Deaths and Injuries in Police Custody

[Andrea]

Dead, beaten and abused: Millions paid in secret settlements to keep bad cops on the street and the public in danger

https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/investigations/watchdog/shield/2018/01/22/nj-police-brutality-cases-secret-settlements/109479668/

Piercing the shield

New Jersey governments across the state, from the smallest towns to some of the largest cities, have spent more than $42 million this decade to cover-up deaths, physical abuses and sexual misconduct at the hands of bad cops.

The abuse of police power has left a staggering toll: at least 19 dead; 131 injured; 7 sexual misconducts, plus dozens of other offenses ranging from false arrest to harassment, a two-year investigation by the Asbury Park Press found.

The damage is concealed by government officials who use a veil of secret settlements and nondisclosure agreements to silence victims. Investigations of rogue cops are routinely hidden from the public by police, elected officials and even the courts.

The secretive payouts that keep abuses quiet are a vital part of a system that enables bad cops to do their worst. The secrecy starts at the police department and rises through the highest levels of government. Some of the state's largest cities and insurance carriers refused to release government documents that are at the core of the rogue cop problem.

But the tens of millions of dollars paid to settle hundreds of legal claims are not the worst part.

Many of the bad cops remain on the street.

The Press investigation found that several towns knew of their bad cops' propensity towards violence yet ignored multiple warning signs until the cops crossed the line by injuring or killing innocent people.

In February 2016, Khan was arrested on charges of punching his brother-in-law in the face, causing “serious facial injuries and a possible fractured” eye socket and jaw, and threatening to shoot him, a police report stated.

Khan brushed off the criminal charges as a grand jury dismissed the claims. His only punishment: a 40-day police department suspension. After that, the officer returned to the streets, armed with a weapon and the full force of the law.

Khan’s suspension didn't prevent more violence. During a car chase that could have been a scene from an action movie, Khan shot at a suspect fleeing in a vehicle and then pursued the car through the streets of Jersey City, according to criminal charges filed against him.

The June 4, 2017, chase ended tragically for Miguel Feliz, 28, an innocent victim caught in the mayhem.

The father of a 6-year-old was driving home from his Peapod grocery delivery job when the suspect ran Feliz's aging Toyota off the road. The car burst into flames after slamming into a utility pole.

With his clothing on fire and choking on the acrid smoke, Feliz needed help from the police.

He got Khan.

Khan and another officer kicked Feliz as he laid burning on the ground. Feliz was struck in the face, a cellphone video shot by a passerby showed. Months later, both officers were indicted on aggravated assault charges. The officers have pleaded not guilty.

“I thought they were there to help,” Feliz said weeks after the incident, healing from four broken ribs – inflicted by police, he says – and multiple burns.

"But obviously not."

Miguel Feliz struggled to extinguish his burning flesh after a car crash in Jersey City June 4, 2017. He needed help from the police. Instead he was kicked. Andrew Ford

In another state, Khan's first arrest would likely have been his last day as a police officer. In Florida, conduct involving an assault can cost a police officer’s license to enforce the law, even if they're not criminally prosecuted.

But not in New Jersey.

From internal affairs to the courthouse, a weave of secret investigations, quiet payouts, nondisclosure agreements and court-enforced silence ends up keeping horrendous conduct and multi-million-dollar payouts away from public scrutiny.

Rogue cops are a fraction of the 33,000 officers who protect the public each day. But bad cops remain on the street because of one number: 466. That is the number of municipal police departments in the state, most with 23 or fewer officers, and some employing multiple family members.

Each of the 466 departments has a unique political culture and an internal affairs system that is rarely overseen by outsiders – unless the police chief believes an officer might have committed a crime.

New Jersey is one of six states that doesn’t officially license police officers or have a method to ban bad cops, much the way the government can disbar wayward lawyers or pull the licenses of intoxicated truck drivers. The other states without a police licensing revocation law are New York, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California and Hawaii.

Of at least 64,353 internal affairs complaints filed since 2011, less than one half of 1 percent – 226 – resulted in an officer being charged with a crime, the Press found. Of those defendants, 90 were convicted.

"There's just people out there that don't belong on the job. Fortunately, the numbers are few," said former Burlington Township police director Walter J. Corter, who also served as head of investigations for the Burlington County prosecutor's office.

To expose the problems with New Jersey's system for police accountability, the Press reviewed more than 30,000 pages of court, police and legal documents, settlements and once-secret separation agreements obtained by the Press, and interviewed dozens of victims, experts, lawyers and police officers.

The team found holes, conflicts and inconsistencies in police oversight that empowered problem cops in some departments to escalate their behavior until it became criminal, even deadly.

Consider:

A cop with domestic dispute history kills his ex-wife — Neptune Police Sgt. Philip Seidle has an internal affairs record that tops 600 pages and spans two decades, with several complaints known to involve domestic disputes between him and his wife. He was considered enough of a risk to the public that his service weapon was taken from him, but he was later rearmed. He used that gun to fatally shoot his ex-wife in 2015 in the middle of an Asbury Park street, in front of their 7-year-old daughter. He's serving a 30-year prison sentence.

A well-known violent cop beats a suspect on camera — Bloomfield police officer Orlando Trinidad was known in the department for using force to subdue suspects, accounting for nearly a third of the so-called “use-of-force” police reports in the 120-member department. After nearly ripping the ear off a handcuffed suspect inside the police station in 2013, a lawsuit claims, Trinidad then looked directly into the surveillance camera to seemingly mock the ensuing internal affairs review by saying, “IA.” The suit settled for $364,000 without any admission of fault. He was sentenced to five years in prison for lying on a police report in a separate incident.

A lack of oversight — Now-retired Bordentown Township Police Chief Frank Nucera Jr. was charged by federal agents in November 2017 with assaulting a black man and repeatedly making violent and racist remarks. The need for outside intervention by the FBI underscores the limited oversight of New Jersey's hundreds of police chiefs. His lawyer didn't return a message seeking comment. Nucera retired in January 2017, after the alleged assault but before the indictment. He is awaiting trial. Upon leaving, Nucera was paid $54,002, including compensation for unused sick and vacation days.

Repeated beatings claims, department inaction — Alleged beatings by Atlantic City police officer Andrew Jaques prompted at least two lawsuits. The city refused to provide the Press with the settlement amounts. But the case raised the ire of a federal judge in one decision who called Jaques "short-fused" and "volatile." He retired on disability in August, at an annual salary of $101,620, the Press found. Another city officer, Sterling Wheaten, has been the subject of at least 15 internal affairs complaints and the city paying $4.5 million to settle five lawsuits, according to media reports. No admission of wrongdoing was made in the settlements and Wheaten remains on the force at a salary of $108,548.

The $1.8 million cop — Battling a problem cop can be extraordinarily expensive. Taxpayers spent at least $1.8 million in a 9-year effort to fire Manuel Avila, a Paterson patrolman with a history of mental health trouble accused of sexual assault but acquitted at trial. Although not convicted of being a violent cop, the city put Avila on paid suspension that ultimately cost at least $940,000. The city also agreed to a $710,000 settlement with the woman, plus at least $92,000 in legal fees. In a settlement with the officer, the city agreed to dismiss disciplinary charges against Avila if he decided to resign. The agreement allowed him to collect $85,134 for unused sick and vacation time. He is now trying to get a $72,000 annual pension, which would include credit for six years while he was suspended.

In the Atlantic City case involving the “short-fused” Jaques, the Press found in court documents that Jaques was investigated by his uncle. Jaques remained on the force for another 10 years, leading to more lawsuits from civilians.

The quality of internal affairs reviews meant to root out rogue cops “comes down to one person — whoever is doing the investigation,” said Rich Rivera, a former West New York police officer.

For the last 20 years, Rivera has reviewed internal affairs investigations, police use-of-force reports in lawsuits and consulted with police departments. “Because the entire process is secret, we typically don’t know what the contents of the investigation were, and whether they were properly done or not,” he said.

While on the police force in the mid-1990s, Rivera worked undercover with the FBI to help put corrupt cops from his department in jail.

Internal affairs reports frequently show inadequate investigations and conclusions, Rivera said of the more than 900 IA files he has reviewed. Common problems included police investigators: failing to interview eyewitnesses; ruling a complaint “unfounded” if the investigator was unable to reach the victim; and failing to interview more than one officer, even if there were several at the scene.

“We don’t see too many consequences for bad police officers,” Rivera said. “The consequences are (for) those in the community – people being harmed, people being falsely accused of crimes, people being sent to prison who might not have been sent to prison if IA was working properly.”

Claims of abuses affected departments regardless of size, the Press’ investigation found. For example, the tiny borough of Absecon in Atlantic County, population 8,300, paid $2 million to settle a 2012 wrongful death case while Newark, population 280,000, settled a bodily injury case for $2 million.

Patrick Colligan, president of the state Police Benevolent Association that represents nearly all 33,000 police officers in the state, said he doesn’t dispute there were problem officers in the past, but today, with many cops being watched with cameras mounted on patrol cars or worn by officers, there is a constant oversight.

However, not all departments – until recently including Jersey City – use such monitoring devices.

Sub-standard police officers leave the force “close to every day in this state,” Colligan said. “Many you don't hear about, and it shows the departments are doing what they should be doing. … In 2017, there's nobody tolerating illicit or illegal activity.”

Andrea: Please click link for rest of article and graphics

[Andrea]

Dashcam Video Shows ‘Senseless’ Killing Of Iranian-American By Federal Cops, Lawyers Say

https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/dashcam-video-killing-iranian-american-federal-cops-lawyers_us_5a68b04be4b0e5630075969d?ncid=inblnkush pmg00000009

WASHINGTON ― U.S. Park Police shot and killed an unarmed American man of Iranian descent in Fairfax County, Virginia, last November. In the months since the incident, the federal government hasn’t offered any explanation as to what led unnamed federal law enforcement officers to shoot and kill 25-year-old Bijan Ghaisar. But local authorities on Wednesday released a disturbing dashcam video that sheds new light on the shooting and could put pressure on the federal government to bring charges against the agents involved.

The dashcam video shows the fatal encounter that was a culmination of a police chase of Ghaisar’s Jeep. An unidentified federal officer hops out of the passenger seat of his police vehicle and points his gun at Ghaisar’s stopped vehicle. As the officer stands near the driver’s side of the Jeep pointing his weapon, the car slowly moves forward. The officer fires once. He fires four more times. His partner comes up behind him. More shots are fired, and the vehicle abruptly stops.

Officers with the U.S. Park Police shot Ghaisar in the head four times on Nov. 17. Ghaisar, who by all accounts was unarmed and alone on George Washington Memorial Parkway, died 10 days later due to brain damage. Since then, the Ghaisar family has been seeking answers from the federal government about what happened to the football-loving young man from suburban Virginia who worked at his dad’s accounting firm and was looking forward to becoming an uncle.

“Not only did we lose Bijan, on top of it [all] but ... we have no information,” Ghaisar’s mother, Kelly, told HuffPost. “The total silence of this case makes us, our whole family, feel even worse, because we have to deal with Bijan’s loss and the way that he was taken.”

In shootings involving federal officers, like the U.S. Park Police which are under the U.S. Interior Department’s National Park Service, there’s often little information available upfront, while shootings involving local officers typically provide more.

The FBI is now investigating the case, but they initially opposed releasing the video. Federal authorities still haven’t named the two officers who killed Ghaisar, though the Interior Department has said they’re both on administrative leave. The lack of public information on the investigation has garnered criticism. The Washington Post’s editorial board criticized the dearth of information about the shooting last December, calling it “a mockery of the open society that distinguishes the United States from autocracies and dictatorships.”

But the veil of secrecy surrounding Ghaisar’s death was lifted a bit on Wednesday, when Fairfax County Chief of Police Edwin Roessler issued a press release for the dashcam video. While Fairfax officers weren’t involved in Ghaisar’s shooting, they did assist the U.S. Park Police in chasing Ghaisar’s vehicle. Roessler said he was releasing the video as a “matter of transparency to all in our community, especially the Ghaisar family.” He added he was confident in the FBI’s investigation.

U.S Park Police say they pursued Ghaisar’s vehicle after his SUV was involved in a collision on southbound George Washington Memorial Parkway at Slaters Lane in Alexandria, Virginia. Ghaisar reportedly was hit by an Uber driver in a Toyota Corolla before driving off. The Uber driver told FOX 5 that he and his passenger got Ghaisar’s license plate tag and called police. The Uber driver and his passenger did not report any injuries. The Uber driver was ticketed for failing to maintain proper control, according to the police report HuffPost obtained.

Fairfax Police later joined U.S. Park Police in their pursuit of Ghaisar, which initially began around 7:30 p.m. EST. Ghaisar is seen in the video being stopped twice by U.S. Park Police before coming to a full stop the third time at Fort Hunt and Alexandria. During the previous stops, police are seen pulling up alongside Ghaisar’s car, and drawing their weapons. Ghaisar’s family has speculated that the officer’s weapons frightened Ghaisar and caused him to drive off again.

The video “shows the senseless killing of a young man at the hands of those charged” with protecting the public, said Roy Austin Jr., an attorney for the family who previously served in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division before joining former President Barack Obama’s White House.

“Bijan Ghaisar was repeatedly threatened by over-aggressive and out-of-control law enforcement officers, after he drove away from a minor traffic incident in which he was the victim and in which there was little property damage and no known injuries,” Austin said in a Wednesday statement. “No one was even close to being in harm’s way until a pair of U.S. Park Police officers repeatedly shot Bijan at close range as he sat, unarmed, in his Jeep on a residential street. We don’t know why the U.S. Park Police officers shot Bijan multiple times, or whether those officers are still patrolling the area’s parkways. What we do know is that justice demands that those responsible for taking Bijan’s life answer for this illegal and unconstitutional killing.”

Ghaisar’s family and friends want to know how a minor fender bender escalated into a police chase that ultimately ended in the young man’s death. Ghaisar graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University in 2015 and worked for his father’s firm Caesar & Associates in McLean, Virginia. He was a member of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity.

Friends and family who knew Ghaisar described him as being very upbeat and positive and as an avid New England Patriots fan. A first-generation Iranian-American, Ghaisar and sister were born in Virginia. His parents immigrated to the United States decades ago.

“I believe that the people who shot and killed Bijan should be held accountable. Doesn’t matter if they are police officers or civilians. Once you kill someone in this heinous way, you should be held accountable and that’s what I want to see,” said Kelly Ghaisar. “This whole thing, it’s such an out of body experience ... but we are trying to cope because we want to get justice for Bijan. It’s what drives us to get out of bed and do something.”

[Andrea]

Bodycam video appears to show Chicago cop shooting at man who’s running away

Bodycam video appears to show Chicago cop shooting at man who’s running away

Police bodycam footage recently released by the Civilian Office of Police Accountability appears to show an officer opening fire at a man who was running away and down a flight of stairs.

The footage was made public late last week, 60 days after a Chicago Police officer fatally shot Aquoness Cathery, 24, in the 6100 block of South King Drive.

Police said at the time that Cathery, who lived in the Park Manor neighborhood, was armed when he was shot. After the shooting, a police spokesman tweeted a photo from the scene that showed a black handgun resting on stairs. Bodycam footage appears to show that same handgun on the stairs where Cathery was shot.

Plain-clothes officers from the Grand Crossing District responded about 2:15 p.m. on Nov. 29, 2017, to a report of shots fired the 6100 block of South King Drive, where they confronted an armed man, Chicago Police said at the time.

The released footage begins with an office hustling up a set of wooden stairs and bursting into an apartment with at least three people inside. As the officer runs into the kitchen, he sees Cathery running through the back door and out onto a shared porch area.

The video shows Cathery holding a gun in his right hand as he turns right to run down a set of stairs. As he is turning, Cathery’s right arm is pressed against the handrail to the stairs and the gun appears to be pointed in the officer’s direction. As Cathery rounds the stairs, the officer opens fire.

The officer partly blocks his bodycam as he walks down the stairs. Cathery can be seen lying on the ground, with his feet on the bottom two stairs as the officer tells him to “relax” before calling for an ambulance as someone screams in the background. As he’s on the ground, Cathery raises his hands, one of them covered in blood, and looks at the officer, who tells him “It’s OK.”

“I got one person shot,” the officer tells the dispatcher. “Shots fired by police. Shots fired by police.”

Seconds later, another officer walks down the stairs, and the officer who shot Cathery tells him, “Secure that weapon” that is on the stairs.

Cathery was pronounced dead less than 12 hours after he was shot, according to the Cook County medical examiner’s office. Court records show that in the six years before his death, Cathery was arrested several times, mostly on charges related to guns and drugs. In 2014, he was sentenced to 3 1/2 years in prison after he was charged with aggravated unlawful use of a weapon and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

COPA has not yet ruled if the shooting was justified or not and a spokeswoman for the agency declined to comment further. The officer who shot Cathery was placed on desk duty for 30 days.

[Andrea]

Deputy Caught on Camera Kicking Suspect’s Head During Arrest

http://fox40.com/2018/02/01/deputy-caught-on-camera-kicking-suspects-head-during-arrest/?utm_campaign=trueAnthem:+Trending+Content&utm_con tent=5a738f1304d3011002d0b5a1&utm_medium=trueAnthe m&utm_source=twitter

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif. - After reviewing video circulating on social media that shows a brutal arrest conducted by two sheriff's deputies in San Bernardino, officials have asked members of the public who witnessed the incident to come forward.

Authorities are concerned with the actions of one of the deputies in particular who is seen in the cellphone video repeatedly kicking the suspect in the head after the man was handcuffed and his body limp, according to KTLA.

The arrest occurred last Friday around 1 a.m., and investigators are hoping to interview motorists who were in the area at that time, the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department said in a statement.

The one-minute clip opens as one deputy has 21-year-old Gerardo Bernabe Vasquez pinned to the ground, with Vasquez's legs squirming.

Moments later, a second deputy arrives on the scene. As the second deputy begins to arrange Vasquez's hands to cuff them, the first deputy punches Vasquez twice in the head.

After Vasquez is handcuffed, the deputies each pick up one of his arms as they attempt to load him into a patrol vehicle. But Vasquez's body has gone limp, his torso and legs flopping toward the ground as his arms are raised behind his back.

The deputies drop him, and it is then that the first deputy begins to kick his face. It appears he strikes him three times, stepping on his head in the final blow.

Vasquez was eventually booked on suspicion of resisting or obstruction an officer, was cited and later released, the Sheriff's Department said. It was unclear why or how the two parties initiated contact.

The deputy seen striking Vasquez was placed on paid administrative leave, pending the results of the probe. Authorities said they would not identify the deputy while the investigation is ongoing.

Sheriff's officials said they were already investigating the incident when the video gained attention on social media, and Sheriff John McMahon said he found the "level of force" seen in the video concerning.

“I expect our employees always to remain professional when contacting the public, who we serve," McMahon said in a statement. "I can assure you that we take these matters very seriously and we will conduct a thorough and complete investigation.”

[Andrea]

Darby cops' arrest of 11-year-old girl was excessive

http://www.philly.com/philly/columnists/jenice_armstrong/darby-cops-arrest-of-11-year-old-girl-was-excessive-jenice-armstrong-20180215.html

After a call came in about a disturbance on a bus Tuesday afternoon, Darby Borough police went into action. An officer arrived on the scene in Delaware County, did some interviews, and determined that he had probable cause to make an arrest. So he handcuffed an 11-year-old girl.

Yes, you read that correctly.

A fifth grader at Chester Community Charter School, Zakiyah is small for her age. She stands about 4-feet-5 and weighs just 55 pounds. A cellphone video taken before she was taken into custody shows her sitting on a school bus. She appears calm. Still, she was cuffed with her little wrists behind her back and placed in the back of a police van.

Zakiyah (I’m not giving out her last name) was understandably terrified and told NBC10 that she thought she would never be able to see her family again.

Her mother told me Thursday she was still trying to wrap her head around the situation.

“I never thought that I had to give my 11-year-old ‘the police talk,’ ” said Jawania Browne, referring to warnings that African American parents have been giving their children for years about staying safe around police officers. “I was thinking more so my son, and he’s only 1. But as he grows up, I was thinking that I’ve got to really drill it into my son – but not my daughter. But I guess none of us are exempt.”

Authorities took Zakiyah to the Darby police station and placed her in a juvenile holding area. Zakiyah was presented with a non-traffic citation that alleges “defendant did, with the intent to cause public inconvenience or alarm, create a physically hazardous or offensive condition by actions which served no legitimate purpose to the actor.”

Mind you, this drama started because she and a schoolmate had gotten into a fight on a school bus. I don’t know what happened, and frankly I’m not all that interested. To me, what started the dispute doesn’t matter. Children fight. They’re kids.

I’m concerned about that little girl. She’s traumatized. Her attorney, Joe Montgomery, says it was “the worst day of her life.”

Zakiyah’s mother says that since being taken into custody, her daughter — who already had been in counseling for emotional issues — hasn’t been sleeping well and has had nightmares. This isn’t how elementary-age kids are supposed to be treated.

Max Tribble, a charter school spokesman, declined to release details of the incident, citing privacy concerns. He said the school, in Delaware County’s Chester Upland School District, hadn’t yet been contacted by Darby police.

I also reached out to Chief Robert Smythe at home, where he was recuperating from a bad case of the flu. He said the arresting officer had merely been following established protocol.

“I understand that it sounds harsh,” Smythe told me between coughs. “She was in custody for an assault of which we were processing her. There were wounds to the other child. I understand how it sounds, but that’s the policy.

“She was being processed because she committed an aggressive assault against another person,” Smythe continued. “We had her in custody for 57 minutes. It’s not like we put her in a cell and held her for hours. … There are police policies that we try to follow. If you are in custody, you are in handcuffs. That’s the policy.”

As for her being detained in a juvenile holding area, he said, “She just can’t walk the hallways.”

Well, what about her being put in the back of a police van?

“The officer that responded, that was his vehicle for the day,” Smythe said.

Yeah, tell that to her mom. Browne is understandably upset. She’s keeping Zakiyah home from school for now, taking her to counseling, and also considering private school options.

“I would never have thought that they would have locked up an 11-year-old child and treated her like that,” she said.

Nor would I.

[Andrea]

San Diego police points-for-arrests program under investigation

http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/public-safety/sd-me-sdpd-program-20180316-story.html

San Diego police Chief David Nisleit has launched an internal investigation into a program intended to reward officers for drug-related arrests and citations in communities near the border with Mexico.

According to a memo sent to about 90 officers within the department’s Southern Division last week, patrol officers were to receive a half a point to 2 points for the arrests or citations, with the top point-earners given the opportunity to work in specialized units for up to a month.

On Friday, Nisleit denounced the concept of the program, which he said was not authorized by the department’s top brass. He said the program was shut down before it was implemented.

“Programs like this are not in line with the values of the San Diego Police Department and something that I would ever allow,” Nisleit said during a news conference called in response to outcry in the community.

The uproar marks Nisleit’s first encounter with a Police Department controversy since he became chief earlier this month.

During a separate news conference held outside the Police Department’s downtown headquarters, about a dozen community leaders said the matter represents an opportunity for the new chief to build a strong relationship with the community.

“This is really a test of Chief Nisleit's new administration," said Andrea Renee St. Julian, vice president of the Earl B. Gilliam Bar Association. "He really needs to step up to the plate and he needs to show he is serious about attacking the attitudes that gave rise to this email, not just through words but through action."

St. Julian and other leaders demanded transparency from the Police Department and called for a separate, independent investigation into the program by the Attorney General’s Office.

They said even if the program wasn’t enacted, the idea behind it enforces the notion that there is a culture of racial bias within the department.

"We're calling on the chief to talk about how he is going to solve the problem where there is a culture in SDPD where someone felt comfortable enough to send an email to 90 officers about an unethical and unjust incentivized program … that would target people of color and minorities," said Genevieve Jones-Wright, a deputy public defender running for district attorney.

Darwin Fishman, a criminology professor at San Diego Mesa College, said the concept behind incentive programs opens the door for officers to make "unethical decisions" to meet a quota.

During his news conference, Nisleit said the idea of the program came from a “front-line supervisor with the intent of motivating our officers and focusing their efforts on drug enforcement within our community … in direct response to numerous community complaints regarding this drug activity. ”

He added: “The program was never intended to target anyone from a specific group, race or socioeconomic class.”

According to the memo sent to Southern Division officers — which was obtained by the Union-Tribune — patrol officers who received the most points for arrests or citations between March 1 and April 14 were to be given the opportunity to work in a specialized unit for two to four weeks, regardless of their tenure. The memo says the voluntary program was meant to motivate officers, increase proactive policing and help build knowledge and skills.

The memo was emailed by a sergeant to Southern Division officers — who patrol neighborhoods including San Ysidro, Otay Mesa, Egger Highlands, Palm City and Nestor — on March 9.

Nisleit said his office was made aware of the program the following day and halted it. The chief said he reviewed arrest statistics and that there was not a spike in that time period.

“All of the arrests were based on probable cause,” he added.

News of the program came to light after a police officer came forward with details in an interview with 10 News — a move community leaders said shows there is not an open-door policy within the Police Department.

Nisleit disagreed, urging officers who feel their concerns are being ignored by supervisors to reach out to him and his assistant chiefs.

“I want to hear about it,” he said.

Nisleit said his department’s internal investigation would get to the bottom of how the details of the program were shared with officers without approval. The chief said any “appropriate corrective measures” would be taken based on the results of the investigation.

[Andrea]

Week of Hell: Dozens of African Detainees Allege Serial Abuse and Hate Crimes at Notorious Private Immigration Jail

https://theintercept.com/2018/03/24/week-of-hell-dozens-of-african-detainees-allege-serial-abuse-and-hate-crimes-at-notorious-private-immigration-jail/

Late last month, roughly 80 immigrant men from Somalia, Kenya, and Sudan arrived at a remote, for-profit detention center in West Texas to await deportation. In the week that followed, the men were pepper-sprayed, beaten, threatened, taunted with racial slurs, and subjected to sexual abuse. The treatment they endured amounted to multiple violations of federal law and grave human rights abuses — and it all happened over the course of a single week. These are the findings of chilling new report by a collection of Texas-based legal advocacy groups.

The alleged abuse was so grave that advocates for the men have now filed a series of complaints with the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and local authorities calling for investigations into what happened behind the locked doors of the detention facility. According to the advocates, the U.S. attorney’s office has forwarded those complaints, which included alleged hate crimes perpetrated by detention center guards, to the FBI.

The alleged abuse was so grave that advocates for the men have now filed a series of complaints with the Department of Justice, the Department of Homeland Security, and local authorities.

The detention center in question, known as the West Texas Detention Facility, is operated by LaSalle Corrections, a for-profit outfit that, according to its website, “manages 18 facilities with a total inmate capacity of over 13,000 and leases one facility to a law enforcement agency.” The report, published Thursday, provides a jarring glimpse inside the world of privatized immigrant detention, which the Trump administration is seeking to expand. The allegations bear disturbing similarities to other abuse claims made by detainees of African descent in recent weeks.

Compiled by the Texas A&M University School of Law Immigrant Rights Clinic, the University of Texas School of Law Immigration Clinic, and RAICES, a Texas-based legal organization, the report is based on interviews with 30 Somali men who described their experiences at the West Texas Detention Facility from February 23 to March 2 of this year. The report points to consistent accounts of detention center personnel, including the warden of the facility, all of whom are contractors under U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, engaging in deeply abusive practices.

“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) takes very seriously any allegations of misconduct or unsafe conditions,” ICE spokesperson Leticia Zamarippa said in a statement to The Intercept. “ICE maintains a strict zero tolerance policy for any kind of abusive behavior and requires all staff working with the agency to adhere to this policy. All allegations are independently reviewed by ICE’s Office of Professional Responsibility. ICE has not been made aware of any allegations prior to this initial reporting from RAICES.”

The backgrounds of the men, who ranged in age from their 20s to their 50s, varied. “Some came to the U.S. as refugees when they were children. Others entered recently with visas or without status,” the report says. Some of the detainees are married to U.S. citizens and have U.S. citizen children. One of the interviewees in the report who fits that description, a man whose name was given only as Taifa, came to the U.S. at age 12. He was convicted of marijuana possession in 2002. Twelve years later, ICE came to his home and arrested him. He has been moving through immigration court and the detention system ever since.

What all of the men have in common, the report notes, is that they “were in ICE custody for the sole purpose of effectuating deportation after receiving final orders of removal.” All of the men interviewed reported having been pepper-sprayed at least once during their week in detention, while 14 others — nearly half of the interviewees — reported other types of physical abuse.

All of the men interviewed reported having been pepper-sprayed at least once during their week in detention.

Diana Tafur, a supervising attorney with RAICES who took part in the investigation, told The Intercept that for reasons of confidentiality, the full complaints detailing what the men experienced have not been made public. Tafur said the network of groups that investigated the alleged abuse were initially tipped off by family members and attorneys for the men locked inside the West Texas facility. The interviews, which were conducted last week, culminated in complaints filed with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas, the Department of Homeland Security’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties and its inspector general’s office, as well as local authorities.

“The assistant United States attorney for the Western District of Texas responded right away and they did say that they had forwarded the information to the El Paso division of the FBI,” Tafur said, adding that the “horrific abuse rose to violate various federal crimes, as well as civil violations.”

The Department of Justice did not respond to a request for comment.

One detainee, a man called Dalmar, told the legal advocates that the warden of the West Texas Detention Facility hit him in the face four times while he was in the nurse’s office. “Are you going to let this happen?” Dalmar recalled telling the medical staff, to which a staff member allegedly responded, “We didn’t see anything.” Dalmar claims he was then “placed in solitary confinement, where I was forced to lie face down on the floor with my hands handcuffed behind my back while I was kicked repeatedly in the ribs by the warden.”

“When I told him, ‘I‘ll get a lawyer to sue you,’ the warden responded, ‘We’ve got enough money,’” Dalmar claimed.

According to the LaSalle Corrections website, Mike Sheppard, a veteran corrections officer, has overseen the West Texas Detention Facility as warden since 2015.

The Intercept reached out to the West Texas Detention Facility looking to speak to an official who could comment on the report. A receptionist at the facility said, “Technically we’re not supposed to give out that information or we can’t give out that information.” When asked what specific categories of information the facility couldn’t give out, the receptionist replied, “Any information.” The receptionist then provided a number for LaSalle’s corporate office. The number connected to a voicemail box that had not been set up. The Intercept also called LaSalle’s Austin office. A receptionist there said an official with the company would or would not respond with comment later in the day. The company ultimately did not respond.

Under ICE’s 2000 National Detention Standards, as Thursday’s report notes, contractors working with the immigration enforcement agency are permitted to use force “only after all reasonable efforts to resolve a situation have failed. Staff must attempt to gain a detainee’s willing cooperation before using force, and under no circumstances should force be used to punish a detainee. Yet numerous detainees reported excessive use of force as punishment, without cause, and as the initial action taken in a situation.”

The complaints in the report shed light on the lack of enforcement options available under the standards and ICE’s unwillingness to ask private contractors “for strict adherence” to them, said Elissa Steglich, a professor at the University of Texas Law School’s immigration clinic. “These are contractual arrangements with private corporations, and we’ve seen ICE defer to their private interests,” she said.

The men interviewed for the report independently describe witnessing or being subjected to physical force that included multiple accounts of officers throwing detainees to the floor and, in one case, slamming a man’s head against the concrete “even though he did not resist.” The report adds: “One of the detainees, Sharmaarke, alleged that LaSalle corrections officers sexually assaulted him by fondling his penis and groin area over his clothes while he was pushed against the wall.”

“This happened to him multiple times,” the report claims.

In addition to the physical abuse, the detainees who had been through the West Texas facility described use of solitary confinement — what the government euphemistically refers to as “administrative segregation” — that appears inconsistent with the guidelines ICE contractors are required to abide by.

Under those rules, a committee at the facility is required to hold a hearing and issue a formal order before a detainee is removed from the general population. “None of the detainees we talked to who were placed in solitary confinement were provided copies of their segregation orders, found guilty of committing a prohibited act at a hearing, or posed a threat,” the report notes.

Instead, the report suggests a pattern of detainees being thrown into solitary for arbitrary or vindictive reasons, including asking for socks and underwear, talking too loudly to the warden, and asking to be sent back to Somalia.
MESA, AZ - OCTOBER 15: An Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), charter jet is pushed back for departure on October 15, 2015 in Mesa, Ariz. The plane, carrying undocumented immigrants, flew to other states for follow-on ICE deportation flights to the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America. ICE builds deportation cases against thousands of undocumented immigrants. The number of ICE detentions and deportations has dropped in the last two years since some states adopted laws limiting how state law enforcement agencies cooperate with federal immigration authorities.

Thursday’s report comes just weeks after an Intercept story on strikingly similar complaints made by a group of Somali detainees at an immigration detention center 1,800 miles away from western Texas — the Glades County Detention Center in Florida. Since December, dozens of Somalis who were on a botched deportation flight that was returned to Miami have been in detention, several of them accusing guards at the detention facility of violent assaults and racism. (ICE has denied the allegations.)

Detainees in Texas reported being pepper-sprayed on multiple occasions, leading, in some cases, to difficulty breathing and coughing up blood; being placed in solitary confinement as a form of punishment, including after being pepper-sprayed; and being the subject of racial epithets from guards at the detention facility. Similarly, some detainees at Glades reported that guards used pepper spray against them as a form of punishment, including by spraying into a crowded cell, making it difficult to breathe. The Glades detainees also said that they were sent to segregation units after making complaints and that they had experienced racism at the jail. “They called them ‘niggers.’ They called them ‘boy.’ They’ve said things like, ‘We’re sending you boys back to the jungle,’” Lisa Lehner, one of the attorneys representing the Glades detainees, told The Intercept last month.

At the West Texas facility, detainees similarly reported guards using racist language when addressing them. “Shut your black ass up. You don’t deserve nothing. You belong at the back of that cage,” one detainee recalled an officer saying. “Boy, I’m going to show you. You’re my bitch,” recalled another. “You are a terrorist,” said a third.

“The pattern and practice of abuses LaSalle corrections officers engaged against the group of African detainees over the course of a week amounts to hate crimes, conspiracy against rights, and a deprivation of rights under color of law,” says the report. “The officers used epithets (‘terrorist’ and ‘boy’ and ‘n*’) in combination with beatings, broad and indiscriminate use of pepper spray, and routine and arbitrary use of segregation and other violations to demean and injure the men.”

By congressional mandate, ICE is required to meet a quota of 34,000 beds filled each day. The Trump administration has sought to increase that number to 51,000. Housing that many people requires significant resources devoted to medical care. In that area, too, the West Texas Detention Facility appears to have fallen woefully short.

In 2015, Taifa, the man who came to the U.S. at age 12 and now has a U.S. citizen family, was involved in a car accident where he shattered his pelvis and suffered brain trauma. According to the report, his injuries require multiple medications and psychiatric care. However, since he was detained, Taifa said he had not received medications or had access to a psychiatrist. A detainee named Mohamed, who claims to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder resulting from the torture and murder of family members in his home country, added that he was denied medication to treat his PTSD at the facility. He also claimed that he had not received any medical care in response to him coughing up blood after being pepper-sprayed several times.

Many of the men interviewed for the report have spent months or years in detention after receiving a final order of deportation because ICE was not able to deport them to Somalia. Steglich, the University of Texas Law School professor, said two deportation flights were canceled in the last month, without explanation from ICE. Many of the men did not have travel documents and could not reach their embassy, which might have been a reason for the delay, she noted.

“Overall, this raises a real question of the credibility of ICE engaging in pre-detention of folks who have been ordered deported without any assurance that flights can actually happen,” Steglich said. “I think it’s significant that we saw weeks, if not months, of detention that we know of, and two flights not going forward. And that begs the question of the necessity of [ICE] detaining folks when they did and keeping folks detained.”

The West Texas Detention Facility has a history of scrutiny for its conditions. In 2016, the ICE Office of Detention Oversight reported the detention facility had multiple deficiencies with discipline and health services. “A review of facility training records showed facility staff did not consistently receive required training on the use of non-lethal equipment, e.g. oleoresin capsicum (OC) spray,” ICE investigators found, using the name for the active ingredient in pepper spray.

A 2016 article from Fronteras Desk, a collaboration of public radio stations across the southwestern U.S., mentions detainees complaining of inhumane treatment at the facility, including some who said they were forced to use plastic bags as toilets. In May 2017, Mexican journalist Martín Méndez Pineda, who was seeking asylum in the U.S., wrote a Washington Post column on his experiences at the West Texas Detention Facility, where he was held. It was there, he said, that he “experienced the worst days of my life.”

“I’ve had family members tell me their loved one will not tell them about what’s going on because they’re too afraid to do so.”

Alan Dicker from the Detained Migrant Solidarity Committee, a collective that works with detained migrants, said the report’s findings were not surprising. But many detainees will not speak out about conditions inside the facility, he added, out of fear of retaliation.

“They’re terrified,” Dicker told The Intercept. “I’ve had family members tell me their loved one will not tell them about what’s going on because they’re too afraid to do so.”

According to the LaSalle website, the detention center was owned by Emerald Corrections until April 2017, when LaSalle acquired it. Sheppard, the current warden of the facility, was previously working for the facility under Emerald, according to LaSalle’s website.

Though complaints of abuse have dogged the West Texas Detention Facility for years, Steglich said the guards are no doubt emboldened by the anti-immigrant rhetoric emanating from the highest levels of government. In January, for example, President Donald Trump reportedly used the word “shithole” to describe African countries.

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