Jailhouse Goons Make Fun Of and Kill a Mentally Ill Inmate
By Stephen Lemons
Thursday, Jun 14 2012
It
takes a twisted individual to delight in the sufferings of the mentally
ill. A special type of sick, sadistic bully. The kind employed in
spades by the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office.
The
December 16 killing of Army veteran Marty Atencio is the latest example
of the above, one of the most recent in a string of corpses that
punctuates the timeline of Sheriff Joe Arpaio's nearly 20-year career as
this county's top lawman.
As reported last week in my
Feathered Bastard blog, the Atencio family's attorney, Mike Manning, has
filed notices of claim, totaling $20 million, with both the city of
Phoenix and Maricopa County in Atencio's brutal demise at the hands of
Phoenix cops and MCSO detention officers working in the Fourth Avenue
Jail.
Since the 44-year-old's death occurred just hours
after the U.S. Department of Justice issued its scathing report on the
MCSO's pattern of discriminatory policing, racial profiling, and abuse
of Latinos in Joe's gulags, much has been revealed about the
circumstances surrounding the Atencio homicide.
The county medical examiner's autopsy noted Atencio's history of mental illness and hospitalization for psychosis.
Toxicology
results from specimens, including those taken at St. Joseph's Hospital
hours after Atencio's arrest earlier that day, showed no illicit drugs
in Atencio's system.
Phoenix Police Department reports
reveal that Atencio generally was passive and compliant during the two
encounters with Phoenix cops that culminated in his arrest on December
15.
Indeed, Atencio "showed no signs of being a danger to himself or others," according to Phoenix Officer Sarah Roberts.
Rather, Atencio "simply appeared to be not medicated and engaged in very random conversation," Roberts said.
Atencio was arrested in West Phoenix for scaring a resident, Cathy Boyd, after kicking the apartment door of her neighbor.
Manning quotes from Boyd's affidavit recounting details of the incident:
"Marty
did not physically threaten me at any time . . . I knew there was
something wrong with him, and I just wanted him to . . . get some help."
Apparently,
Atencio was treated well until he was taken to Arpaio's infamous jail,
where cruelty is king and an idiotic environment pervades.
The
most damning evidence of Atencio's mistreatment comes from interviews
with detention officers and Phoenix cops carried out within days,
sometimes within hours, of Atencio's beat-down and Tasing, referred to
euphemistically by the Medical Examiner's Office as a "law enforcement
subdual."
The interviews were done by MCSO detectives. Manning's law office obtained them through a public-records request.
Apparently,
Atencio's mind at the time was like that of a child's. Disoriented,
spouting nonsensical comments, he often referred to himself in the third
person as "Tony" and seemed to be mimicking Robin Williams' character
in Good Morning, Vietnam.
Some detention officers and
cops thought Atencio was on drugs, claiming that he told someone during
his stay in Fourth Avenue that he had smoked meth earlier in the day.
But
toxicology reports don't lie. Cops and detention officers are another
story. Soon after Atencio was taken, brain dead, to St. Joe's, they were
making assumptions to rationalize their behavior.
Thing
is, the breakdown in law enforcement discipline — including a Phoenix
cop's pushing Atencio with his cuffed hands bent awkwardly and painfully
— cannot be rationalized.
It also included MCSO detention officers mocking and humiliating Atencio as they took his mug shot.
"They
encouraged him to make funny faces and . . . kept saying, 'Let's make
this one the Mug Shot of the Week,'" one witness said.
Another
witness noted that when they took Atencio's picture, "It was a big
joke" and "they all stood around and laughed about it."
This
hilarity turned deadly once Atencio was surrounded by officers
demanding that he remove his shoes. When in Phoenix custody, cops had
gotten Atencio to take off his shoes by just being patient and repeating
their request. Here, Phoenix police and MCSO guards were far from
patient.
Two Phoenix police officers who were there to
help process detainees initiated what Manning calls a "jailers' riot,"
even though Atencio was standing before them, arms crossed, presenting
no threat.
The notice of claim identifies the Phoenix cops as Patrick Hanlon and Nicholas French.
Several
MCSO gendarmes joined the fray, in what one onlooker called "a big ol'
dog pile." Though Atencio was smothered by officers, MCSO Sergeant Jason
Weiers Tased Atencio several times.
Anthony Hatton, a
detention officer who since has left the MCSO, punched Atencio in the
face three times. Hatton claimed the strikes were necessary, but a
couple of his fellow guards did not agree.
"He shouldn't have been punching him," detention Officer Sergio Salinas told investigators. "It was excessive."
Later,
after Atencio was hauled to a "safe cell," where he would be stripped
of clothing and left to die, Hatton continued the abuse, kneeing Atencio
as guards held him down.
Detention officer Blas
Gabrial told detectives that he yelled Hatton's name upon seeing the
force used on Atencio. When asked why, he said, "Because I didn't think
it was necessary."
While Atencio was lying motionless
and naked in the safe cell, where he would breathe his last breath
without life support, what were many of these men and women of law
enforcement doing?
Laughing, joking, and cutting up
like teenagers. Video shows two women — one in uniform — dancing and
bumping butts. Hatton laughs and demonstrates what looks like a fighting
move to other officers. A Phoenix cop eats an orange and grins.
Minutes later, they're all gathering around the door, precious seconds slipping away as they take their time getting it open.
"[Prisoners]
play that game a lot," Weiers told an investigator, referring to
Atencio's stillness. "You know, playing like they're dead."
Atencio
wasn't playing. He already was gone. But CPR was performed, and he was
rushed to St. Joe's. On December 20, his family removed him from life
support.
If you saw grown men and women abusing a mentally ill or disabled person, would you do something about it?
Likely so. Which is why, ultimately, I blame the voters of Maricopa County for what happened to Atencio.
They've been told about a lot of such brutality in Arpaio's jails over the years and, so far, have looked the other way.
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