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Pigs - Don't blame us!!! The other agency killed the guy!
Phoenix-area agencies minimize roles in fight at jail by Bob Ortega - Dec. 19, 2011 09:38 PM The Arizona Republic The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office and the Phoenix Police Department moved Monday to distance themselves from responsibility for an altercation early Friday at the Fourth Avenue Jail that left a Peoria man in critical condition and on life support. Family members of Ernest "Marty" Atencio, 44, were waiting for two of Atencio's sons to fly into Phoenix on Monday before deciding whether to take him off life support, the family's attorney said. Atencio, reportedly a Gulf War veteran, was arrested Thursday night by Phoenix police and charged with assault. While being booked into the Fourth Avenue Jail, which is run by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, officials say he struggled with officers, was shot with a stun gun and placed in a "safe cell." About 15 minutes later, medical personnel checking on Atencio found him unresponsive, performed CPR and then transported him to a local hospital, according to a written statement from Sheriff's Office spokesman Jeff Sprong. In the written statement, the Sheriff's Office emphasized the role of Phoenix police, saying Atencio "continued to be abusive with arresting officers" after he was brought to the jail, that "Phoenix Police were forced to continue using defensive efforts," that Sheriff's Office staff assisted police in restraining him and that "medical personnel advised Phoenix Police and Maricopa County Sheriff's Office staff to place the arrestee in a safe cell." But Phoenix police, in a written statement provided by spokesman Sgt. Steve Martos, said, "To date, we have not been provided with specific details as to our officers' actions during this struggle, in part because we have not been provided any video of this struggle" by the Sheriff's Office. Martos said that each law-enforcement agency is conducting its own investigation. "We understand, preliminarily, our officers did not Tase (use a stun gun on) this individual," Martos' statement said. "Though we have not completed our investigation, we have no information at this time (that) Mr. Atencio struggled with any of our officers prior to getting to the MCSO jail," he said. "We also understand, once MCSO staff took custody of Mr. Atencio and placed him in a safe cell, our officers had no further involvement or contact with him." Precisely what happened and when should be clear from the digital video system at the jail, "which records every second from the moment someone is brought in to the moment they leave," said attorney Joel Robbins, who has received such videos during lawsuits on behalf of arrestees. [Of course these video tapes have a record of magically disappearing when police are accused of beating up inmates, but don't blame the cops, the tapes just walked off on their own] The Sheriff's Office did not return calls for comment. In an e-mail, spokesman Jesse Sturgin said the office would not release additional information due to the pending investigation. Another spokesman, Lt. Justin Griffin, confirmed that MCSO policies require that before arrestees are placed in safe cells they be assessed by medical personnel, and that they be monitored while in the cell. Safe cells have no furniture other than a toilet, and they have padded walls, ceiling and floor. Inmates are not restrained while in such cells, Griffin said. Local attorney Michael Manning, who talked to The Arizona Republic on Monday before he said he was retained by the Atencio family, noted that more than 10 years ago, after the Sheriff's Office paid an $8.25 million settlement in the death of Scott Norberg at the jail, it entered into a consent decree with the Justice Department to change the way it investigated and disciplined excessive force by its officers. After numerous suits, the department in 2007 did stop using restraint chairs such as the one Norberg died in. |