Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

Westlake cop accused of punching, choking man during interrogation, new court filing says

http://www.cleveland.com/court-justice/index.ssf/2016/01/westlake_cop_accused_of_punchi.html

According to the filing:

Toth and another officer went to T.A.'s apartment building in Cleveland on April 24, 2014. The officers wanted to talk to T.A. about a guns and firearms investigation, and he took the officers to another unit because his girlfriend was sleeping.

T.A. sat down and Toth, who was standing, started interrogating him. Getting angry because he wasn't getting the answers that he wanted, Toth punched T.A. in the face, threw him ground and kicked him in the ribs.

He then handcuffed T.A. and took him suspect to his SUV and and restrained him with a seat belt. As he drove, Toth continued to question T.A. and got even more agitated when he didn't hear what he wanted.

Toth told T.A. that he was going to take him to cemetery and put him in the ground. He also said he would kill T.A.'s dog.

Toth then drove T.A. to a cemetery in Rocky River and wrapped a seat belt around his neck.

As a result, T.A. had open wounds in his mouth, bruises on his face and body and scratches on his neck.

[Andrea]

Grand jury indicts officer accused of fatally shooting unarmed naked man

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/grand-jury-indicts-officer-accused-fatally-shootin/np9L4/

A DeKalb County grand jury has indicted the officer who shot and killed an unarmed naked man.

DeKalb County District Attorney Robert James presented his case to a grand jury Thursday seeking criminal charges against veteran DeKalb County Police Officer Robert Olsen.

Olsen shot and killed Anthony Hill, 27, in March claiming that Hill made an aggressive lunge toward him after responding to a call that a man was running around an apartment complex naked.

[Andrea]

Inmate Dies in Durham County Jail After Medical Neglect by Detention Staff

http://amplifyvoices.com/2016/01/21/inmate-dies-in-durham-county-jail-after-medical-neglect-by-detention-staff/

Sheriff’s Department Remains Silent About Death

Durham, NC – A man incarcerated in the Durham County Detention Facility died in his cell on Tuesday, January 19 at approximately 5:30 am. The sheriff’s office has not made this death known to the public. According to those who were incarcerated with the man, his name is Matthew McCain. Eyewitnesses have reported that other inmates in Pod 3D were aware of McCain’s physical distress and pressed the emergency buttons in their cells several times, but their calls for help were ignored by Officer Boria, the detention officer on duty in Pod 3D that morning. McCain was not given medical attention and died as a result. His body remained in the cell for two hours until the coroner arrived at approximately 7:40 am.

Inmates have reported that Officer Boria has ignored emergency call buttons in the past. While Boria bears responsibility in McCain’s death, this tragedy occurred within a widespread system of abuse in the Durham County Jail. Inside-Outside Alliance has heard many reports over the past few years which point to rampant medical neglect inside the jail, with prisoners routinely being denied care, including basic medical procedures and prescription medications. Inside-Outside Alliance has been forced, on several occasions, to publicly pressure Sheriff Andrews and his staff so that inmates can receive basic medical procedures. Detainees pay $20 for every medical visit, which is four times as much as a medical visit in a state prison. Medical care inside the jail is provided by Correct Care Solutions, a private healthcare corporation that is currently being sued in connection with the death of a Forsyth County inmate.

As of the writing of this release, Sheriff Andrews has not released any information to the public about this criminally negligent homicide committed by his staff. In recent months, public pressure has been mounting for more transparency at the jail and for a community-based investigation into human rights abuses occurring there. Sheriff Andrews has insisted that inmates’ health and safety in detention is his highest priority. Yet not only has he kept Matthew McCain’s death a secret, but he has deliberately misled the public, listing McCain as “out of custody” due to “general release” on the jail’s website. Even as McCain’s body was lying dead on the floor of the Durham County jail, Sheriff Andrews and his staff appear to have been plotting to make it look as though he had simply been released. This is unacceptable and must be challenged by the public and the press.

Finally, it is important to note that this act of violence has taken place amid a nationwide onslaught of police murders and jail deaths in a country marked by a deep history of racist state violence. The same structure that killed Sandra Bland and LaQuan McDonald has taken yet another life in the Durham County Jail, and just as lynch mobs used to leave their victims’ bodies exposed as a mechanism of terror, Durham detention staff left another body where it lay for over two hours.

UPDATE: This post has been updated with Matthew McCain’s name in the hopes that his friends, family, and all those who knew him might be able to join in demanding justice for his death.

[Andrea]

Animal cruelty charge sought in police killing of cat

http://www.lehighvalleylive.com/northampton-county/index.ssf/2015/12/animal_cruelty_charge_sought_i.html

A Northampton County resident whose cat was killed by police wants the officer fired and charged criminally, the resident's attorney said Monday.

The nearly 6-year-old cat, Sugar, escaped Dec. 6 from the North Catasauqua home of Tom Newhart and wandered several houses away to the home of Mike Lienert, said Newhart's attorney, Jenna Fliszar. Unable to catch the cat and concerned she may be injured, Lienert called police.

Borough police officer Leighton Pursell responded, and his actions will be the subject of an investigation, borough solicitor Steve Goudsouzian said Monday. North Catasauqua Borough Council next meets Jan. 4, when it will determine what kind of investigation is warranted and who should conduct it, he said.

[Andrea]

Oakland: Body camera shows man screamed "I can't breathe" before death

http://www.contracostatimes.com/breaking-news/ci_29435600/oakland-body-camera-shows-man-screamed-i-cant

The video -- never released by police -- shows officers ignoring Jaramillo's pleas for help and continuing to restrain him, a tactic associated with in-custody deaths and sharply criticized after the 2014 death of Eric Garner in New York. Garner's family settled a lawsuit last year for $5.9 million.

It raises questions about how Jaramillo -- who was never a suspect and has no criminal record in Alameda County -- ended up bloody, unconscious and eventually dead.

[Andrea]

Athens woman sues Athens-Clarke County, Clarke sheriff over son's jailhouse death

http://onlineathens.com/mobile/2016-01-25/athens-woman-sues-athens-clarke-county-clarke-sheriff-over-sons-jailhouse-death

An Athens woman has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Athens-Clarke County, Sheriff Ira Edwards and several of his deputies for the death of her son at the Clarke County Jail in 2013.

Tiffany Cooper alleges in the lawsuit that jail officials repeatedly ignored requests by her 22-year-old son to be taken to the infirmary for chest pain, shortness of breath, dizziness and other symptoms he was experiencing prior to being found dead in his cell.

An autopsy found no signs of foul play in the death of Marcus Sanchez Cooper, or any drugs or alcohol in his system, and indicated he died of “possible arrhythmia,” according to the lawsuit.

The county and sheriff were aware of at least two previous cases of prisoners dying after being denied medical attention for cardiac-related complaints, yet still failed to provide adequate medical care for prisoners at the jail, the lawsuit alleges.

“The failure to properly train and supervise jail personnel in the proper procedures in dealing with medical complaints show a deliberate and conscious indifference...to the constitutionally mandated requirement that incarcerated individuals receive appropriate medical case,” the lawsuit states.

At the time of his death, Cooper was in jail because he was arrested for a non-violent probation violation, having tested positive for marijuana. On the evening of Dec. 19, 2013, he “continuously pled with the on duty deputy sheriff/prison guards to be taken to the Athens-Clarke County Jail infirmary located at the jail,” the lawsuit states. “The guards refused to honor Cooper’s requests.”

Those requests allegedly were witnessed by several other prisoners, as they were made by Cooper to deputies Michael Davis and Richard Lowery, who are personally named as defendants in the lawsuit, as well as unknown deputies who are identified in the lawsuit as John Does 1-10.

“All such requests for a visit to the jail infirmary made by Cooper...were ignored by all the aforementioned guards,” the lawsuit alleges.

After Cooper returned to his cell from having breakfast at about 10:30 a.m. on Dec. 21, 2013, Cooper was seen lying on his bed in the same position and unmoving, the lawsuit states. While dinner was being served some seven hours later, at 5:30, several prisoners asked Davis to check on Cooper, but the deputy “refused to at first.”
Cooper’s cell mate then “proceeded to go into the cell to wake up Cooper and found Cooper to be unresponsive, cold and stiff,” the lawsuit states. The cell mate then alerted the deputy, and “only at that time did Prison Guard Michael Davis proceed to check on Cooper,” according to the lawsuit.

The jail nurse who responded to the cell determined Cooper, based on rigor mortis, had been dead for six to eight hours, the lawsuit states.

During a subsequent coroner’s inquest, the nurse testified she was not aware of Cooper’s complaints that he was feeling ill, which “lends credence to the fact that Cooper’s request for medical intervention went ignored by the guards,” the lawsuit alleges.

“Over a period of two days prior to his death, Cooper complained to guards in front of witnesses that he was having chest pains, shortness of breath and symptoms that would justify a trip to the jail infirmary at the very least,” the lawsuit states.

[Andrea]

Family says dad who died at Durham County Jail was ‘neglected’

http://wncn.com/2016/01/26/family-says-dad-who-died-at-durham-county-jail-was-neglected/

Canady said McCain, age 29, complained from jail he wasn’t getting necessary medication to treat his diabetes and epilepsy.