-->ClickPosted on 01/06/2004 1:32:09 PM PST by archy
Firings linked to excessive force, man's death
'Not good enough,' brother says: 'They should be prosecuted'
By Chris Conley
Contact
December 24, 2003
Two Memphis police officers were fired Tuesday for using excessive force in subduing an emotionally disturbed man who died during a struggle with police.
Denvey Buckley, 43, collapsed and died outside his home at 1115 Rembert in South Memphis on April 19 after police used chemical spray and police batons to restrain him.
Witnesses said officers continued to strike Buckley with their police batons after he was subdued.
Officers Phillip Penny, 26, and Robert Tebbetts, 30, were fired Tuesday after their superiors determined they had used excessive force. Penny joined the department in February 1999 and Tebbetts in July 1999.
Officer Kurtis Schilk, 32 and on the force since 1998, also has been charged administratively with using excessive force, but his case is pending.
A fourth officer, Johnny Schafer Jr., 34, was suspended without pay for one day.
Schafer, the crisis intervention team officer sent to the Rembert scene to negotiate with Buckley, did not have necessary equipment with him, according to the internal affairs investigation report.
Deputy Chief Janice Pilot, who meted out the penalties, said the fired officers were guilty of "mishandling their batons" during the arrest. Officers are trained to use the batons only to incapacitate, usually by striking at pressure points in the legs and arms.
Buckley had several welts on his back caused by batons, and a large gash on the back of his head.
Witnesses said officers held batons to the back of Buckley's neck to prevent him from rising after he had fallen.
Dr. O. C. Smith, Shelby County medical examiner, ruled the overweight Buckley had heart disease and his death was from natural causes.
The District Attorney General's Office chose not to prosecute the officers, Pilot said in a written statement.
Attorney Buck Wellford, who represents Buckley's family in a federal lawsuit against the officers, said their actions "clearly caused his death."
Wellford said Buckley "would not have died when he did, without the stress" of the struggle.
And though he had heart disease, Buckley had no history of chest pains. A full autopsy showed Buckley did not have any drugs in his system when he died, Wellford said.
He called the department's decision to take action against the officers "extremely rare."
"I would have been more impressed if they had done it earlier," he said.
Buckley's family members, while saying they gained some satisfaction from the firings, believe the officers should face criminal charges.
"They took my brother's life for nothing," said Calvin Buckley. "They beat him down. Firing is not good enough. They should be prosecuted."
Valorie Dortch witnessed part of the struggle that ended with her brother's death.
"I could not believe my eyes," she said. "Life is too short already. We don't need this in our society."
Police had been called to the home on Rembert because Buckley was acting suicidal and had cut his wrists. When police tried to restrain him on his porch, Buckley ran toward the street.
Witnesses said "Mr. Buckley was running from police and that he was being struck with police batons in an attempt to stop his actions (running)," the internal affairs report reads.
Witness Barbara Avery said Schilk straddled Buckley after he had fallen and "placed his baton across the neck . . . to prevent (Buckley) from getting back up," the report reads.
That method of controlling an individual "is not part of the curriculum taught or condoned" by the department, the internal affairs report concludes.
Firefighter/paramedic Jason Berry testified during the investigation that the officers struck Buckley in the head with their clubs.
Buckley fell "after repeated blows to the head," he told internal affairs investigators.
Capt. Samuel Williams, president of the Memphis Police Association, said he believes the officers should not have been fired.
"Where are the grounds to fire people?" he asked.
"You can't let public opinion dictate what you do," he said. "I don't think it sends a good message."
He said the officers had already filed notices of appeal to the civil service board.
- Chris Conley: 529-2595
-archy-/-
-->ClickHorse puckey, Deputy Chief Janice. You can't zero in on "pressure points" with a baton under the "best" of conditions (e.g. unlawfully, with the subject restrained or unconcious) -- batons, expandable or otherwise, are to be used to effect "pain control" and temporary incapacitation through swelling of soft tissue, and not bone, with the legs, and not the arms, as the target.
It would be interesting to learn whether she obtained any police training or was recruited from the ranks of non-sworn police department personnel or other non-LEOs in her town.
However, it would appear that the officers involved either received inadequate training or dumped their adrenaline along with their training during the fray.
More should be expected of shopping mall security officers....
I'll look into that. The feds just nailed a bunch of the MPD's property room personnel on charges of gun and narcotic trafficking and racketeering, and that's not the first such problem in the MPD that the feds have had to clean up.
A couple of years back, the *Organized Crime Bureau* [which unit's duties included the internal affairs investigations] got caught committing fraud and using department-issued credit cards meant for undercover operations for personal use, including vacations. There was a resignation and replacement of the mayor's Police Director over that, and most of the old internal affairs files were shredded as a result, meaning that now you can wonder what sorts of criminality a Memphis cop with over 5 years service has been up to- if ever brought to any official attention, it's now been covered up.
And the questions regarding the MPD's involvement in the Martin Luther King murder- in particular MPD police rifleman Lt. Earl Clark- and other killings, including organized crime hits in the Midsouth remain. The verdict in the ML King civil trial a couple of years baclk makes it pretty clear what those Memphians thought some MPD officers were capable of, at least. And there've been other murders....
-archy-/-
Any news on that front??
Any news yet on that front?? Thanks...
Not yet. There's a related case in a Memphis courtroom on the 15th, and I may wander by to see if Buck Wellford or one of his assistants shows up at that one. And it's possible too that one of the police beat reporters might know. If I find out, I'll let you know.
-archy-/-
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