larry Spring ignored vital evidence.

Moreover, the crime scene was mismanaged, and the police department and city government were in disarray and plagued by infighting

Those are among the stunning revelations in an hour-long audio recording of North Miami Police Chief Gary Eugene's interview with Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigators, which was obtained by New Times Tuesday.

The shooting in the leg of Kinsey, who was caring for an autistic man, became a national flashpoint in the Black Lives Matter movement thanks to cell phone footage that showed him with his arms in the air, lying on the ground and begging police not to shoot just before he was hit.

The revelations in Eugene's interview raise a burning question: Eight months after the shooting and four months after state investigators closed their probe, why has Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez Rundle still not charged anyone involved?

"We are very close to coming to a decision," says Ed Griffith, a spokesperson for Rundle's office.

"It's pretty damning, what’s in that tape," says Michael Joseph, an attorney representing Emile Hollant, a North Miami Police commander suspended after the shooting who is suing the city over his discipline. "The police chief outlines rogue officers in that department and other rogue officials. Something has to be done about this. The city has to do the right thing here and clean house."

After the shooting, union officials justified Aledda's actions by saying he thought the autistic man with Kinsey had a gun — not a toy truck. But Eugene's interview with FDLE directly contradicts that claim. (On Tuesday, North Miami police public information officer declined comment on behalf of the city manager, Spring.)

"I heard the shooter, Officer Aledda, make a statement to the nature of, 'Be advised, I have clear shot [at] subject,'" Eugene says, describing the audio of the police radio just before the shooting. "Later on, a sergeant ... got on the air and said, 'I have a visual, it is a toy. Is it a toy? QRX.' That means, 'Stand by, don't do anything.' Then there is a conversation back and forth. The next transmission was by [another officer saying] 'Shot fired!'"

Eugene's description comes in an hour-long interview that centers on the bizarre aftermath of the case. He doesn't pull punches about the state of the department. Eugene, a veteran City of Miami cop who had been sworn in as chief only six days before the Kinsey shooting, says training was lax and infighting rampant.

"The scene was a mess, to be honest with you," he tells investigators of the Kinsey shooting. "People were walking all over the place. Thank God [Kinsey] did not die. I realized I have a problem with the training of my staff. We're talking about some 15 or 16-year veterans, but in North Miami, a 15 or 16-year veteran may have less experience than a two-year cop in Miami."

Fights in the department were so bad, Eugene said, that he worried his own cops wouldn't even be willing to protect each other, much less the community.

"I'm afraid one of them will get shot for God's sake, and someone will call for backup and they'll say, 'I'm not going,' just to tell you how much the animosity is," he said.

Much of Eugene's interview centers around the suspension of Hollant, a commander who was present at the shooting. The chief paints a dark picture of department infighting, collusion, and incompetence on the part of city officials.

Three days after Kinsey's shooting, North Miami city officials held a press conference announcing that, in addition to Aledda, they had suspended Hollant. In fact, they were suspending Hollant without pay, while Aledda would be on paid leave. Why? According to City Manager Larry Spring, Hollant had lied to Eugene at the scene by telling him he hadn't witnessed the shooting; in fact, Spring claimed, audio showed the Hollant was there.

But Eugene tells a very different story in his interview. He says that Hollant was actually suspended as part of a plot by Assistant Chief Larry Juriga, who had an ongoing feud with Hollant.

Eugene says the trouble started on July 21, three days after the shooting. That's when Juriga came to his office to tell him that Hollant had lied. Juriga said that "we found out he had a radio transmission that (Hollant) actually gave the order, that he made a statement that caused the shooter to open fire," Eugene said. "I was fuming when I heard that ... I made a comment, 'Fuck ... I'm going to suspend him.'"

Eugene says he immediately went to Spring and City Attorney Jeff Cazeau and filled them in. They all agreed to suspend Hollant. But on the drive home, Eugene had second thoughts. He recalled that Juriga and Hollant didn't get along, and decided to listen to the audio from the shooting himself. That's when he says he realized Juriga had lied.

The audio tape, indeed, showed Hollant had warned that the autistic man was loading a gun. But that warning didn't spark Aledda to shoot. In fact, several moments pass until another sergeant on the scene warns that the man is only holding a toy. Only after that warning did the shooting take place, contends Eugene, who could not be reached for comment Tuesday.

"I heard the sergeant, who advised earlier that it was a toy, say, 'Hold fire! Hold fire! It was a toy,' trying to stop whoever was doing the shooting," Eugene says. "I said, 'Oh lord.'"

The next morning, Eugene says, he went to Spring's office with the tape to ask the city manager not to suspend Hollant after all. But he says the city manager refused to listen to the audio or to the chief's warnings.

"I said, 'City manager, I'm telling you, listen to this CD and make a decision based on this CD,'" Eugene says. "[Spring] slapped his hand on the desk and said, 'You don't understand what I'm telling you. Get control of your people!'"

Eugene says he nearly quit on the spot. "To be honest, I came close, I nearly let him know that I was about to resign," Eugene says.

Instead, he reviewed department rules and realized that Spring could suspend Hollant on his own. So, the chief says, he backed off and let the city manager do as he pleased. But Eugene says he was so disturbed by Jiruga's conduct that he moved him from his post leading investigations to another position heading up city code enforcement.

That wasn't the only disturbing thing he learned. Eugene says he soon found out that before Hollant had been suspended, the commander in charge of the scene during the shooting had tried to intimate him into changing his story. That commander urged Hollant to say he had seen the shooting and that the autistic man did seem to be loading a gun. "He talked to Emile prior to the suspension and told him ... '[By] not saying you saw the guy loading the gun, do you realize that information could have helped my officer?' They were more concerned about clearing the officer of any wrongdoing than actually getting any impartial investigation."

Eugene says the whole incident was a wake-up call to him about bad training in the department. He reiterated that the Kinsey crime scene was one of the worst-managed he'd ever seen. "The scene wasn't well prepared. There was no inner perimeter, no outer perimeter, no media staging area, nothing," he says. When he got to the scene, no one briefed him about what had occurred.

Joseph says the police recording shows his client, Hollant, was wronged by the city manager. Hollant was cleared by the Miami-Dade State Attorney's office, which found that he didn't mislead anyone at the scene. But he remains on paid suspension as the department finishes its own investigation of the case.

"I would say this brings a lot of light on how the city manager and city attorney dealt with the situation. This was political, about PR, rather than finding out what happened," Joseph says. "The chief is in a very precarious spot. There’s some bad apples there. And he knows my client was done wrong. He's caught in the middle."

[Andrea]

Texas cop fatally shoots teen outside house party

http://www.cnn.com/2017/05/02/us/texas-cop-kills-teen-trnd/index.html

A police officer in a Dallas, Texas, suburb fatally shot a 15-year-old boy outside a high school house party Saturday night. The police department admitted on Monday that it initially released incorrect information about the shooting.

Officers broke up the house party in response to reports of under-aged drinking. One officer then fired a rifle into a vehicle as it was driving away from the party, fatally injuring the front-seat passenger, according to the Balch Springs Police Department.

Jordan Edwards died from a fatal rifle wound to the head, according to the Dallas County Medical Examiner's Office. The freshman Mesquite High School student-athlete's death was ruled a homicide.

Balch Springs Police Chief Jonathan Haber told reporters Monday he "misspoke" earlier when he said the car was driving "aggressively" toward the two officers.

Haber said body camera footage of the incident showed the car was driving forward, away from the officers, not reversing toward them as he originally reported.

"I take responsibility for that," Haber said.

The officer's behavior "did not meet our core values," Haber said.

Police were looking for the owners of the house when shots were allegedly heard in the area, creating chaos right before Jordan was shot, according to Balch Springs Police Public Information Officer Oscar Gonzalez.

Haber declined to confirm whether any shots were confirmed to have been fired or whether the boys in the car were armed, citing the ongoing investigation.

The officer fired three shots into the car, Edwards family lawyer Lee Merritt told CNN based on eyewitness accounts from the other boys in the car.

Jordan's 16-year-old brother and their three friends were detained at the scene and taken away from Jordan's wounded body to the Dallas County Sheriff's Department, where they were eventually interviewed as witnesses. The boys were not arrested or charged, according to Merritt.

Jordan was transported to Baylor University hospital where he later succumbed to his injuries, according to a BSPD press release.

The Dallas County Sheriff's Department is conducting a criminal investigation into the shooting in tandem with the Public Integrity Unit from the Dallas County District Attorney's Office. Officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the investigation.

The 6-year veteran of the Balch Springs police force who fired the fatal shot was placed on administrative leave, but has not been charged or arrested. His identity is not being released at this time, Haber said.

The officer had no similar prior incidents, Haber said, and BSPD is conducting a separate internal administrative review of the incident.

"The Balch Springs Police Department, regardless of how this whole thing turns out, we are here to serve this community," Haber said.

Haber met with Jordan's parents twice since his death, expressing condolences on behalf of the department and the city.

The Edwards family's lawyer will meet with the investigating parties this week on their behalf.

"We are declaring war on bad policing," Merritt said in a press conference held on behalf of the family Monday. "America throughout the country must figure out a way to police its citizens without killing them."

Jordan's family has not spoken publicly, wishing to grieve privately until after the funeral, Merritt told CNN. They saw Jordan's body for the first time late Monday night, he said.

Jordan will be remembered for his smile, those that knew him told reporters. Grief counselors were made available at Mesquite High School, because Edwards was such a well-known, well-liked member of the community, Merritt said.

"The entire district -- especially the staff and students of Mesquite High School -- are mourning this terrible loss," a Mesquite High School press release said.

A prayer vigil was held Monday night at the high school for the community. A funeral has not yet been scheduled, according to Merritt.

[Andrea]

Sheriff, 4 staff charged after inmates abused with stun guns

http://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/nation-world/national/article148886119.html

Utah's attorney general filed charges Friday against a former sheriff and four deputies in a rural county after prosecutors say inmates were stunned with a Taser in exchange for soda or as hazing when assigned to a work crew.

Former Daggett County Sheriff Jerry R. Jorgensen has been charged with three misdemeanor counts of misconduct, obstructing justice and failing to keep inmates safe. He resigned last month as state officials investigated allegations of inmate abuse.

According to the charges, former deputy Joshua J. Cox threatened inmates with his personal Taser in 2015 and 2016.

On one occasion in August 2016, Cox promised five inmates a case of soda if they could endure the stun gun for five minutes.

Two months later, Cox used the Taser as an "initiation" to an inmate work crew and required one inmate to withstand the Taser in exchange for keeping his work privileges, prosecutors said.

Court records allege that between December 2016 and February 2017, Cox brought uncertified police dogs into the jail and ordered two inmates to participate in training the dogs. Cox was not a certified K9 officer and both inmates were bitten by the unleashed animals, prosecutors said.

Cox faces 11 counts, including felony aggravated assault, weapons charges and theft.

Prosecutors said the theft charge was filed because Cox's Taser was stolen from the police department where he used to work.

No telephone number or defense attorney was publicly listed for Cox. He was fired in April, according to sheriff's office spokeswoman Susie Potter.

Former Deputy Benjamin C. Lail was charged with aggravated assault for pointing a Taser at a woman's feet in a control room at the jail and saying, "OK, you're done, now get back to class."

The woman was not identified. Utah Department of Corrections spokeswoman Maria Peterson said the woman was a volunteer at the jail.

Jorgensen is accused of failing to properly supervise his jail staff and putting inmates in danger. The obstruction of justice charge stems from the former sheriff allegedly denying that he received an email from an unnamed woman detailing how Lail intimidated her by pointed a stun gun at her feet.

Deputies Logan Walker, 26, and Rodrigo Toledo, 41, are accused of being witnesses to Cox's use of the stun gun on inmates. They are charged with misdemeanor official misconduct for not stopping Cox and failing to report it after it happened.

Lail, Toledo, Walker and Jorgensen could not be reached for comment and did not have listed attorneys to speak on their behalf Friday.

Court records show the former sheriff and his four former deputies are scheduled to make their first court appearances on June 9. All five are required to turn themselves in at the Uintah County Sheriff's Office by the end of May to be fingerprinted and have their mugshots taken.

Attorney General Sean Reyes in a statement called Cox's alleged actions "unbelievably inhumane" and "a reprehensible miscarriage of justice." The attorney general said the actions of the other men were inexcusable.

Daggett County and the sheriff's office had no comment on the charges or those named in the case, according to an emailed statement from Potter late Friday.

State officials began investigating the rural eastern Utah jail earlier this year after Jorgensen reported possible mistreatment of inmates.

The jail, near Flaming Gorge National Recreation Area in the small town of Manila on the Wyoming border, has been empty since February, when Utah's Corrections Department learned of the allegations and removed 80 inmates, all male, to other jails or prisons.

About 15 of those inmates have now been paroled or discharged, according to Peterson.

Utah Corrections Executive Director Rollin Cook said in a statement Friday that inmates would not be returned to Daggett County until state officials have confidence in new leaders and security at the jail.

[Andrea]

Betty Shelby Found Not Guilty in Shooting Death of Unarmed Black Motorist Terence Crutcher

http://www.theroot.com/betty-shelby-found-not-guilty-in-shooting-death-of-unar-1795320493

The jury in the trial of Tulsa, Okla., Police Officer Betty Shelby deliberated for nine hours Wednesday before finding her not guilty of manslaughter in the shooting death of unarmed black motorist Terence Crutcher.

KTUL reports that the Crutcher family is expected to address the media with the district attorney after a brief meeting.

Crutcher’s twin sister, Tiffany Crutcher, announced that the verdict had been reached just after 9 p.m. Central.

Just hours into the deliberations, defense attorney Shannon McMurray requested a mistrial, alleging prosecutorial misconduct, but the judge denied the request.

The jurors sent the judge a note asking if they could make a statement when they delivered the verdict, but the judge said no and advised them that they were free to discuss the case after the trial.

The case was handed to the jury around noon Wednesday after both the defense and prosecution made closing statements.

As previously reported on The Root, Shelby, 43, was charged with first-degree felony manslaughter in the September 2016 fatal shooting of Crutcher on a Tulsa highway after his car broke down.

Video of the shooting showed Crutcher raising his hands as he walked to his vehicle, and in the audio, you can hear the pilot of a helicopter overhead stating that Crutcher looked like a “bad dude.” Earlier this week, Shelby stated that it was the scariest moment of her life and that she was filled with fear. Tulsa police said that Crutcher was not complying with their demands when he was shot, but the video seemed to show a totally different story.

Shelby took the stand in her own defense in the weeklong trial, testifying that her training led her to shoot Crutcher because she believed that he was reaching for a weapon through a partially open window in his vehicle.

Shelby has routinely denied that race was a factor in her response to the encounter, blaming Crutcher’s actions and saying that he seemed to be high on drugs and did not respond to police commands as he walked toward his vehicle.

Prosecutors countered that drug use and ignoring commands were no reason for an officer to use deadly force against a civilian.

We all saw that shooting on video, and we all saw that man walking with his hands up, his back to Shelby.

We all saw her shoot and kill him on camera.

He was not a threat to her.

This is more injustice.

This. Must. Stop.