Ex-FBI Agent, Trauma Surgeon Testify That Kelly Thomas' Death Was A Result Of Officers' Excessive Force
from the normal-deployment-of-force-rarely-results-in-comas dept
When we last checked in on the trial of two Fullerton police officers charged in the beating death of Kelly Thomas, the defense attorney (John Barnett) for Manuel Ramos (who is facing charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter) argued that the responding officers didn't use enough force when subduing the 135-pound man (right into an irreversible coma). In his words, Ramos (and the other five officers) were "losing the fight."
The defense attorney argued that Thomas' death was his own fault, brought on by a "lifetime" of "bad choices." The defense also argued during opening statements that Thomas had died from a bad heart due to previous drug use (where have we heard that before?) and not from the combined application of force by six Fullerton officers.
The Orange County coroner's office pathologist testified earlier that Thomas had died of "of brain damage from lack of oxygen caused by chest compression and injuries to his face," but her testimony was somewhat undermined by some apparent confusion about what she had previously stated in a preliminary hearing. When challenged by Everett on her earlier claim that she had spotted a "single instance of compression" that led her to this conclusion, she stated that she had been "misinterpreted" and that the cause of death was a "constellation of injuries," not one single injury.
This "misinterpretation" cast some doubt on the prosecutor's assertions, but that reprieve for the defense was only temporary. Two other experts were brought in to testify and both came to the conclusion that Thomas' death was due to the actions of the responding officers.
The first, a retired FBI agent, was brought in to analyze the officers' use of force. Here are the conclusions he drew from the evidence.
John Wilson, who spent 60 hours studying the gruesome, July 2011, police attack on an unarmed Thomas, said that officer Manuel Ramos began the minor encounter unnecessarily by immediately taking out his baton, swinging it in both hands and poking it at the victim, who hadn't been physically threatening.The defense responded by challenging the FBI veteran's lack of "street cop" experience, asserting that because he'd never "walked a beat" (although he had worked both bank robberies and homicide as an agent), he had no idea what he was talking about. The former agent further enraged the defense attorneys by stating that Kelly Thomas had every right to fight back once the officers deployed excessive force.
But, according to Wilson, the most unprofessional moment prior to the killing occurred when Ramos mocked the schizophrenia-addled Thomas as stupid, dramatically put on gloves as he towered over him and said, "Now, you see my fists? They're getting ready to fuck you up."
District Attorney Tony Rackauckas played related portions of a surveillance tape of the brutality and, over Ramos defense lawyer John Barnett's incessant objections, asked Wilson if he considered the cop conduct appropriate under the circumstances.
"Clearly, no," replied the 26-year FBI veteran, who at one point served on the U.S. Attorney General's protection detail in Washington, D.C. "I have problems with everything that happened after Ramos put the gloves on."
The other witness was Dr. Michael Lekawa, the trauma surgeon (and chief of trauma surgery at the UC Irvine Medical Center) who treated Thomas. His testimony discussed the horrific condition Thomas arrived in.
When he arrived, Thomas was breathing through the tube, which was attached to an air bag that was squeezed by hand, Lekawa said. His blood pressure was extremely low and his PH score indicated that his body was producing so much acid that, the doctor said, he has never seen a patient with a similar PH score live.Lekawa also added this damning statement:
"I've never seen a survivor, ever, in my 18 years," he said.
The cause of Thomas' death, Lekawa said, was inadequate oxygen to his brain. During the confrontation with police, "various persons were on [Thomas] and holding him down … preventing him from breathing," Lekawa said.
"He was doing everything he could to breathe but becoming less and less mentally with it to do what he could to breathe," he said.During cross examination, Lekawa conceded that Thomas' broken ribs may have been caused by CPR attempts made during the beaten man's trip to the hospital (he flatlined during the ride). But he pointed out that he could not find evidence to back up another paramedic's assertion that there had been difficulty inserting a breathing tube at hospital, another aspect the defense attorneys pressed as potential evidence Thomas' death was due to actions taken by medical personnel.
All in all, not a very pleasant day for the defense. Of course, when an altercation between six cops and an unarmed, 135-lb. man begins with an officer announcing he's "getting ready to fuck you up," this tends to eliminate some of the "benefit of a doubt" that would be helpful in a trial like this.
On the other hand, this venue may not be all that advantageous for those hoping to see Thomas' brutalizers brought to justice. The Orange County Register's article closes with this rather depressing observation.
What impact the testimony and defense moves are having on jurors is unknown.If this is an accurate assessment, then it's little wonder the incident at the center of this trial escalated the way it did. Fullerton police officers have become fearless over the years, thanks to the protective powers of the blue line, and the restorative effect of compliant juries.
Orange County juries historically have given police officers carte blanche to use deadly force even against unarmed citizens and to lie in official reports that coverup police corruption.
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Filed Under: excessive force, fbi, kelly thomas, police brutality
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What are the three things that the police are supposed to do? Serve the public trust, protect the innocent, uphold the law. I'm quoting Robocop because it's true; police should do that.
When a cop abuses the public trust to undermine the innocent, then turn around and claim that they were upholding the law, if your biggest problem with this picture is that it's being called out, you need to take a good, hard look at your priorities.
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IMO these kinds of posts are an offshoot of the issues of filming and photographing police and "sensitive" areas.
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Before cameras and recording devices were commonly used, it was a simple matter of 'cop vs witnesses(assuming there were any)' and the cop was almost always taken at their word, even if they had a terrible reputation. With the increasing number of camera-phones and other things that can take videos though, suddenly you've got videos(like in this case) where what is being shown, and what was claimed by the police, are very much at odds with each other.
Then of course as an offshoot of that you've got stories where police will steal the cameras/recording devices from witnesses/bystanders, in the name of 'preserving evidence'(evidence which seems to have a shocking tendency to disappear or be corrupted while in police hands funnily enough), or object to being recorded to such a degree that they'll arrest or harass those doing so(in addition to stealing the device doing the recording).
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And BTW: they also use Metadata to engage in censorship to censor any dissenting comments..
But anything to do with hatred of the Government, or the police is fair game now for GovHateSite.com (aka Techdirt)
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1) The officer int his case called up his buddies;
2) There is video evidence of the guy being intentionally threatening towards another person;
3) There are allegations of intimidation and deliberate malfeasance by this particular officer before.
I wouldn't be inclined to give an officer of the law any leeway in multiple instances of brutality. Once is a mistake, but if you do it again, it's not a mistake anymore.
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That's the prerogative of the site. It's not stated anywhere that *only* directly tech related stories will be covered. If there a tech angle here, it's that it serves as a reminder that current powers are abused even when the consequences for doing so are injury or death. If those are abused, why would people think that the powers that are being begged for in the more tech-focussed areas won't be routinely abused?
If you don't like that kind of story, you can quite easily find Engadget, ArsTechnica and other tech-only sites as easily as you found this one. Or just not be one of those fools who whines that a blog isn't covering only what you want to read - skip to the next story if this one isn't to your interests.
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Police 'stealing' cell phones, something all tech savoy people have, is certainly relevant to a tech site.
I was pleased to see the follow up to this even tho this follow up is less tech related.
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Meanwhile, in Canada....
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The cops defense in this case is literally "we beat him up so bad that the hospital couldn't fix him, so it's the hospitals fault."
wow, what assholes.
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Good point on relevance of this story.
I'm not entirely certain how this story affects a company's ability to innovate or grow. Still, it's Mike's site, he can do what he darn well pleases :-)
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Re: Good point on relevance of this story.
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Re: Good point on relevance of this story.
but you would think after 15 odd years, he would have gained a bigger following that the 10 or 15 die hard cultists that hang off his every word.
beats doing a real job too !!!
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Re: Re: Good point on relevance of this story.
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Compliant? Or intimidated? Seems like the juries' behavior there is difficult to understand unless the area police have gone so rogue as to be threatening jurors as well as small, weak, mentally-disabled homeless men.
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You should at this point have more fear of those enforcing the law than those breaking it. And these are the sort of cops that will soon have armored vehicles? What could go wrong?
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If a 'regular' criminal tries to rob or attack you, you can defend yourself, but if a cop does it and you try and defend yourself... hope you enjoy the mace, taser, baton, jail time and assault charges.
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what makes it worse, to my mind, is the fact that absolutely nothing is being done to suppress this behaviour on any level
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This was an execution. It was announced and completed. Just because the cops enjoyed finishing their victim off manually, having him die a slow painful death instead of using firearms, does not change this.
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So very guilty
Most common (or at least infamous) of this can be seen in rape cases. See such disgusting cases as claiming that an 11 year old rape victim was a spider luring men into her web.
Sadly in some cases this despicable tactic is effective.
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Those of a more compassionate frame of mind will condemn the brutality.
Like it or not, there are human beings on the jury and they'll speak as they find. I hope they find brutality, but I remember Rodney King, so pardon me for not holding out a lot of hope for justice to be done.
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Excellent point
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Seems to be more than a threat backed up by tons of similar cases around the US.. If any of us were backed into that same corner I'd hope we'd come out swinging in defense of ourselves .. self preservation is not a crime no matter how those in power spin it police are people paid by the people .. taken out of uniform most are self righteous bullies who live to intimidate .. pretty much why I'm against former military personnel becoming LEO's
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Indy cops said the same...
I find this sickening that police officers get to make the decision on how that young man was to pay for his crime. That is assuming he even did it since no cop actually witnessed it happening.
If police want the trust and respect of the community, they need to have a 180 attitude adjustment over their role in that community.
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Re: Indy cops said the same...
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This statement alone saddens me ..are these people putting on a show or do they really have this much disregard for human life.
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Yeah, that really is a stupid argument.
If that argument had any merit whatsoever, it would mean that the fault for every injury or death of a police officer on duty is really their own for choosing a career in law enforcement.
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What world is he living in? Raising a hand to the cops, no matter what the provocation is, right now, the gravest offense that you can commit. You can mow down a whole room of children with an assault rifle and you'll be treated with more respect than if you lightly put your hand on a cop's arm.
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What I want is neighborhoods where they don't have to get called when the shit goes down, because our friends, they are enough.
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Lesson learned about drug abuse - Nope I'm still on 180 and I will be the rest of my life.
Lesson learned about overdosing - use a gun
Lesson learned about the police - they don't like people who feel better than them so pretend to feel like shit.
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wtf?
These police need to be held accountable. Please, please, please, please, please....do not let them free. It's so gross that they even attempt a defense!! I hope their wives and children have all STUDIED the video to shatter any sort of 'hero' type beliefs.
'No....Daddy doesn't waste his time catching those sneaky child molesters. They're too hard to find and the effort would keep me away from loving you....my sweet darling daughter. So, in order for us to have our special time together, I get rid of the people that society doesn't like. One less beggar equals my quota and more special time with you, darling'...
How sweet.
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check this out
http://www.cityoffullerton.com/civica/press/display.asp?layout=1&Entry=2660
and bottom of that page is a link to Q&A which answers a few questions .
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http://www.cityoffullerton.com/depts/police/updates/default.asp
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Kelly_Thomas
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