tlongII
10-18-2010, 10:07 PM
http://www.oregonlive.com/portland/index.ssf/2010/10/chasse_documents_released_by_a.html
Had attorneys for the family of James P. Chasse Jr. gone before a federal jury, they would have argued a Portland police cover-up of the officers' violent takedown and struggle with Chasse killed the 42-year-old man, not the police use of force.
The attorneys said officers
withheld crucial information from paramedics and jail medical staff about Chasse's injuries and the use of force used against him, and made false statements about Chasse, planting bread crumbs to look like drug evidence.
"The cover-up did kill James Chasse because it kept him from getting to the hospital," said Thomas Schneiger, one of the trial attorneys assigned to the case.
"If they would have just gone to the hospital, they (the officers) would have been in trouble; he would have lived."
Schneiger and Attorney Tom Steenson spoke this afternoon, five months after settling the federal wrongful death suit with the city of Portland for $1.6 million. Multnomah County approved a record $925,000 settlement in July 2009 to end its party of the federal lawsuit.
The Chasse family’s attorneys held a news conference at the Ace Hotel to discuss documents obtained during the course of the lawsuit that were only recently made public. U.S District Judge Garr King lifted a protective order that allowed the release of Portland police internal affairs documents, the training division’s analysis, training materials and depositions.
Steenson asked why the officers involved are still employed with the bureau. "What it tells officers in this Police Bureau is you can get away with this behavior, and it's OK," Steenson said.
Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, said afterwards that he and Chief Mike Reese agreed to ask the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to include an evaluation of "these new concerns.''
Chasse's father, James P. Chasse Sr., who attended the news conference, said later, "My hope would be that somebody's dad doesn't end up feeling like I did."
Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt Kyle Nice failed to follow their training, as well as bureau policies, yet were not held accountable for all their missteps that caused Chasse’s death, Steenson argued.
Chasse, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in police custody from broad-based blunt force trauma to his chest Sept. 17, 2006, after officers chased him and knocked him to the ground in the Pearl District. Paramedics came to the scene but did not take Chasse to the hospital. Instead, police drove him to jail, but jail staff refused to book him. Police then drove him in a police cruiser to the hospital, and he died on the way.
Officers never should have chased Chasse as there was no evidence he committed a crime, or was a danger to himself or others, and the police knockdown of Chasse also was inconsistent with bureau training, according to the bureau“s own training division analysis.
Humphreys’ or Nice’s kick or kicks to Chasse’s head once he was knocked to the ground further violated bureau training, Steenson says. He pointed to a training sergeant’s testimony during a deposition, in which he said a kick or knee to the head “would be considered deadly force, so the situation would have to justify the use of deadly force in order to kick somebody in the head.“
Steenson pointed out inconsistencies in the officer’s statements to jail staff, to detectives and internal affairs investigators, as well as false statements officers made to witnesses - all of which he said the bureau let slide without aggressive investigation.
Humphreys told two different stories on how he took Chasse to the ground. He told jail deputies that night he “tackled” Chasse and took him down “hard,” but three days later, after consulting with a lawyer and union representative, he tells homicide detectives he used the bureau-approved “knock-down’¤” technique by giving Chasse a “really hard shove” on Chasse’s back and denying he tackled him.
Nice failed to tell paramedics called to the scene what really happened to Chasse, not mentioning he was knocked to the ground, that he had stopped breathing for a period of time, or the other physical force officers used on Chasse, or that they Tasered him.
Steenson also argues that police tried to suggest Chasse had drugs on him - going so far as bagging bread crumbs as evidence - when there were no drugs on him or in his system. According to depositions, a civilian witness saw Humphreys remove a “piece of bread” from Chasse’s backpack. While paramedics are on the scene, Humphreys yells to Nice that he has found drugs: “It looks like crack Sarge.”
"They wanted to show this man was not worth the paramedics or anyone else's consideration,'' Schneiger said.
Humphreys bags the bread crumbs as evidence of drugs. Nice claims Burton shows him a “drug bindle,” yet Burton denied doing so and said he can tell the bread crumbs are not crack.
Two civilian witnesses said they were told at the scene by police that Chasse had drugs on him, and had 14 prior cocaine convictions.
Steenson figured out Officer Michael Bledsoe spoke with one of the civilian witnesses. Bledsoe later admitted he could only have learned such information from running a mobile computer query on Chasse in his car , but he didn’t have Chasse’s name at the time, or by being told so by Humphreys or Nice. Bledsoe also admitted during deposition that one of the officers showed him a “white substance” that was described as cocaine.
AMR paramedics said they learned from police that Chasse allegedly “had a rock,” on him, which they understood to be a rock of cocaine.
The police internal investigation never inquired about the bagging of bread crumbs, or identified the officer who falsely told witnesses that Chasse had a lengthy drug record.
Chasse's family attorneys said Sgt. Kyle Nice told the paramedics they were taking Chasse to jail if his vital signs were normal.
"Time was the ally of the police officers. Had he been taken properly to a hospital, there would be no questions what happened,'' Schneiger said.
Steenson added, "He could have been saved had he just been taken to the hospital: The cover-up killed James Chasse.''
Chasse’s lawyer said Humphreys was trained to know that Chasse’s “rhythmic shuffling,” a rapid walk away, the fear of being around people, as well as incoherent utterances or having abnormal strength, are all consistent with mental illness. In fact, on Humphreys’ official police “Use of Force” report on Chasse, he checked the box for mental illness. Then sheriff’s deputy Bret Burton also checked “mental,” not drugs or intoxication.
Steenson was set to argue that Chasse’s back ribs most likely were broken when Humphreys fell on Chasse, or possibly from blows being struck after was knocked to the ground. Further, he would have argued police had broken Chasse’s left clavicle, and multiple ribs in front and back by the time medics were looking at Chasse at Northwest Everett and 13th Avenue.
There were 48 separate abrasions and bruises on Chasse’s body, including extensive trauma to the head, State Medical Examiner Dr. Karen Gunson said in a deposition.
When Gunson did the autopsy with Portland homicide detectives attending, she asked them, what had happened, noting the extensive rib fractures. She thought someone might have crushed Chasse, Steenson said. The detectives told her no, and suggested she consider the condition of excited delirium as a factor in his death, Steenson said.
"If the doctors can't get a straight answer from the police, how do I intend to get one?" Schneiger asked.
Before driving Chasse to jail, Steenson says Humphreys threatened Chasse in the back of the car. According to Humphreys' interviews with detectives and internal affairs, he told Chasse, “I want you to understand if you try to bite me or kick me...it’s gonna be really, really bad.“
While stopped in the parking lot across from the jail to fill out paperwork, Humphreys and Burton both list Chasse as being “transient,” despite having his Oregon ID card that lists his address in Old Town, and confirming that address in police records enroute to jail.
When Chasse arrives at the jail sallyport, Humphreys ask for a spit sock to be placed over Chasse’s head, who is still bleeding from the mouth. Portland police do not issue spit socks, nor does the bureau have a policy or any training related to their use.
In fact, Chasse’s attorneys learned, then-Chief Rosie Sizer had never seen or heard of a spit sock before Chasse’s death, according to her deposition.
When the jail refuses to book Chasse, Humphreys and Burton drive him to Portland Adventist Hospital, and leave the spit sock on him. As they turn off the Morrison Bridge onto I-84, Chasse gets quiet and Humphreys sees his arm is white, he’s not moving and doesn’t seem to be breathing, but because Chasse still has the spit sock over his head, the officers can’t confirm if he’s breathing.
They drive 30 blocks before taking an exit ramp, park, get out of car and remove Chasse from the car.
Over four minutes after noticing Chasse isn’t breathing, the two officers radio for medical help, Steenson says.
Once paramedics arrive at 6:34 p.m., finding Chasse unresponsive and not breathing, the officers tell them Chasse had been “involved in some sort of altercation” earlier in northwest Portland, according to a paramedic’s report.
"It's probably the one time they were telling the truth,'' Steenson said.
At 7:04 p.m., Chasse is pronounced dead at Providence hospital.
Had attorneys for the family of James P. Chasse Jr. gone before a federal jury, they would have argued a Portland police cover-up of the officers' violent takedown and struggle with Chasse killed the 42-year-old man, not the police use of force.
The attorneys said officers
withheld crucial information from paramedics and jail medical staff about Chasse's injuries and the use of force used against him, and made false statements about Chasse, planting bread crumbs to look like drug evidence.
"The cover-up did kill James Chasse because it kept him from getting to the hospital," said Thomas Schneiger, one of the trial attorneys assigned to the case.
"If they would have just gone to the hospital, they (the officers) would have been in trouble; he would have lived."
Schneiger and Attorney Tom Steenson spoke this afternoon, five months after settling the federal wrongful death suit with the city of Portland for $1.6 million. Multnomah County approved a record $925,000 settlement in July 2009 to end its party of the federal lawsuit.
The Chasse family’s attorneys held a news conference at the Ace Hotel to discuss documents obtained during the course of the lawsuit that were only recently made public. U.S District Judge Garr King lifted a protective order that allowed the release of Portland police internal affairs documents, the training division’s analysis, training materials and depositions.
Steenson asked why the officers involved are still employed with the bureau. "What it tells officers in this Police Bureau is you can get away with this behavior, and it's OK," Steenson said.
Mayor Sam Adams, who serves as police commissioner, said afterwards that he and Chief Mike Reese agreed to ask the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division to include an evaluation of "these new concerns.''
Chasse's father, James P. Chasse Sr., who attended the news conference, said later, "My hope would be that somebody's dad doesn't end up feeling like I did."
Officer Christopher Humphreys and Sgt Kyle Nice failed to follow their training, as well as bureau policies, yet were not held accountable for all their missteps that caused Chasse’s death, Steenson argued.
Chasse, who suffered from schizophrenia, died in police custody from broad-based blunt force trauma to his chest Sept. 17, 2006, after officers chased him and knocked him to the ground in the Pearl District. Paramedics came to the scene but did not take Chasse to the hospital. Instead, police drove him to jail, but jail staff refused to book him. Police then drove him in a police cruiser to the hospital, and he died on the way.
Officers never should have chased Chasse as there was no evidence he committed a crime, or was a danger to himself or others, and the police knockdown of Chasse also was inconsistent with bureau training, according to the bureau“s own training division analysis.
Humphreys’ or Nice’s kick or kicks to Chasse’s head once he was knocked to the ground further violated bureau training, Steenson says. He pointed to a training sergeant’s testimony during a deposition, in which he said a kick or knee to the head “would be considered deadly force, so the situation would have to justify the use of deadly force in order to kick somebody in the head.“
Steenson pointed out inconsistencies in the officer’s statements to jail staff, to detectives and internal affairs investigators, as well as false statements officers made to witnesses - all of which he said the bureau let slide without aggressive investigation.
Humphreys told two different stories on how he took Chasse to the ground. He told jail deputies that night he “tackled” Chasse and took him down “hard,” but three days later, after consulting with a lawyer and union representative, he tells homicide detectives he used the bureau-approved “knock-down’¤” technique by giving Chasse a “really hard shove” on Chasse’s back and denying he tackled him.
Nice failed to tell paramedics called to the scene what really happened to Chasse, not mentioning he was knocked to the ground, that he had stopped breathing for a period of time, or the other physical force officers used on Chasse, or that they Tasered him.
Steenson also argues that police tried to suggest Chasse had drugs on him - going so far as bagging bread crumbs as evidence - when there were no drugs on him or in his system. According to depositions, a civilian witness saw Humphreys remove a “piece of bread” from Chasse’s backpack. While paramedics are on the scene, Humphreys yells to Nice that he has found drugs: “It looks like crack Sarge.”
"They wanted to show this man was not worth the paramedics or anyone else's consideration,'' Schneiger said.
Humphreys bags the bread crumbs as evidence of drugs. Nice claims Burton shows him a “drug bindle,” yet Burton denied doing so and said he can tell the bread crumbs are not crack.
Two civilian witnesses said they were told at the scene by police that Chasse had drugs on him, and had 14 prior cocaine convictions.
Steenson figured out Officer Michael Bledsoe spoke with one of the civilian witnesses. Bledsoe later admitted he could only have learned such information from running a mobile computer query on Chasse in his car , but he didn’t have Chasse’s name at the time, or by being told so by Humphreys or Nice. Bledsoe also admitted during deposition that one of the officers showed him a “white substance” that was described as cocaine.
AMR paramedics said they learned from police that Chasse allegedly “had a rock,” on him, which they understood to be a rock of cocaine.
The police internal investigation never inquired about the bagging of bread crumbs, or identified the officer who falsely told witnesses that Chasse had a lengthy drug record.
Chasse's family attorneys said Sgt. Kyle Nice told the paramedics they were taking Chasse to jail if his vital signs were normal.
"Time was the ally of the police officers. Had he been taken properly to a hospital, there would be no questions what happened,'' Schneiger said.
Steenson added, "He could have been saved had he just been taken to the hospital: The cover-up killed James Chasse.''
Chasse’s lawyer said Humphreys was trained to know that Chasse’s “rhythmic shuffling,” a rapid walk away, the fear of being around people, as well as incoherent utterances or having abnormal strength, are all consistent with mental illness. In fact, on Humphreys’ official police “Use of Force” report on Chasse, he checked the box for mental illness. Then sheriff’s deputy Bret Burton also checked “mental,” not drugs or intoxication.
Steenson was set to argue that Chasse’s back ribs most likely were broken when Humphreys fell on Chasse, or possibly from blows being struck after was knocked to the ground. Further, he would have argued police had broken Chasse’s left clavicle, and multiple ribs in front and back by the time medics were looking at Chasse at Northwest Everett and 13th Avenue.
There were 48 separate abrasions and bruises on Chasse’s body, including extensive trauma to the head, State Medical Examiner Dr. Karen Gunson said in a deposition.
When Gunson did the autopsy with Portland homicide detectives attending, she asked them, what had happened, noting the extensive rib fractures. She thought someone might have crushed Chasse, Steenson said. The detectives told her no, and suggested she consider the condition of excited delirium as a factor in his death, Steenson said.
"If the doctors can't get a straight answer from the police, how do I intend to get one?" Schneiger asked.
Before driving Chasse to jail, Steenson says Humphreys threatened Chasse in the back of the car. According to Humphreys' interviews with detectives and internal affairs, he told Chasse, “I want you to understand if you try to bite me or kick me...it’s gonna be really, really bad.“
While stopped in the parking lot across from the jail to fill out paperwork, Humphreys and Burton both list Chasse as being “transient,” despite having his Oregon ID card that lists his address in Old Town, and confirming that address in police records enroute to jail.
When Chasse arrives at the jail sallyport, Humphreys ask for a spit sock to be placed over Chasse’s head, who is still bleeding from the mouth. Portland police do not issue spit socks, nor does the bureau have a policy or any training related to their use.
In fact, Chasse’s attorneys learned, then-Chief Rosie Sizer had never seen or heard of a spit sock before Chasse’s death, according to her deposition.
When the jail refuses to book Chasse, Humphreys and Burton drive him to Portland Adventist Hospital, and leave the spit sock on him. As they turn off the Morrison Bridge onto I-84, Chasse gets quiet and Humphreys sees his arm is white, he’s not moving and doesn’t seem to be breathing, but because Chasse still has the spit sock over his head, the officers can’t confirm if he’s breathing.
They drive 30 blocks before taking an exit ramp, park, get out of car and remove Chasse from the car.
Over four minutes after noticing Chasse isn’t breathing, the two officers radio for medical help, Steenson says.
Once paramedics arrive at 6:34 p.m., finding Chasse unresponsive and not breathing, the officers tell them Chasse had been “involved in some sort of altercation” earlier in northwest Portland, according to a paramedic’s report.
"It's probably the one time they were telling the truth,'' Steenson said.
At 7:04 p.m., Chasse is pronounced dead at Providence hospital.