Sheriff: no rules, laws broken in Ohio jail death

The Associated Press 3:41 PM Friday, February 5, 2010

AKRON, Ohio — A sheriff in Ohio says he’s satisfied that no laws or jail rules were broken in the death of an inmate who was restrained by five deputies.

Summit County Sheriff Drew Alexander released internal reports Friday in the 2006 death of 28-year-old Mark McCullaugh. He died after restraints, pepper spray and a stun gun were used on him during a struggle at the county jail in Akron.

A medical examiner determined the cause of death was asphyxiation from blunt-force blows and various physical, electrical and chemical restraints.

One deputy was acquitted of murder and charges were dropped against four others.

The sheriff says the acquittal and dismissal of criminal charges and civil claims convinced him that there was no violation of law or jail rules.

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February 05, 2010 08:37 PM EST

Copyright 2010, The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Ninth Circuit Court Delivers Landmark Taser Ruling

Posted by Digby, Hullabaloo at 6:30 AM on December 30, 2009.

The next stop could be the Supreme Court.

The 9th Circuit issued what may be a landmark ruling on tasers, and not a moment too soon:

A federal appeals court on Monday issued one of the most comprehensive rulings yet limiting police use of Tasers against low-level offenders who seem to pose little threat and may be mentally ill.
In a case out of San Diego County, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals criticized an officer who, without warning, shot an emotionally troubled man with a Taser when he was unarmed, yards away, and neither fleeing nor advancing on the officer.

[...]

As lawsuits have proliferated against police and Taser International, which manufactures the weapons, the nation’s appellate courts have been trying to define what constitutes appropriate Taser use.

The San Diego County case is the latest ruling to address the issue.

A three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit affirmed the trial judge’s ruling on Monday, concluding that the level of force used by the officer was excessive.

McPherson could have waited for backup or tried to talk the man down, the judges said. If Bryan was mentally ill, as the officer contended, then there was even more reason to use “less intrusive means,” the judges said.

“Officer McPherson’s desire to quickly and decisively end an unusual and tense situation is understandable,” Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw wrote for the court. “His chosen method for doing so violated Bryan’s constitutional right to be free from excessive force.”

Some lawyers called it a landmark decision.

Eugene Iredale, a San Diego lawyer who argued the case, said it was one of the clearest and most complete statements yet from an appellate court about the limits of Taser use.

He said after Monday’s decision that courts will consider all circumstances, including whether someone poses a threat, has committed a serious crime or is mentally troubled.

“In an era where everybody understands ‘don’t tase me, bro,’ courts are going to look more closely at the use of Tasers, and they’re going to try to deter the promiscuous oversue of that tool,” he said.

[...]

“Certainly the officer should be able to articulate the reason the force (was used), and a mere resistance to comply may not be enough,” said Sheriff John McGinness.

It’s not. The idea that police can use it to subdue people at their discretion in order to make their difficult jobs easier is just wrong. The police can’t hit people over the head with a baton if they smart mouth them or refuse to immediately comply and they shouldn’t be able to shoot them full of electricity either. Just because it doesn’t leave marks doesn’t mean it isn’t cruel and brutal.

This issue will wend itself through the courts for some time. I would imagine we’ll see a Supreme Court ruling. Considering the current court, I’m sure Taser International hopes so.

Source

Caught on tape: Cop assaults 15-year-old special needs student

By Stephen C. Webster
Thursday, October 8th, 2009 — 8:18 pm

For the offense of not having his shirt tucked in, 15-year-old special needs student Marshawn Pitts was slammed into a wall of lockers and pounded repeatedly in the face by a police officer who broke the boy’s nose and bloodied his mouth.

The Dolton, Illinois teen told a local CBS affiliate that the officer was cursing at him as he complied with the order to tuck in his shirt. Then, “it was just like, boom!” he said.

The assault, which took place in May, was recorded on a security camera at the Chicago suburb’s Academy for Learning.

“The academy is a high school for special-needs students who are emotionally disturbed or struggle with behavioral disorders,” noted Chicago Breaking News. “Marshawn was a student there because he suffered brain injuries when he was hit by a car years ago, [family attorney Edward] Manzke said.”

During the recording, the officer stoops down and places a cup of coffee on the floor, then threw the teen into the lockers before pummeling him and pinning him to the floor in a maneuver known as the “face-down take-down.”

“Zena Naiditch of Equip for Equality, a legal advocacy group that fights for the rights of people with disabilities, looked at the video and said the type of physical restraint used by the officer has killed students,” CBS News reported.

Naiditch added that the hold can be lethal because those trapped by it are left unable to breathe. CBS noted that seven states currently prohibit officers from using the “face-down take-down.”

The officer has not been identified, but due to the filmed evidence of the assault he has been terminated from the force.

Manzke told WBBM News Radio 780 that Marshawn has since transferred to a new school and the family is planning to file a lawsuit.

This video is from CBS 2 in Chicago, broadcast Oct. 7, 2009.

SPLC Sues Mississippi County to Stop ‘Shocking’ Abuse of Children at Detention Center

The Southern Poverty Law Center today filed a federal class action suit to stop the “shockingly inhumane” treatment of children at a juvenile detention center and to force officials to provide sanitary facilities and mental health treatment to young people confined there.

The suit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi on behalf of a 17-year-old boy who, despite attempting suicide while in the facility, has received no mental health treatment. He has been subjected to physical abuse and filthy conditions, and has been forced to sleep on the floor in an overcrowded, insect-infested cell.

The Harrison County Juvenile Detention Center in Biloxi, Miss., has been operated by a private corporation, the Mississippi Security Police, for more than nine years at an annual cost of $1.6 million.

“It is a travesty that the county has chosen to let a private company profit by neglecting and abusing our children,” said Vanessa Carroll, a staff attorney for the SPLC’s Mississippi Youth Justice Project and counsel for the children.

Comics artist Mark Sable detained for Unthinkable acts

By Ian Randal Strock May 13, 2009

Boom! Studios sends word that comics writer Mark Sable was detained by TSA security guards at Los Angeles International Airport this past weekend because he was carrying a script for a new issue of his comic miniseries Unthinkable. Sable was detained while traveling to New York for a debut party at Jim Hanley’s Universe today.

The comic series follows members of a government think tank that was tasked with coming up with 9/11-type ‘unthinkable’ terrorist scenarios that now are coming true. (See this article for more on the series.)

Sable wrote of his experiences: ‘Flying from Los Angeles to New York for a signing at Jim Hanley’s Universe Wednesday (May 13th), I was flagged at the gate for ‘extra screening’. I was subjected to not one, but two invasive searches of my person and belongings. TSA agents then ‘discovered’ the script for Unthinkable #3. They sat and read the script while I stood there, without any personal items, identification or ticket, which had all been confiscated.’

‘The minute I saw the faces of the agents, I knew I was in trouble. The first page of the Unthinkable script mentioned 9/11, terror plots, and the fact that the (fictional) world had become a police state. The TSA agents then proceeded to interrogate me, having a hard time understanding that a comic book could be about anything other than superheroes, let alone that anyone actually wrote scripts for comics.’

‘I cooperated politely and tried to explain to them the irony of the situation. While Unthinkable blurs the line between fiction and reality, the story is based on a real-life government think tank where a writer was tasked to design worst-case terror scenarios. The fictional story of Unthinkable unfolds when the writer’s scenarios come true, and he becomes a suspect in the terrorist attacks.’

‘In the end, I feel my privacy is a small price to pay for educating the government about the medium.’

Source: http://sfscope.com/2009/05/comics-artist-mark-sable-detai.html