Lawinfo Weblog » Video Captures Jailhouse Struggle

 

By GILLIAN FLACCUS Associated Press Writer

SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) _ A man who was arrested by Orange County deputies was stripped of his pants, strapped to a chair, Tasered repeatedly while in handcuffs and slammed to the floor with a knee to his head, a newly released videotape shows.

The 13-minute video, given to The Associated Press on Wednesday by the man’s attorney, was taken in March 2006 after Matthew Fleuret was arrested during a barroom brawl in San Clemente.

His attorney, Stephen Bernard, has filed a $47 million lawsuit against the county, and recently obtained the grainy footage during preparation for the trial. The tape begins with silent, black-and-white footage from a stationary security camera and then moves to colored footage with audio taken by a sheriff’s deputy using a handheld video recorder.

Fleuret, a construction worker, was not charged and was released within 24 hours, the attorney said. He has no criminal record, Bernard said. He said Fleuret, 24, was not available to be interviewed because the case is pending.

Sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino referred calls to Bill Haluck, an attorney for the county. Haluck did not return calls for comment.

Susan Schroeder, a spokeswoman for the district attorney’s office, said her office has received no complaints about Fleuret’s treatment and has not launched an investigation.

Arrest and booking records show that deputies fired a stun gun at Fleuret at least 10 times in the county jail. The arresting officer wrote that he sprayed Fleuret twice with pepper spray and hit him in the legs with a baton as he tried to break up a fight at the bar.

Deputies who filed reports after the jailhouse struggle wrote that Fleuret was extremely intoxicated and was ”agitated, strong and aggressive.” One deputy wrote that it took three deputies to hold down his legs and that he continued to fight even after he was strapped into the chair.

The first portion of the video shows Fleuret sitting handcuffed on a bench as he waits to be booked. A deputy walks up and appears to elbow Fleuret on the side of the head.

A few minutes later, the shirtless and handcuffed Fleuret is heard saying, ”I didn’t do nothing,” and asks to see an attorney.

The video then shows two deputies escorting Fleuret down a hallway, but as they approach the doorway to a medical unit, Fleuret shouts ”No,” followed by an expletive. He begins to struggle and at least six deputies swarm him and wrestle him to the ground.

Someone commands ”Tase him!” and ”Tase him again!” as Fleuret screams. One deputy can be seen pinning his neck to the floor with his knee, while several other deputies appear to use their hands to hold his back and legs down.

Fleuret repeatedly screams, ”I can’t breathe!” as a deputy urges him to relax.

”The more you resist, the worse it gets,” the deputy says.

Fleuret is then dragged into the medical unit and someone pulls down his jeans. Several other deputies hoist him into a chair, secure straps across his chest and place a black, transparent hood over his head _ a ‘’spit guard” to keep him from spitting at deputies.

While a nurse examines him, Fleuret complains: ”This ain’t right, man.”

Bernard said Fleuret, who now lives in Utah, was seriously injured and suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder. He can no longer work in construction, the attorney said.

”He’s got rotator cuff injuries, he probably will need surgery,” Bernard said. ”He has damage to both wrists, he has a head injury, he’s got a concussion, he’s got visual problems.”

Lawinfo Weblog » Video Captures Jailhouse Struggle

US CODE: Title 28,1343. Civil rights and elective franchise

(a) The district courts shall have original jurisdiction of any civil action authorized by law to be commenced by any person:
(1) To recover damages for injury to his person or property, or because of the deprivation of any right or privilege of a citizen of the United States, by any act done in furtherance of any conspiracy mentioned in section 1985 of Title 42;
(2) To recover damages from any person who fails to prevent or to aid in preventing any wrongs mentioned in section 1985 of Title 42 which he had knowledge were about to occur and power to prevent;
(3) To redress the deprivation, under color of any State law, statute, ordinance, regulation, custom or usage, of any right, privilege or immunity secured by the Constitution of the United States or by any Act of Congress providing for equal rights of citizens or of all persons within the jurisdiction of the United States;
(4) To recover damages or to secure equitable or other relief under any Act of Congress providing for the protection of civil rights, including the right to vote.
(b) For purposes of this section—
(1) the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a State; and
(2) any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode28/usc_sec_28_00001343—-000-.html

Reform Order of Dept. of Human Services

by KYW’s Steve Tawa

Mayor Nutter has signed an executive order that renews the charter for an independent community oversight board to monitor reform efforts within the often criticized Department of Human Services.

Board co-chair Carol Spigner says 14-of-21 recommendations have been completed in improving the DHS system to protect children from abuse and neglect. But she says there are challenges:

“The first is monthly face to face contact with children.”

Acting DHS commissioner Arthur Evans cites 80 vacancies among social workers with heavy caseloads.

Mayor Nutter says DHS workers don’t get the same kind of recognition for saving lives that police and firefighters rightly receive:

“They are really good, committed people, who do these jobs that many of us would shudder, if we had to listen to or interact with some of the things that people to do children and to each other.”

City officials say children known to DHS are ’safer today than they were a year ago,’ because of their aggressive reform agenda.

http://www.kyw1060.com/pages/1539515.php?contentType=4&contentId=1458655

Cali Readers, Is This True, Let Us Know

By JAMIE GENTNER

Photo by Deborra Brannon – Siskiyou County Human Services Interim Director Katherine O’Shea, left, and Program Manager Debbie Walsh, right, give the annual CalWORKs report to the Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 4.

Daily News Staff Writer
SISKIYOU COUNTY – The Siskiyou County Board of Supervisors were recently given a year-end review of one county Department of Human Services program that aims to make people feel valuable and self-sufficient once again, according to Program Manager Debbie Walsh.
That program is the California Work Opportunity Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs), California’s Welfare to Work program.
’The program is individual-based so that families get what they need,’ Walsh said. ’We tailor the plan to them so we can help them through whatever they are facing.’
Eligible families are given a monthly cash aid allotment based on their family size, as well as assistance with transportation, clothing and job skills.
But clients only receive what assistance they want and are willing to work for.
’This is not a handout; they have to work for it,’ Walsh said. ’It’s their plan, not ours. They have to want it. We just help them make the steps to get through what they need to and to see just how successful they can be.’
To be eligible, clients must meet work requirements of 32 a week for one-parent families or 35 hours a week for two-parent families, have dependent children, meet deprivation requirements (a deceased or absent parent, incapacitation, etc.) and have resources and income that falls within program regulations (no property over $2,000).

After determining eligibility, clients meet with Human Services staff to develop a plan that is geared toward their needs.
To do so, Human Services partners with the county’s Department of Behavioral Health, Workforce Connection, the Siskiyou Child Care Council, Siskiyou Domestic Violence and Crisis Center, College of the Siskiyous, family resource centers around the county and other county organizations.
Walsh said the program has had ’great success.’
The number of cases Human Services deals with each month has been cut in half in the past 10 years. Walsh shared several success stories with the supervisors, and she said many clients have gone on to get degrees in their desired fields.
’We try to provide them the opportunity to follow their dreams,’ she said. ’We’re here to get them through tough times and get them back on their feet.’
In order to fulfill that commitment, Human Services staff members brought a proposal to the supervisors in December requesting staffing changes they felt would allow them to better serve their clients and raise program participation rate.
To find out why that is, look for the second part of this story in Monday’s edition.

http://www.siskiyoudaily.com/articles/2008/01/25/news/7110408news2.txt