Posted on 05/19/2010 2:39:42 PM PDT by Former Military Chick
To hear them tell it, the officers who apprehended 39-year-old David Pyles on March 8 thwarted a mass murder. The cops “were able to successfully take a potentially volatile male subject into protective custody for a mental evaluation,” the Medford, Oregon, police department announced in a press release. The subject had been placed on administrative leave from his job not long before, was “very disgruntled,” and had recently purchased several firearms. “Local Law Enforcement agencies were extremely concerned that the subject was planning retaliation against his employers,” the press release said. Fortunately, Pyles “voluntarily” turned himself over to police custody, and his legally purchased firearms “were seized for safekeeping.”
This supposedly voluntary exchange involved two SWAT teams, officers from Medford and nearby Roseburg, sheriff’s deputies from Jackson and Douglas counties, and the Oregon State Police. Pyles hadn’t committed any crime; nor was he suspected of having committed one. The police never obtained a warrant for either search or arrest. They never consulted with a judge or a mental health professional before sending military-style tactical teams to take Pyles in.
“They woke me up with a phone call at about 5:50 in the morning,” Pyles says. “I looked out the window and saw the SWAT team pointing their guns at my house. The officer on the phone told me to turn myself in. I told them I would, on three conditions. I would not be handcuffed. I would not be taken off my property. And I would not be forced to get a mental health evaluation. He agreed. The second I stepped outside, they jumped me. Then they handcuffed me, took me off my property, and took me to get a mental health evaluation.”
By noon, Pyles had already been released from the Rogue Valley Medical Center with a clean bill of mental health. Four days later the Medford Police Department returned Pyles’ guns, despite telling him earlier in the week—falsely—that he would need to undergo a second background check before he could get them back. The Medford Police Department then put out a second press release, this time announcing that it had returned the “disgruntled” worker’s guns and “now considers this matter closed.”
There’s nothing wrong with looking for signs that someone is about to snap. If he is waving multiple red flags, we’d certainly want law enforcement to investigate. And obviously if someone has made specific threats, a criminal investigation should follow. But that’s a far cry from what happened to Pyles.
Pyles’ problems followed a series of grievances with his employer, the Oregon Department of Transportation. “It was never personal,” he says. “We were handling the grievances through the process stipulated in the union contract.” (Pyles declined to discuss the nature of the complaints, citing conditions in his contract.) On March 4 he was placed on administrative leave, which required him to work from home. On March 5, 6, and 7, after getting his income tax refund, he made three purchases of five firearms. Pyles describes himself as a gun enthusiast who already owned several weapons.
All three purchases required an Oregon background check, which would have prohibited the transactions had Pyles ever been convicted of a felony or a misdemeanor involving violence or been committed by the state to a mental health institution. Pyles says he has no criminal record, and he says he never threatened anyone in his office. (Later reports confirmed that Pyles never made any threat of violence.) The Oregon State Police, the Medford Police Department, and the Oregon Department of Transportation did not respond to requests for comment.
“In my opinion, the apprehension of David Pyles was a violation of Oregon’s kidnapping laws,” says James Leuenberger, a criminal defense attorney who is advising Pyles. “He definitely deserves to be compensated for what they did to him, but even if he wins a civil rights suit, that will just result in the officers’ employers paying for their mistakes.” That means the final tab will be paid by Oregon taxpayers, not the offending cops. “I want these law enforcement officials held personally responsible,” Leuenberger says. “I want them criminally charged.”
It’s hard to see that happening. Joseph Bloom, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University and an expert on civil commitment law, says the police who apprehended and detained Pyles likely were acting within the state’s laws. Bloom says the police are permitted to decide on their own to take someone in for an evaluation, and that there’s no requirement that they first consult with a judge or a mental health professional.
Bloom believes this is a wise policy. “It’s important to remember that this is a civil process,” he says. “There’s no arrest. These people aren’t being taken to jail. It’s not a criminal action.”
SWAT teams, guns, and handcuffs …but not a criminal action? And what if Pyles had refused to “voluntarily” surrender to the police? “Well, yes,” Bloom says. “I guess then it would become a criminal matter.”
If what happened to Pyles is legal in Oregon or elsewhere, we need to take a second look at the civil commitment power. Even setting aside the SWAT overkill in Medford, there’s something discomfiting about granting the government the power to yank someone from his home based only on a series of actions that were perfectly lawful.
Even if the apprehension of Pyles was legal, the seizure of his guns was not. Civil commitment laws do not authorize the police to search a private residence. According to Pyles, he closed the door behind him as he left his home. Because the police didn’t have a search warrant, they had no right to enter Pyles’ home, much less take weapons that he bought and possessed legally.
“For me,” says Pyles, “this is about civil rights. This seems like something the NRA and the ACLU can agree on. South Oregon is big gun country. If something like this can happen here, where just about everyone owns a gun, it can happen anywhere.”
Radley Balko (rbalko@reason.com) is a senior editor at reason.
Do we judge the number of convictions as compared to indictments, or as a factor of the number of dead civilians in no-knock raids? Do we just limit it to "isolated instances" of the most brazenly stupid and black-gloved thug LEO criminality, the ones that actually leak into the news, the ones on tape that the Legal Thuggery couldn't bury?
Sorry, I'm not buying the "hundreds, at least."
On the http://twitter.com/InjusticeNews site, I count 16 instances in the LAST 24 HOURS! Each of these deserve automatic FEDERAL investigation, felony conviction and EXTENSIVE jail time for abuse of police powers under color of law. Twenty years, as a start, or more, since with greater power comes greater risk. With the attendant media coverage, perp walks, interviews with the neighbors, and the dog catcher... I can hear all the cops on FR squealing about how this would "impede investigations." Well, welcome to the world of civilians...
Like that's going to happen.
One other point: When the Center doesn't hold, and this counrty goes the way of Greece and Thailand and, soon, Spain and Italy, guess who is going to be at the sharp end of supporting the Communist power structure? So, you all keep strutting around with shaved heads and bloused boots and ninja suits, smashing down doors and shooting everything that moves. Karma, She's a b****!
Anatomy of an Incident: Guns seized in Medford(OR)
Statements that cast a bad light on David Pyles.
Incident reports from Medford police and the Jackson County Sheriff's Department describe verbal outbursts and "a declining state of mental health" seen in slipping personal hygiene and appearance, and a "somewhat disorderly and uncooperative" exit when the man was placed on administrative leave on March 4.Deputy Chief Tim George wrote that officers who attended a meeting with OSP and the sheriff's office about Pyles on March 7 told him that "Pyles was somewhat disorderly and uncooperative with supervisors and staff" at the ODOT offices when he was escorted out. "There was fear among the employees of ODOT that Pyles could cause them harm," George wrote.
Medford police Sgt. Scott Clauson wrote that he was told Pyles had left the building, but went to the back door and began banging on it before eventually leaving. Clauson's report also notes that Pyles had become "increasingly disgruntled over the last six months" and that coworkers said he was prone to frequent outbursts.
Statements that support David Pyles.
Pyles declined to discuss with the Mail Tribune any outbursts or other aspects of his behavior at work, which he said was part of his dispute being handled through the union. He denied having returned to bang on a door after being escorted out of the building on March 4.Marmon told the officers that Pyles hadn't made any specific threats of violence, but he was concerned about "possible retaliation or workplace violence," Cicero's report said.
Retzer and Lt. Rich Fogarty went to the ODOT office on Antelope Road at about 7:45 p.m. to examine Pyles' desk and computer. Retzer's report said he found no papers about workplace conflicts. The computer's hard drive had documents in which Pyles discussed harassment happening at work and a worker's compensation claim about "anxiety, depression and physiological aliments caused by his workplace stress."
Retzer said he didn't find any threats toward Pyles' coworkers or supervisors or any indication that Pyles would harm himself.
At 9:24 p.m., state police sent a teletype to law enforcement across southwest Oregon asking officers to be on the lookout for Pyles and warning of potential officer safety issues. It warned that he might be unstable and had made "concerning statements." "There is no PC (probable cause) for arrest and no specific threat," it read.
That is not exhaustive. There is also quite a bit about how the police began watching the gun purchase data base to see if his name popped up and other disturbing things about how they conduct their business and just how his co-workers got all stirred up about his firearms purchases. ie the police had to let his supervisor know who then put a bug in the ear of the co-workers or something along those lines.
Nobody is saying yet what the deal was that had everyone all het up at ODOT. There is no "pre-crime" detail or lawful process to do what they did to this guy. They just grossly abused the system to give special protection (that you and I would never get) to another government agency.
But herein is one reason I don't buy firearms from licensed dealers. It is too bad for them because they are good folks who deserve the business - I just value my own personal security more). Oregon is one of the less intrusive states with no registration (supposedly), but with those background checks go data that is collected and kept. For me the question was never if but when the system would be abused.
Pyles is thankfully alive to fight the good fight, but surviving a SWAT intervention anywhere is like surviving Russian roulette.
Heads should be rolling here. They won't, but they should.
True...
I am betting I will never see this story on the lame stream media.
LOL. I actually thought the guy in Oregon made a wise decision and the cops acted “stupidly”.
As Gen. Custer once said, “SUE, SUE, SUE”.
Chris
Along with a general, but not as detailed, recap of everything the mailtribune has reported to date and info on how to contribute to Mr. Pyles’ legal fund can be found here http://www.oregonfirearms.org/alertspage/Outrage.html
Tuesday, March 30, 2010, 11:24:54 PM– Flag – Like – Reply – Delete – Edit – Moderate”
Wow! you really dug into that. Thanks for pinging me to that link. Will see what they have going on at Oregonfirearms.org.
I also had “contact” with some real winners, especially the one I argued with for over 30 minutes on opening day, fishing rule book in hand, until I demanded he call the District Commander, whom I knew. He was told that yes, we were all in legal waters, and ordered to go elsewhere. He then admitted, before leaving in a huff, that most people just take the ticket, and either pay it; or fight it and take a 50-50 chance on the judge! His contention ad been that we were not fishing in a tributary of the river, because it flowed into the river upstream from a dam which impounded the river, making it a tributary to the lake, not the river!
Well said. I’ll be quoting you in Monster Ping.
The phone call seemed to be a much better approach for fist contact than starting out by pounding on the front door.
fist -—>first. 5 am might be a bit early though.
Oregon is nothing more that Northern California. Fruits and nuts.
Maybe, maybe not. It is a lot harder to do this without detection than you think. In addition to the file itself, you would have to change any copies in the shadow volumes (restore points), as well as make sure no copies of the MFT existed in unallocated space, page files, hibernation files, etc. That takes quite a bit of time and technical expertise. If you miss even one, it becomes obvious what was done.
Falling Down.
If you aren’t doing anything wrong, then why be concerned?
Oh, wait.....
Yes, but then again you don't have to convince me, just a jury that knows nothing of computers and sees only the examples of what they "found" (photos) and the evil "man" in the orange jump suit.
Presto, guilty.
Bump
Ay yai yaiiii! That's a double-face palm.
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