Choosing to Die

In a frank and personal documentary, author Sir Terry Pratchett considers how he might choose to end his life. Diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2008, Terry wants to know whether he might be able to end his life before his disease takes over.

Traveling to the Dignitas Clinic in Switzerland, Terry witnesses first hand the procedures set out for assisted death, and confronts the point at which he would have to take the lethal drug. From BBC Two, 2011 – one hour.

From The Portland Mercury, August 30, 2012

Heeding calls by advocates to find new ways to keep police officers and public-safety dispatchers out of the very touchy suicide-response business, this fall Portland officials are moving forward with yet another initiative meant to divert mental-health calls from 911.

On Wednesday, August 29, Portland City Council was expected to spend $150,000 to shore up the suicide prevention services offered by Lines for Life (formerly known as the Oregon Partnership). The six-month program will help the nonprofit roll out a new hotline that government officials, ministers, and leaders in the queer community will all promote as the first and best number to call—not 911—for someone in crisis.

Final details will be released in a few more weeks—just in time to mark Suicide Prevention Awareness Month—and skeptics already are coming forward. But if the project is successful, it could prompt even deeper changes in the way suicide calls are handled in Portland.

“The hope is people will call this number instead of 911,” says Commissioner Amanda Fritz, who oversees the city’s 911 dispatchers and who helped push for the grant along with Mayor Sam Adams. “Their staff and volunteers have extensive training in risk assessment and counseling. Our operators get some training, but not nearly to the same extent.”

The shift comes as traditional safety-net services for the mentally ill unravel in the face of budget cuts, contributing to a doubling, just over the past decade, in the number of suicide calls handled by Portland police. The perils of that dynamic came into focus earlier this year when Portland police officers wound up shooting a suicidal man atop a downtown parking garage.

Lines for Life claims that 98 percent of its calls—more than 17,000 last year—are solved without help from cops. Tom Parker, a spokesman for the nonprofit, says that’s because its volunteers can do things that 911 dispatchers can’t do: take calls that involve a weapon or the prospect of imminent harm, and spend as long as it takes until a call “de-escalates.” Lines for Life also can accept text messages and has specialists on hand if someone like, say, a veteran calls and threatens suicide.

“By us picking up the slack, with the city pointing more people in our direction,” says Parker, “we can do what we’re really effective at. It’s not a timed phone call. We’d talk as long as you needed us to talk.”

All that said, the project isn’t without detractors. Some advocates worry the city will send mixed signals about where people in crisis—or loved ones worried about them—should turn.

The city is already in the midst of a separate 911 experiment, advocates note. Under that project, when suicide calls do come to 911, dispatchers are supposed to send the “non-threatening” ones over to Multnomah County’s crisis call center. County and city officials both confirm that hundreds of calls have been diverted from 911 to the county since that program started on May 30. Meanwhile, the police bureau also has tentative plans to create its own mental health reporting unit.

“We need one number that people in crisis can call for immediate, knowledgeable information. We just put a lot of time and energy into making a go of the county program,” says Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland. “This sounds like a competitive, confusing scenario.”

City officials, including the mayor, agree the goal should be one suicide hotline number. It could be, however, that the city is already thinking of ending its 911 relationship with the county. Which would leave the Lines for Life project as the city’s main focus.

David Austin, a spokesman for Multnomah County, says it’s too early to draw conclusions about the success of the program after just a few months. Both sides are supposed to step back in November and see if they want to deepen the relationship. But sources in city hall tell the Mercury that officials are cooling on the arrangement.

Fritz says the Portland Bureau of Emergency Communications would review both projects next year. Asked about the chance that 911 dispatchers would also start sending calls to Lines for Life instead of the county, she wouldn’t rule it out.

“We may eventually get to that,” she says. For now, “we’re seeing how it works out. Next year, we can modify all of our protocols.”

From The Oregonian, August 30, 2012

Moments after a federal judge read the jury’s $2.5 million verdict, Hope Glenn turned away from the counsel table and clung to her husband, in tears.

Jurors decided Thursday that Washington County sheriff’s deputies violated the Fourth Amendment rights of 18-year-old Lukus Glenn when they fatally shot him in 2006. The unanimous verdict also faulted retired Sheriff Rob Gordon, who approved of the shooting after an administrative review.

The teen’s parents, Hope and Brad Glenn, first brought the wrongful death lawsuit against the county and its deputies, Mikhail Gerba and Timothy Mateski, in 2008.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman dismissed it on summary judgment in 2010. On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a trial in the case, saying the facts were in dispute and the court was not allowed to act as fact-finder on summary judgment.

Attorney Michael Cox said the Glenns in 2006 didn’t get a fair, transparent investigation into the shooting of their son.

In the face of “untold grief,” Cox said, the parents continued seeking justice for their only child, whose death they witnessed in front of their Metzger home Sept. 16, 2006.

But jurors this week confirmed what the Glenns knew from the start, he said.

“They could see with their own eyes that this was wrong,” he said.

The trial provided Washington County “a moment of accountability,” Cox said. “This is a call for change.”

The shooting occurred after Hope Glenn called 9-1-1 just after 3 a.m. reporting her son was drunk, armed with a pocketknife and threatening suicide.

Minutes later, deputies arrived to find Lukus Glenn outside the family’s Metzger home, holding the knife to his neck. With the teen at gunpoint, deputies shouted commands.

When Glenn did not drop the knife, a Tigard police officer shot him with beanbag rounds. Gerba and Mateski then opened fire after determining that Glenn was moving toward the house, where his parents and grandmother were inside.

Hope and Brad Glenn watched the shooting from the entrance to their home, while two of Lukus Glenn’s friends watched outside, from behind the deputies.

Larry Peterson, an attorney for the Glenns, argued to jurors that a number of mistakes led to a “false narrative” by police attempting to disguise an unreasonable shooting.

William Blair, attorney for the county and its deputies, argued the shooting was tragic but justified. The deputies acted in response to the threat Glenn presented to himself, to his family and friends and to them, he told jurors.

The trial lasted seven days. A seven-member jury left the courtroom on the 16th floor of the federal courthouse in Portland late afternoon Wednesday. About eight hours of deliberation later, the Glenns had validation.

When the verdict was read, the family had about a dozen supporters in the room.

Hope Glenn teared up, covered her mouth with her hand and cried. Her lawyers hugged her. She turned away and reached for her husband, seated behind her.

Speaking through tears later, Hope Glenn said the moment “felt like we finally got justice for Lukus.”

The verdict doesn’t bring back their son or take away their pain, she said, but she hopes it changes the outcome for other families who call the police in moments of need.

“It’s hard to fight against the police,” she said.

Brad Glenn said witnessing their son’s killing fueled their resolve to see the case to trial.

“We knew the truth,” he said.

His wife added that they drew strength from one another.

“We had each other,” she said. “Brad’s my rock.”

At every turn, she said, they never forgot their purpose.

“We knew we’d just continue to fight for Lukus,” she said.

The two officers were stoic after the verdict was read and were quickly ushered out of the courtroom by their attorneys. Sheriff Pat Garrett was also in the courtroom.

The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said it has not yet decided whether to appeal the verdict.

From The Oregonian, August 30, 2012

Oregon will receive more than $4.2 million under a multi-state settlement over alleged illegal marketing of the anti-psychotic drug Risperdal.

The consumer protection settlement announced this morning is based on a long-running investigation into whether Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc, a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, paid kickbacks to providers to use the drug for unapproved purposes such as managing elderly in nursing homes – while downplaying safety concerns. The drug’s side effects include increased risk for obesity and diabetes, as well as for strokes in older people.

“This is our most important case settlement yet involving “Big Pharma,” said Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum. “Some of Oregon’s most vulnerable citizens will be the beneficiaries.”

Under the settlement, Janssen agrees to pay $181 million split between 36 states and to curb payments to health care professionals, fully disclose safety risks and not make misleading claims over drugs like Risperdal, known as atypical antipsychotics.

The settlement is the latest in a string of cases involving Risperdal, known as risperidone in its generic form, as well as a related drug, Invega. The federal government is close to a large settlement with Johnson & Johnson over Risperdal marketing of about $2 billion, according to news accounts. In April, a judge in Arkansas fined the company $1.1 billion for violations of the state’s Medicaid fraud law.

In 2010 the Oregon Department of Justice reached a related settlement with Omnicare, a nursing home pharmacy, in which the firm agreed to pay $300,000 and make reforms in response to allegations that it accepted kickbacks from Johnson & Johnson to promote Risperdal.

Oregon’s share of the most recent settlement includes an extra $600,000 in recognition of its direct participation in the case. David Hart assistant attorney-in-charge of the Oregon DOJ financial fraud/consumer protection section, helped negotiate the settlement.

The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive – Part One

The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive – Part Two

From Top Documentary Films: Stephen Fry presents this documentary exploring the disease of manic depression; a little understood but potentially devastating condition affecting an estimated two percent of the population.

Stephen embarks on an emotional journey to meet fellow sufferers, and discuss the literal highs and lows of being bi-polar.

Celebrities such as Carrie Fisher and Richard Dreyfuss invite the comedian into their home to relate their stories.

Plus Stephen looks into the lives of ordinary people trying to deal with the illness at work and home, and of course to the people studying manic depression in an effort to better control it. A fascinating, moving and ultimately very entertaining Emmy Award-winning programme.

From The Oregonian, August 24, 2012

A Clackamas County grand jury has declined to criminally charge a Gladstone police officer who shot and killed a 23-year-old Gladstone man in an armed confrontation at his home.

Michael Evans

The grand jury met over two days, reviewing evidence presented by the Clackamas County District Attorney’s Office and returned its findings today.

The decision means that Gladstone Officer Steve Mixson will not face charges in the Aug. 14 death of Michael Justin Evans, who was “armed with a knife and threatened” him outside a home he shared with his grandmother, said Gregory D. Horner, chief deputy district attorney.

Mixson and fellow Officer Christopher Spore were dispatched around 10:30 p.m. to investigate a report by Evans’ grandmother, Judie K. Reich, that he was tearing up her house in the 300 block of West Fairfield Street. Details of the confrontation have not been released, but Mixson was identified as the officer who fired on Evans.

An orange spray-painted outline in the sunburned lawn indicated he died outside the house.

Gladstone Police Chief Jim Pryde said that since the grand jury has finished its work, he has called for an internal investigation to determine whether Mixson and Spore violated any department policies. He said the investigation would be headed by a Milwaukie police captain.

Meanwhile, Mixson and Spore will remain on paid administrative leave until they are certified by a physician that they are able to return to work.

“This has been a very difficult time for all of us,” Pryde said. “The officers were deeply impacted by it, and we are grieving for the family of Michael.”

At the same time, while calling Evans’ death a “tragedy,” Pryde said the grand jury’s finding affirmed that “Officer Mixson did his job a very, very difficult situation.”

Some who knew Evans said he said he was basically a sweet person who valued his friends and family. However, others said he led a troubled life gripped by mental illness and substance abuse, which occasionally made him almost unrecognizable.

According to Clackamas County 9-1-1 records, police were dispatched to his home 10 times in the past 20 months to investigate domestic disturbances, criminal mischief, noise complaints, suicide attempts and threats.

A former girlfriend obtained a restraining order against Evans five months ago after describing him as emotionally unstable, threatening and violent. She said he was in recovery from heroin addiction and that he had attempted suicide several times.

When he was killed, Evans still was on probation from 2011 convictions for attempting to elude a police officer, a Class C felony, and reckless driving, a Class A misdemeanor. Evans served seven days in jail as part of his sentence.

He also was on probation from a contempt of court citation he received last month.

Despite earlier reports, Evans’ father, Dean Michael Evans, said his son never talked about seeking “suicide by cop.”

Evans could not be reached. He is attending a celebration of life service for his son held today in Gresham.

READ – Everything about what happened to Lukus Glenn

Jury in Lukus Glenn wrongful death trial finds fatal shooting violated his rights

From The Oregonian, August 30, 2012

Jurors sided with the Glenn family in the wrongful death lawsuit filed on behalf on Lukus Glenn, shot and killed by Washington County sheriff’s deputies outside his Metzger home in 2006.

The verdict, read just after 3:30 p.m. Thursday, awarded $2.5 million in damages. Jurors found that deputies violated the teen’s Fourth Amendment rights in the shooting. They also found that former Sheriff Rob Gordon approved of the deputies’ actions in his executive summary, following an administrative review, which said the shooting was appropriate.

The lawsuit, filed in 2008, sought $5 million in damages from defendants Washington County and sheriff’s deputies Mikhail Gerba and Timothy Mateski, who fired the lethal rounds.

U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman dismissed the suit in 2010. On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a trial in the case, saying the facts of the case were in dispute and the court was not allowed to act as factfinder on summary judgment.

The Glenns’ day in court came last week, nearly six years after Hope and Brad Glenn witnessed the killing of their only child.

The incident began just after 3 a.m. Sept. 16, 2006, when Hope Glenn called 9-1-1, reporting her son was drunk, armed with a pocketknife and threatening suicide.

Minutes later, deputies arrived to find Lukus Glenn, 18, outside the family’s Metzger home, holding the knife to his neck. With the teen at gunpoint, deputies shouted commands. When he did not drop the knife, a Tigard police officer shot him with beanbag rounds. Gerba and Mateski then opened fire after determining that Glenn was moving toward the house, where his parents and grandmother were inside.

Attorney for the Glenns, Larry Peterson, stressed to jurors a number of mistakes led to a “false narrative” by police attempting to disguise an unreasonable shooting.

William Blair, attorney for the county and its deputies, argued the shooting was tragic but reasonable. The deputies acted in response to the threat Glenn presented to himself, to his family and friends and to them, he told jurors.

Jury awards $2.5 million to mother in Lukus Glenn case

From KATU.com, August 30, 2012

The mother of a Tigard teenager shot and killed by deputies won her lawsuit against the Washington County Sheriff’s Office and the two deputies who opened fire.

A jury in federal court awarded Hope Glenn $2.5 million in the wrongful death suit of her son Lukus Glenn.

Lukus Glenn was shot and killed by deputies in 2006 after his mother had called 9-1-1 to report she feared for her son’s safety and the safety of others around him.

Lukus, 18, was armed with a knife at the time. The deputies reportedly told him to drop the knife before firing.

He was hit with six beanbag rounds before Washington County Sheriff’s deputies fired their service weapons, hitting him eight times, when they said he refused to surrender.

The deputies fired the beanbags and the live rounds in a span of just eight seconds. Hope Glenn has always contended the deputies acted too quickly in shooting and killing her son.

“I’m hoping that nobody else has to go through what we went through and other kids won’t be shot,” she said after the jury’s decision.

On Thursday in a federal courtroom, a jury said they agreed that the sheriff’s office should be held accountable.

The jury said that the two deputies and former sheriff Rob Gordon were responsible for the wrongful death.

Sgt. Bob Ray, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said they the department has not yet decided if they will appeal the decision.

“This has been a very difficult ordeal for the family of Lukus Glenn and for our deputies and their families,” he said in a statement.

The deputies were previously cleared of any criminal charges.

When asked whether there was any intention of changing policy or training within the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, Sheriff Pat Garrett said, “You know that is an ongoing process that we take very seriously with an administrative review, with an annual training that we provide every year. So that’s not something that would be new for us. That is an ongoing part of the evolution of our organization.”

It’s not clear if Washington County will appeal the decision.

The decision by the seven-member jury comes after a long legal journey for Hope. It included a judgment against her by a federal judge, which was later overturned by an appeals court.

The decision is historic not only for the rarity of a jury ruling against a law enforcement agency but also for the $2.5 million it decided to award Hope in this wrongful death suit.

Outside the courthouse, Hope and Brad Glenn hugged their supporters, including a couple of Lukus’ friends who were there the night of the shooting and witnessed it.

Lukus Glenn wrongful death lawsuit awaits jury’s verdict

From The Oregonian, August 29, 2012

Jurors in the wrongful death trial of Lukus Glenn, fatally shot by Washington County sheriff’s deputies in 2006, left the courtroom to deliberate after 4 p.m. Wednesday.

On the final day of trial, they heard from the deputies who opened fire on the 18-year-old, who was holding a knife outside his Metzger home Sept. 16, 2006. Then, attorneys delivered closing arguments for little more than two hours.

In closing arguments, Larry Peterson, representing the Glenn family, stressed to jurors a number of mistakes led to a “false narrative” by police attempting to disguise an unreasonable shooting.

Hope Glenn called 9-1-1 just after 3 a.m. that morning for help with her drunk son. He was holding a knife, demanding his car keys and threatening suicide. His friends and family were struggling to talk sense into him.

“You ought not be afraid to call and seek assistance,” Peterson said. “If Lukus Glenn was saying anything that night with his knife to his neck, he said one thing loud and clear: ‘Help me.’ That’s what Lukus Glenn was saying as he stood there.”

The defense counsel for Washington County and two of its deputies wanted jurors to believe Glenn was in control of his behavior that early morning, Peterson said. But with a blood alcohol content more than twice the legal limit, he was not in control but in danger.

“He was the person that ought to have had the protection offered by our police services,” Peterson said. “He didn’t get it.”

Deputies Mikhail Gerba and Timothy Mateski, who fired the lethal gunshots, and the Tigard police officer who shot Glenn with beanbag rounds had changed their stories over time, Peterson argued, because they first tried to establish a time gap between the firing of less-lethal and lethal rounds.

When an audio recording of the 9-1-1 call that captured the gunfire surfaced, police had to explain the impossibilities in their initial stories, he argued.

Peterson told jurors the sheriff’s office administrative review didn’t resolve the inconsistencies throughout the investigation. By contrast, he said, the statements of Glenn’s parents,and his two friends who witnessed the shooting remained consistent.

William Blair, attorney for the county and deputies Gerba and Mateski, said in his closing arguments that the shooting was tragic but reasonable.

The deputies acted in response to the threat Glenn presented to himself, to his family and friends and to them, Blair said.

“He’s armed, he’s agitated, he’s acting out, he’s putting the knife to his neck, he’s saying he’s going to kill himself, he’s already broken car windows and kicked in the door of the house,” he said.

They were asserting control in “a situation the police did not create,” Blair said, “a situation the police were called to manage.”

Glenn ran for the house after he was struck with beanbag rounds, he said. Had Glenn run in the opposite direction, away from the house, he would not have been shot.

“What’s important is the deputies can’t read his mind, so in all the universe of possible things that may have been going through his mind,” Blair said. “What’s the worst possible scenario? He gets in that house and kills somebody.”

That threat justified the deputies’ use of lethal force, he argued.

“It is time for closure,” Blair said. “We ask that you, ladies and gentlemen, consider that closure not only for Mrs. Glenn, but also for these two deputies.”

Deputy shot Lukus Glenn ‘because I was afraid people would die,’ he says at wrongful death trial

From The Oregonian, August 29, 2012

Washington County Sheriff’s Deputy Timothy Mateski’s voice shook at times Wednesday during his testimony at the wrongful death trial of Lukus Glenn, the Metzger 18-year-old he fatally shot in 2006.

Armed with a pocketknife, Glenn was not complying with deputies’ commands to drop the knife Sept. 16 2006, Mateski said.

Their weapons pointed at the teen, deputies had no time to discuss a plan. But Mateski testified he had already made some decisions: If Glenn ran toward the woods, Mateski would watch him go. If the teen ran toward officers or the house, he’d open fire.

After saying this, Mateski paused. He looked down. Cleared his throat.

At his attorney’s suggestion, Mateski unscrewed the lid of the thermos next to him at the witness stand. He poured some water into a paper cup and screwed the lid back on until it squeaked. He exhaled. Drank. Paused.

“I didn’t want him to hurt anybody in the house,” he said.

Why did you think that was possible, his attorney asked.

“Uh, he said that he was going to kill himself, he threatened to harm his parents,” Mateski said. “And I couldn’t let him be in the house.”

He looked down, his hands folded in front of him.

“I continued to fire as I advanced up on him,” he said, his voice shaking.

Deputy Mikhail Gerba, a defendant along with Mateski and Washington County in a wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the shooting, testified after Mateski Wednesday morning.

Like Mateski, he said he was shocked when Glenn didn’t react after a Tigard police officer struck him with beanbag rounds.

“After he got hit with the beanbags, that’s when he focused in on the door where his parents were at, he still had the knife in his hand,” he told jurors.

Without discussion, he had arrived at the same decision as Mateski, Gerba said.

“It was so quick, he started to dart for it,” he testified. “I think I said, ‘No, no, no, no.’ That’s when I fired my gun. I wasn’t going to let him get in the house.”

He paused.

“Because I was afraid that people would die,” he said. “And if I would have allowed that, I don’t think I could live with myself.”

Witnesses testify in defense of deputies who fatally shot Lukus Glenn

From The Oregonian, August 29, 2012

To use a Taser on Lukus Glenn would have been too risky, according to testimony in defense of Washington County and two sheriff’s deputies, on trial in a wrongful death suit.

Jurors in U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman’s federal courtroom in Portland have heard hours of testimony on police training, tactics and use of force issues this week. Read highlights from some of that testimony below.

Witness: Andrew Pastore, Tigard police detective who shot Glenn with beanbag rounds before deputies opened live fire

Testimony: Pastore, a patrol officer at the time of the Sept. 16, 2006, shooting, responded to the call where deputies Mikhail Gerba and Timothy Mateski were yelling orders at the 18-year-old to drop the knife he was holding. Glenn was standing by the garage in front of his Metzger home, where he stayed until he’d been struck with beanbag rounds, Pastore said.

“He didn’t seem to be doing anything other than standing there,” he testified. “He had his right had up to his neck. I couldn’t see anything in his hand … until he turned … and I saw a flash of something metallic.”

The officers’ distance from Lukus Glenn, an issue first raised in the plaintiffs’ case, was again a focal point when Pastore took the witness stand.

In their statements to investigators soon after the shooting, Gerba estimated he was about 8 to 12 feet from Glenn, Mateski estimated his own distance to be 15 to 20 feet. Pastore told detectives he was behind the deputies and estimated his own distance from Glenn to be about 15 feet.

They later estimated their distances to be farther away.

While Gerba and Mateski were not armed with Tasers that day, Pastore did have one on his belt.

“I was aware that I had it,” he testified, “but the situation didn’t see appropriate for use of a Taser.”

After the shooting, Glenn fell facedown, halfway on the porch, Pastore said, with his hands underneath him. Glenn raised his upper body off the ground, Pastore said. He testified he saw something hit the side of the house, and he believed Glenn had thrown the knife. Glenn’s family and friends who witnessed the shooting testified previously that he fell with his hands empty, palms-up.

Witness: Rob Gordon, retired sheriff of Washington County

Gordon, who was sheriff at the time of the shooting, reviewed investigative materials compiled for an administrative review of the incident. In his assessment, he determined the deputies were properly trained and equipped and followed agency policies and procedures.

He told jurors he didn’t know if deputies were aware that Pastore, the Tigard officer, had a Taser with him. Even if they had known, the beanbag shotgun and lethal rounds were the appropriate uses of force, Gordon said.

“I don’t think the Taser would have been effective in this case,” he testified. “This had gone on for several minutes … there had been threats made by Lukus Glenn to his family, to his friends, to himself.”

Gordon testified that based on his administrative review, he believed Glenn was handcuffed after the shooting, a statement consistent with the testimony of Glenn’s father, Brad Glenn, who witnessed the shooting. Deputy Joseph Yazzolino, who responded to the scene just after the shooting, testified last week that Glenn was not handcuffed.

Witness: Michael Brave, litigation counsel at Taser International, expert on police practices and Taser use

Testimony: Shooting Glenn with beanbag rounds and live fire was the appropriate way of addressing the threat he posed to himself and others at the scene, Brave said. Using a Taser on Glenn would have been difficult because of he was not directly facing officers when struck with less-lethal force. He also told jurors that in high-stress situations, an officer can make mistakes changing the Taser cartridge and deploy the probes into his own hand.

Witness: William Lewinski, police psychology expert, founder and director of Force Science Research Institute, which studies officer behavior in use of force incidents

Testimony: Lewinski did not specifically address the Glenn shooting, but his testimony offered a potential explanation for why the deputies recalled different versions of events and later changed parts of their stories. In a study he conducted with police officers in the United Kingdom, Lewinski said he observed that under stress, officers made many errors when they recalled details that occurred in the “periphery.” In other words, in distressing situations, the officers narrowed their attention to focus on something important, losing sight of other things.

On cross-examination, Lewinski said his office will bill the defendants more than $13,000 for his testimony and work on the case.

Deputies’ shooting of Lukus Glenn was reasonable, psychologist testifies at wrongful death trial

From The Oregonian, August 28, 2012

Police did all they could before opening live fire and killing 18-year-old Lukus Glenn, a psychologist testified Monday at the wrongful death trial against Washington County and two sheriff’s deputies.

Attorneys representing the county and deputies Mikhail Gerba and Timothy Mateski, defendants in a wrongful death lawsuit resulting from the 2006 shooting of Glenn, presented evidence at trial Monday in federal court in Portland.

Michael Conner, a psychologist who has trained police in crisis intervention, told jurors the deputies’ actions at the 3 a.m. call outside Glenn’s Metzger home on Sept. 16, 2006, were reasonable and unavoidable.

“My opinion was what they did was necessary and that their options beyond that, there were really none,” he said.

Glenn was suicidal and showing anger and aggression, Conner testified. When people are suicidal and acting destructive and violent, he said, their thoughts can become homicidal “in a fraction of a second.”

“We have homicidal threats, we have a person who’s injured himself, destroyed property, has a knife to his neck, has threatened his family, has threatened to kill everybody, has threatened to run at the officers, has threatened, ‘You kill me or I kill me,” he said.

Communication tactics that officers might use in a calmer situation were not an option, he testified.

“This was an emergency,” he said. “It wasn’t a crisis.”

The only communication tactic they had was to say clearly and loudly, “Drop the knife, put the knife down and then we can talk,’” he said. “That’s a hard-line approach.”

Switching to a “soft-line approach,” he said, such as lowering their guns and asking Glenn to talk would have been too risky because the teen still may not have become more reasonable.

“I believe they did everything they could from the perspective of communication and to do anything else would have been to risk other people and themselves,” he said.

9-1-1 recordings reveal mistake during fatal shooting of teen

From KATU.com, August 2, 2012

The family of Lukus Glenn goes to court this month in its lawsuit over his death. His own mother called police for help that night. saying her son was suicidal and threatening their family. Investigator Anna Canzano examines the recordings from that chaotic scene, and the heartbreaking mistake they reveal.

Lukus Glenn had conquered high school as a three-sport varsity athlete, but on the night of September 15, 2006, he was lost and distraught. A long-time relationship had recently ended, and though his friends were headed to college, he was not.

By three in the morning, Lukus had returned home, drunk, dropped off by a friend. His family wouldn’t give him keys to a car, so he tried getting into a shed to get his dirt bike.

He then busts into the house through the front door, grabs this knife, and starts smashing car windows in the family’s driveway.

That’s when Hope Glenn calls 9-1-1.

Hope Glenn to 9-1-1: I need the cops to my house immediately. I have a son that’s out of control, busting our windows and has a knife and threatening us.

Police radio traffic reveals officers are preparing for a non-lethal confrontation, despite a dispatcher’s warning about Lukus’ threats as they head to the scene. One officer asked whether anyone with a bean bag gun was responding. Another officer says he grabbed one.

9-1-1 dispatcher to officers: Just be advised, he said he was going to run at you with a knife.

Once the officers arrive, the situation intensifies.

Officer: Get on the ground now, get on the ground.

Hope: He’s saying he kills himself or they kill him, he just wants to die tonight.

Less than four minutes later, the 9-1-1 call captures the Lukus’ final moments.

9-1-1 dispatcher: They don’t want to hurt him, they’re there trying to help.

Officer to dispatcher: Shots fire, I’ve got one down.

An officer on scene communicates this back to the dispatcher.

Officer to 9-1-1 dispatcher: Be advised, four beanbag rounds, no effect. He still has the knife. Be advised…we’ve got a couple people in the house. He ran towards the door, he’s on the ground, the knife is near him.

Which leads the dispatcher to comfort Hope with a mistaken relay of information, creating more confusion for the Glenn family about what’s actually happened.

9-1-1 dispatcher to Hope: Listen, what they’re doing is they shot him with bean bag rounds, okay?

Hope: But he’s laying on the ground bloody.

That exchange — that moment — is a key point of contention in the family’s lawsuit; why did that officer choose to communicate back that bean bag rounds were used, when he himself had just fired lethal rounds from his own service weapon? Was it an honest mistake? Confusion? Or was he trying to create a false narrative – that police tried to control Lukus Glenn with non-lethal force well before killing him with their bullets?

In the seconds that follow, it becomes clear, Hope’s only son is dying.

Police to dispatcher: We might need to get medical here, he’s probably had a couple shots to the back. We need medical code three, he took actual rounds. We’ve got shallow breathing, very shallow, slow breathing. Okay, he’s not breathing anymore.

A devastating reality no court ruling can undo.

Lukus’ mother is suing the Washington county sheriff’s office and its deputy. Trial is set to begin in three weeks. The officers involved have defended their actions – as being in line with their training – as actions taken to protect Lukus’ family given the threat he posed by turning and heading toward the home.

Chief Deputy District Attorney Rob Bletko later determined the use of deadly force was justified. None of the parties being sued agreed to comment for this report.

Lukus Glenn wrongful death trial opens in Portland’s federal court

From The Oregonian, August 21, 2012

Washington County deputies either acted appropriately according to their training or lied about events that led up to the fatal shooting six years ago of a Tigard-area teenager, according to opening arguments presented Tuesday in the wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Lukus Glenn.

The 18-year-old was shot and killed by Washington County sheriff’s deputies outside his home in 2006.

Attorneys introduced jurors to the federal court case by playing 9-1-1 and police dispatch tapes, recorded at 3:05 a.m. Sept. 16, 2006, when Hope Glenn called seeking help for her drunken, suicidal son.

In a roughly four-minute period, Hope Glenn tells the 9-1-1 operator her son is holding a knife, bleeding and threatening to kill himself. After law enforcement arrives, she pleads with the operator, “Please don’t let them shoot him.” By the end of the tape, her son is on the ground outside their Metzger home, and Hope Glenn says through tears, “They killed him.”

Deputies commanded Lukus Glenn to put down the blade he was holding to his neck. They told him not to move any closer to the house, where his parents stood just inside.

A Tigard police officer struck Glenn with five beanbag rounds. Deputies Timothy Mateski and Mikhail Gerba then opened fire, killing the teen almost instantly.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting justified and did not present it to a grand jury. After the Glenn family filed suit seeking more than $7 million, U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman granted summary judgment in favor of the county and the deputies.

On appeal, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the district court was not allowed to act as fact-finder on summary judgment and a jury should decide the case against the county and two deputies.

Attorney Larry Peterson, representing the family, said in his opening statements Tuesday the audio recording helped disprove the deputies’ “false narrative” about the incident.

Peterson said a Tigard police officer began firing rounds from a beanbag shotgun, but Gerba and Mateski had fired 11 lethal rounds before the last of six beanbags were shot.

The trial will answer the questions, Peterson said, of what happened in the minutes before Glenn’s death and why.

William Blair, attorney for the defendants, said in his opening statements that the deputies acted reasonably and followed their training when they shot the teen with lethal rounds to gain control of the scene.

The deputies agree, he said, that Lukus Glenn was not responsive when struck with beanbags.

“He stood there with a quizzical look on his face,” Blair said, “and then began charging toward the front door, where his parents stood with no protection because he’d already kicked in the door.”

The trial will center on analyzing the audio tapes, Blair said, which would support and explain the deputies’ actions. He urged jurors several times to “listen carefully.”

The trial before Judge Mosman continues Wednesday with witness testimony.

Friends of Lukus Glenn testify they hoped to calm deputies before his fatal shooting

From The Oregonian, August 22, 2012

Friends of Lukus Glenn, who witnessed deputies shoot and kill him outside his Metzger home in 2006, testified at his wrongful death trial in Portland’s federal court Wednesday.

Trial in the lawsuit filed against Washington County and two of its deputies continues Thursday before U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman.

Wednesday morning jurors heard from David Lucas, 25, and Tony Morales, 28, the friends Hope Glenn called in the early morning hours of Sept. 16, 2006, asking for help with her suicidal son.

Glenn wasn’t threatening others, they testified, when he was holding the small folding knife Lucas had given to him as a Christmas gift. They were not afraid of their friend and feared only that he might hurt himself.

Lucas and Morales had both spent time with Glenn the day before his death, noting that he seemed happy. The 18-year-old, recently graduated from Tigard High School, went to dinner with his new girlfriend and her parents that evening. The couple then went to a football game with Morales. Glenn, Lucas and Morales ended up at a party later that night.

Glenn arrived at the party with a bottle of rum and drank from it throughout the night, his friends testified. He left the party, planning to get his motorbike from home, asking someone else to drive him there — five minutes away.

Soon after, his mother called Lucas and Morales, hoping they could help calm him down. Glenn was telling his parents he wanted his bike or his keys. He was smashing windows and acting out of control, Hope Glenn told Lucas.

Lucas testified that he spoke to Glenn’s parents briefly when he arrived. Morales was already talking to Glenn in the neighbor’s yard, speaking softly, convincing him to leave the yard.

Both friends said they didn’t see a knife until Glenn returned to his family’s driveway, pulled it from his pocket and stabbed the garage door.

Glenn yelled at his parents, Lucas testified, “about something he’d been put through in the last few months,” and about wanting to die.

Glenn’s father, Morales and Glenn tussled briefly over the knife. As Glenn shoved the knife harder toward his own neck, they let go.

Morales, who had recently been honorably discharged after more than three years in the Marines, began negotiating with Glenn.

“I remember walking forward, outstretching my arms, saying to Luke, ‘If you’re going to stab anyone tonight, stab me. I know you don’t want to do that,’” Morales said.

Morales sank to his knees, he told jurors, and pleaded with Glenn, “I know you don’t want to hurt me as much as you don’t want to hurt yourself. Just put the knife away.”

Pausing as he became more emotional, Morales recalled Glenn’s response: “Tony, please, I don’t want you to be here for this.”

Morales replied, “Come on, bro, if I were in the exact same situation, you wouldn’t just leave me like this.”

Just after 3 a.m., Deputy Mikhail Gerba arrived, dispatched to the disturbance with a weapon reported to 9-1-1 by Hope Glenn. Lucas walked quickly toward the deputy, hoping to keep the situation calm, he testified.

Before Lucas reached him, Gerba stepped out of his vehicle with his gun drawn, Lucas said. He tried to tell Gerba that Glenn was by the garage and calming down, Lucas said.

Gerba ordered him to the ground, Lucas said, using profanities. He patted Lucas down and told him not to move as he approached the driveway.

Morales, still kneeling, heard shouting behind him. Gerba walked up the driveway, his duty weapon pointed at Glenn and Morales.

Gerba told Morales to get on the ground. Morales said he lay on his stomach and told the deputy Glenn was drunk and only wanted to hurt himself. He asked Gerba not to use lethal force.

Soon, Deputy Timothy Mateski arrived and joined Gerba’s side. Deputies shouted profanity-laced commands at Glenn, the friends testified. Glenn’s only response, they said, was, “Why are you yelling at me?”

Morales asked the deputies to “please just tase him.” Mateski told Morales to shut up, he said.

After a few minutes of the deputies shouting at Glenn to drop the knife, the friends watched him die.

They first saw another officer hit Glenn with a shotgun beanbag round. Glenn doubled over, took a couple of steps toward the house and grabbed his waistband with his left hand, as if trying to hold up his pants.

Beanbag rounds continued to fly and the deputies opened live fire. Within 11 seconds, Glenn was struck with five beanbag rounds and eight gunshots.

Lucas testified that Glenn had never mentioned suicide to him. Morales said he asked Glenn about suicide after he’d noticed bands that appeared to cover up cuts on his wrists.

Lucas said he knew that Glenn had recently broken up with a previous girlfriend, and he’d had some conflicts with one of his high school football coaches.

“I think it was just kind of weighing on him that summer,” Lucas testified.

Fatal shooting of Lukus Glenn not justified, expert witness testifies at wrongful death trial

From The Oregonian, August 23, 2012

Lukus Glenn

The lethal force police used on 18-year-old Lukus Glenn in 2006 was not justified, a police practices expert testified Wednesday in Portland’s federal court.

Donald Van Blaricom, a retired Bellevue, Wash., police chief who now works testifying in police-related litigation, appeared for the plaintiffs at the wrongful death trial against Washington County and two of its deputies.

Glenn’s family filed the lawsuit in 2008, following his Sept. 16, 2006, fatal shooting outside his Metzger home. The trial before U.S. District Judge Michael Mosman began Tuesday.

Police should have used a Taser instead of a beanbag shotgun and lethal force on the suicidal teen, Van Blaricom testified.

Though Glenn was armed with a small folding knife and was not following deputies’ commands, Van Blaricom said he was not posing an immediate threat to anyone at the scene.

Instead of trying to establish a dialogue with Glenn, Van Blaricom said, the deputies acted too quickly.

“The police are there to win, they’re not there to lose,” he told jurors.

But the force used on a subject has to a reasonable response to the circumstances, Van Blaricom said.

“If you were going to use any force,” he said, “the Taser would be the force to use.”

Van Blaricom testified he didn’t believe Glenn committed “suicide by cop.” The teen didn’t rush at officers, giving them no alternative but to use lethal force, he said.

The Washington County District Attorney’s Office ruled the shooting justified in 2006, but Van Blaricom criticized the investigation of the shooting and said it did not resolve inconsistencies.

“If you’ve got a bad shooting, just admit it, learn from it,” he said. “The guy’s dead, there’s nothing you can do for him. The goal is to prevent this from happening again.”

Washington County Sheriff Pat Garrett was in the courtroom during the expert witnesses’ testimony Wednesday.

Lukus Glenn’s parents testify at wrongful death trial in the 2006 fatal police shooting

From The Oregonian, August 24, 2012

Lukus Glenn’s parents watched as police pelted the 18-year-old with beanbag rounds and riddled him with gunshots. When his body landed on their porch, they stared in horror through a picture window.

Brad and Hope Glenn, who are suing Washington County and two of its deputies over the 2006 fatal shooting, gave emotional testimony in his wrongful death trial this week in Portland’s federal court.

Brad Glenn, 49, told jurors he instructed his wife to dial 9-1-1 about 3 a.m. Sept. 16, 2006, as they struggled to talk sense into their son, who was drunk, holding a pocket knife and threatening suicide.

“We need more people here,” he testified. “We need more assistance.”

Sheriff’s Deputy Mikhail Gerba was screaming commands and pointing his Glock when he approached the teen outside the family’s Metzger home, Brad Glenn testified. Deputy Timothy Mateski showed up next.

Brad Glenn said the deputies shouted at his son, “‘Drop the knife, you’re going to (expletive) die, we’re going to (expletive) kill you,’ over and over.”

His son asked the deputies to stop yelling.

“At one time, I told them to stop screaming at him,” he said. “Luke was begging us to make them stop screaming at him.”

Deputies had to order the parents to go into the house and close the door several times. Asked why he and his wife didn’t comply and stay inside, Brad Glenn said they were acting in response to the deputies’ actions.

“In my mind, they were out of control,” he said. “That’s how you respond to a suicidal kid, tell him you’re going to kill him? That’s wrong.”

Brad Glenn said he didn’t see another officer arrive, but a Tigard police officer with a beanbag shotgun joined the scene.

“He just popped out and started firing,” Brad Glenn said. “He’s getting shot with the beanbags … and it knocks him into the garage. He’s up against the garage, taking the hits.”

His son grabbed onto his pants and took a couple steps, he testified. The deputies fired live rounds, he said, just after the Tigard officer deployed the first beanbag shots.

“It all happened at the same time,” he said. “You could hear a few pops and then it was over.”

Lukus Glenn fell facedown, his hands palms-up behind him, Brad Glenn said. An officer approached the dying teen, still at gunpoint, and handcuffed him, he said.

More officers descended on the house after the shooting, Brad Glenn testified. They stayed for hours. It was daylight when they left.

“The last person there was a chaplain for Washington County,” he said. “They basically just left the place a mess with blood all over the place. There was blood all over the porch — it was everywhere.”

In the following days, he and Hope Glenn were distraught.

“It’s hard to explain,” he said. “It’s unbelievable. It shouldn’t have happened.”

Their lives changed that day, he said. Their house is empty. The lifetime companionship he envisioned with his son is gone.

The emotional toll continues, unchanging, he said.

Of her husband, Hope Glenn testified, “He’s broken like I am.”

Crying, she told the jury, “We’re just sad. It never goes away.”

From the Portland Mercury, August 21, 2012 – by Denis Theriault

As noted in yesterday’s post about the Portland Police Bureau’s new Training Advisory Council, I’m still waiting on more details about how public—or not—the citizen panel will be. A posting seeking applicants didn’t mention whether the group’s four meetings a year would be open to observers.

Meanwhile, the same posting said anyone who is chosen will have to sign a “nondisclosure agreement.” Lieutenant Robert King, a police bureau spokesman, told me he didn’t think the NDA was written yet, when I asked for a copy, but he also said he didn’t know exactly what it might try to limit.

These aren’t insignificant questions. If the group’s meetings are going to be private, and if the group’s members won’t be allowed to talk about their work with neighbors, reporters, and other advocates, then it’s fair to ask whether the council is going to be a meaningful tool for improving community-police relations or another piece of window-dressing filled with handpicked cheerleaders from, say, the Citizens Crime Commission.

Since then, I’ve heard from Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland, a longtime observer and critic of police training practices, especially concerning the bureau’s efforts to limit the use of deadly force against the mentally ill. Renaud emailed a strong warning about the chill an NDA would have on community dialogue and urged like-minded advocates to stay away if silence is really going to be part of the arrangement. I’ve also heard similar concerns raised by sources in city hall.

Advocates speak out AND carry the response to the community they represent. People who do one but not the other are simply self-appointed pretenders. They are not advocates.

You can’t communicate to the community you represent—you can’t be a community representative—when silenced by a non-disclosure agreement. The intention of a NDA is to silence actual advocates; requiring one from a community advisory council underlines that the PPB and the city are still in public relation/spin mode, obtuse and arrogant.

With a NDA we do not endorse this Training Council and would not encourage anyone to participate.

As always, I’ll update when I hear back. I hope, though, that the bureau and the mayor’s office are thinking hard about these concerns. Meetings should be open to the public. And the NDA should either be scrapped or crafted to be sufficiently and objectively narrow enough (not giving away state secrets, etc.) so as not to stifle a genuine community discussion about police training.