Mental Health Association of Portland

There is a long and sordid history with the Portland Police and Tasers, which MHAP has been documenting for years. Finally, a Federal Grand Jury agrees there is a problem. As always, follow the Links below to the appropriate sections of this posting:

Oregonian: Federal Jury Rules Against Portland Police in Tasing of Man Suspected of Graffiti Tagging

Portland Mercury: Police Brutality Victim Wins Trial

Portland Mercury: Juicing the Debate: Another Report Demands Cops Tighten up Taser Policy

Some Background Information:

Office of the City Auditor, Portland Oregon: POLICE TASER USE: Incidents generally resolved, but some practices and policies could be improved – Nov. 2010

Mental Health Association of Portland: Our previous coverage of Taser events

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Federal Jury Rules Against Portland Police in Tasing of Man Suspected of Graffiti Tagging

By Maxine Bernstein, The Oregonian, Tuesday, March 13, 2012

A federal jury today ruled unanimously that a Portland police officer used excessive force when he fired a Taser five times into the back of a man he suspected of spray-painting graffiti on a commercial building.

The jury deliberated about three hours and ruled that Portland Police Officer Benjamin J. Davidson violated Daniel Halsted’s constitutional rights, and awarded him $125,000 in punitive damages, $75,000 in non-economic damages and $6,372.70 for medical costs.

Halsted, a 36-year-old Portland resident with no criminal record, called the June 17, 2008, encounter at Northeast Wasco Street and 26th Avenue “the most traumatic experience” in his life.

His attorney Joseph Grube argued that Davidson failed to identify himself as an officer on a dark street at 1 a.m., wrongly assumed his client was involved in the vandalism and used force disproportional to the alleged crime of “petty vandalism.”

Once Tased, Halsted said he fell, had his face pushed into the ground and suffered facial fractures and abrasions to his head and hands. Police cited him for resisting arrest and criminal mischief, but prosecutors didn’t file charges.

“He’s not allowed to needlessly attack someone without probable cause,” Grube said. “A police officer should not assume someone is guilty before they use force.”

Deputy City Attorney James Rice countered that Davidson, who joined the bureau in 2003, acted as any reasonable officer would, trying to stop a man who was seen running blocks from the suspected vandalism and Tasing him when he continued to run. He argued that there was no mistaking Davidson as an officer since he was in uniform and got out of a marked police car.

“This is a police officer doing his job, under difficult circumstances in the dark, with the tools given him,” Rice said.”The level of force was brought on by Mr. Halsted when he started to run and fought with police officers.”

The officer’s and Halsted’s accounts differed.

Halsted testified that he was walking home after a night out bowling with friends and a stop for dinner and drinks at the Rose and Thistle pub. After he bid goodbye to his friends – a couple who lived on Northeast 24th Avenue – Halsted said he continued to walk home, now alone. As he turned onto Northeast Wasco Street, Halsted said he noticed a flashlight shining on him and heard a man behind him yell “Get him!”

He said he looked back, saw a dark figure and began to run east on Wasco because he was frightened. He heard “Tase him,” and then felt a shock to his back and fell. While yelling out for citizens and neighbors to call police, he was Tased four more times before other officers helped Davidson get Halsted into custody in a maximum hobble restraint. He was then taken to a local hospital.

“It’s the most traumatic experience I’ve had,” Halsted testified. “It’s changed my view of the police. It’s extremely non-sensical. I can’t believe it happened. It’s disgusting.” Halsted, then technical director at Portland’s Hollywood Theatre, is now the theatre’s head film programmer.

Davidson testified he was responding to a report that four men were seen on the roof of a building at 2506 N.E. Multnomah St., tagging it with spray paint. Dispatch alerted Davidson that a suspect was seen heading east on Wasco. When Davidson approached Northeast 26th Avenue and Wasco, he said he looked west and saw three men running toward him on Wasco. Davidson said he got out of his patrol car and shined his flashlight on the men, yelling “Police, stop!” He said two of the three men ran in between houses while the third, Halsted, darted onto the south sidewalk of Wasco Street, heading toward Davidson and skirted past him. When he refused to stop, Davidson said he fired his Taser.

Rice tried to discredit Halsted, asking him about his collection of Kung Fu movies, and suggested during his closing argument that Halsted kept resisting because he was likely intoxicated. Halsted’s attorney countered that there was no evidence of Halsted’s intoxication, and asked Halsted if he’d ever been trained in martial arts, to which the answer was no.

“It’s scary because it wasn’t just the incident but their report of what happened, which didn’t align with the facts,” Halsted said after the verdict. “I was just a guy walking home. It could’ve been anybody.”

The suit follows a city audit that recommended police restrict the number of Taser cycles officers use. Currently, Portland police are authorized to use a Taser when a person engages in, or displays the intent to engage in physical resistance or aggressive physical resistance.

The city has reviewed the policy, which is more permissive than model police guidelines, for at least two years, but no changes have been made. Officers though, have been trained on recent developments in 9th Circuit Court of Appeals case law, which says Taser probe use should be considered an intermediate use of force when there’s an immediate threat, said Dave Woboril, a deputy city attorney.

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Police Brutality Victim Wins Trial

By Alex Zielinski, Portland Mercury, Wed, Mar 14, 2012

A police brutality case, first reported by the Mercury in 2008, has finally come to a close.

A federal jury yesterday ruled unanimously that Portland Police Officer Benjamin Davidson used excessive force when he Tasered Dan Halsted after suspecting that he’d tagged a nearby commercial building. The 2008 incident left Halsted — who was innocently walking home from a bar — seriously cut up and traumatized from Davidson’s attack. However, Halsted waited until 2010 to file suit against the city and the officers at the scene.

Halsted, the man behind Hollywood Theater’s Grindhouse Film Festival, was ultimately awarded a grand total of $206,372.70 for his cumulative damages. But it wasn’t easy. The Oregonian reports that the trial sparked heated debate between Halsted’s attorney, Joseph Grube, and Deputy City Attorney James Rice, followed by a three-hour-long deliberation by the jury.

The gem of the trial?

“Rice tried to discredit Halsted, asking him about his collection of Kung Fu movies, and suggested during his closing argument that Halsted kept resisting because he was likely intoxicated. Halsted’s attorney countered that there was no evidence of Halsted’s intoxication, and asked Halsted if he’d ever been trained in martial arts, to which the answer was no.”

All in all, the long-winded case left Halsted satisfied (his Facebook status update today? “Dan Halsted:1 Portland Police: 0″), but with lingering (and understandable) police animosity.

“It’s scary because it wasn’t just the incident but their report of what happened, which didn’t align with the facts,” Halsted said after the verdict, according to the O. “I was just a guy walking home. It could’ve been anybody.”

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Juicing the Debate: Another Report Demands Cops Tighten up Taser Policy

By Denis C. Theriault, Portland Mercury, March 15, 2012

The Chorus of police accountability advocates and other officials calling on the Portland Police Bureau to overhaul its policies for less-lethal weapons — including Tasers, beanbag shotguns, and pepper spray — is poised to grow even louder.

The Mercury has obtained a draft report written by a panel of the city’s Citizen Review Committee (CRC) that urges a dramatic tightening in the standard Portland cops are supposed to adhere to when deciding to zap or pepper spray someone.

Under current Portland policy, officers can shock or spray someone who merely shows the “intent” to resist. But the report says cops should use their weapons only when someone is “actively” resisting — a suggestion that echoes a city audit ["Shocking Questions," News, Nov 25, 2010] and reflects the current will of the federal court that governs Portland.

The thinking is that Tasers and pepper spray are so painful that they ought to be used only when someone is actually posing a direct threat to a cop or someone else — not just if someone refuses to listen to an officer.

“That’s the operating [legal] standard, and I think they need to go by that,” says one of the report’s authors, Michael Bigham, a former Port of Portland cop.

In other findings, the report also wants the bureau to resume tracking every time its officers come close enough to zapping someone that the Taser’s laser pointer is activated. It also suggests capping the number of times a person can be shocked — a painful experience, at 50,000 volts — at three.

“Just pulling on that trigger” — and activating the laser pointer — “gets compliance,” says Dan Handelman of Portland Copwatch. “How often is that effective?”

A report by the Community and Police Relations Committee, a branch of the city’s Human Rights Commission whose members include police officers, also recommended, in a report issued last July, tracking so-called “laser dots.”

But while the bureau should be familiar with the recommendations, there’s a catch: The CRC’s report is a long way from becoming final — and some recommendations may change. The police bureau also isn’t compelled to accept them.

The latest draft is sitting on the desk of Mary-Beth Baptista, director of the city’s Independent Police Review (IPR) Division, awaiting her comments. The police bureau also will review the report and make suggestions. From there, Bigham says, the report’s authors will consider those remarks before sending a version to the full, nine-member CRC for a vote. That’s when officials had been expecting the contents of the report to be made public.

The process will pose an interesting test for the CRC, which handles appeals of police misconduct cases but also is tasked with helping the police bureau and Portland City Council fine-tune policies and procedures. Because of rule changes last year, this is the first CRC policy report that will go forward without the explicit approval of the IPR office.

“Once we get that input back from the IPR and the bureau, we’ll sit back down and talk about them and see whether we would change any recommendations,” Bigham says. “Or, if not, we’ll see if we need more evidence to bolster them. I would lean more toward that.”

Because the report has not yet been presented to the full CRC, Baptista wouldn’t comment on its contents. She also was concerned the Mercury had an early copy, even though the report’s authors met publicly for several months and circulated drafts.

Baptista did say the process wouldn’t unfold any differently under the new rules for CRC reports, arguing she’d never before exercised her right to censor a policy report.

“I prefer they make their recommendations directly to the bureau or city council,” she says. “That way there’s some kind of distance and independence.”

The police bureau also declined to comment — but if past reports are a prologue, it isn’t likely to sign off on the recommendations as written. The bureau resisted the city auditor’s call to tighten its Taser policy and is hoping the legal landscape on Taser use changes in its favor.

Bigham says he expects some pushback on another recommendation in the report: a reaction to a shooting last summer when Officer Dane Reister seriously injured a man in a mental health crisis by mistakenly loading a less-lethal gun with live rounds.

Police since changed how they handle ammunition for the guns, adding safeguards and checks. But the report says police officials should consider either getting rid of live shotgun rounds altogether or buying less-lethal guns that are incapable of firing live rounds.

“Our concern was that it wasn’t enough. It still could happen,” Bigham says. “That’s not to say they’ll be receptive to that, but I think it’s important.”

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Twenty-two new documents were released to the media on August 8, 2010 from discovery for Chasse v Humphreys et al, settled by the City of Portland for $1.6 million dollars on about July 28. More will be released soon.

The 22 documents are listed below. Each are non-searchable PDF documents.

Portland Police Training Division’s Review of James P. Chasse Jr.’s death in custody, no date

Police training material on Foot Pursuits at the time of Chasse’s death in September 2006, no date

Then-Transit Division Commander Donna Henderson’s analysis of Christopher Humphreys & Kyle Nice’s actions against James Chasse, August 28, 2008

Then-Assistant Chief Lynnae Berg’s recommendation of discipline for Christopher Humphreys, September 15, 2008

Officer Christopher Humphreys’ personal statement to the police Use of Force Review Board, no date

Officer Christopher Humphreys’ discipline letter, February 2, 2010

Sgt. Kyle Nice’s discipline letter, February 2, 2010

Depositions of civilians who witnessed police struggle with James P. Chasse Jr. and take him into custody on Sept. 17, 2006

Elizabeth Anderson – eyewitness
Jesse Barber – eyewitness
Barry Benard – eyewitness
Tony Carter – eyewitness
Constance Doolan – eyewitness
Melissa Gaylord – eyewitness
Mark Ginsberg – eyewitness
Erin Glanz – eyewitness
David Lillegaard – eyewitness
Diane Loghry – eyewitness
Jamie Marquez – eyewitness
Alireza Soltani – eyewitness
Randall Stuart – eyewitness
Mary Jean Wickemeier – eyewitness
Homer Williams – eyewitness

READ – New documents in the James P. Chasse Jr. case, The Oregonian, August 8, 2010
READ – Everything about James Chasse

From the The Oregonian, May 11, 2010

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman issued an apology this afternoon to the family of James P. Chasse Jr. as he announced the $1.6 million settlement the city reached with the Chasse family in their federal wrongful death and civil rights lawsuit against Portland police.

The city of Portland and the Chasse family reached the deal — the largest settlement of a tort claim in the city’s history — about 4 p.m. Monday after a full day of negotiations with U.S. District Judge Ann Aiken mediating. It still must be approved by the City Council, possibly as early as next Wednesday.

“I believe this proposal to be in the best interest of our city and community,” Saltzman said, speaking in the atrium of City Hall. “I would like to express my deepest apology on behalf of the city to the Chasse family for the loss of their son and brother.”

Saltzman said both sides wanted to avoid a trial, and acknowledged that had the case gone to trial in U.S. District Court, “probably the city’s image would be tarnished.”

Under the terms of the settlement, the city is expected to release the Portland police internal affairs investigative report and its training division’s examination of the Sept. 17, 2006, death in-custody case.

Both documents had been part of a court protective order while the lawsuit was pending. Saltzman said the documents would be released “soon,” noting that certain personal information has to be redacted before their release.

“I believe the public needs to see and fully understand the events leading up to Chasse’s death,” Saltzman said.

Tom Steenson, the Chasse family attorney, said the family is hopeful that sharing the police investigative reports and training documents from the Chasse case will “help the public in its quest for a more open and accountable Portland Police Bureau.”

The family believed that James Chasse Jr. “would have wanted the truth to come out by settling the case now” and thanked the community for supporting the family over the past 3 1/2 years, according to a statement Steenson released today.

Police Chief Rosie Sizer, in a prepared statement, said she was “relieved” by the settlement.

“And I believe that the Chasse family deserves compensation for their loss,” Sizer wrote. “I hope that James Chasse’s family also takes some comfort in the changes that the Portland police has made.”

But Sizer, who said she felt frustrated by not being able to publicly address the death-in-custody case because of the pending litigation, said today that she believes the police bureau and officers involved “have been unfairly demonized.” She called Chasse’s death a “horrible accident and not a ‘beating death,’ as Chasse’s family lawyer has argued.

Saltzman said he hopes with the settlement that the city can “begin to heal from the tragic death” of Chasse. He said the case pushed the city and county to look at how to improve services to the mentally ill, and the police bureau to improve its medical transport policy and extend crisis intervention training to all officers.

The city’s self-insurer will cover the initial $1 million, and its secondary insurance carrier will cover the remainder. None of the settlement award will come from the general fund, Saltzman said.

City Attorney Linda Meng said the city has spent more than $1 million in labor, and about $220,000 in external costs, such as paying for experts, travel, and depositions.

In a document filed in court Monday, U.S. District Court clerk Mary L. Moran filed an “order of dismissal” in the case.

The excessive force and wrongful death case involving Chasse, a 42-year-old who suffered from schizophrenia, was scheduled to go to trial next month before U.S. District Judge Garr King.

Two other defendants, Multnomah County and ambulance company American Medical Response Northwest Inc., previously settled with the family.

The county settled last summer for $925,000, removing the county and its employees as defendants. The employees included deputy Bret Burton, now a Portland police officer, who was involved in the initial struggle with Chasse and jail nurses who were accused of failing to examine or treat Chasse or call an ambulance.

AMR settled its part of the case last December for a reported $600,000. Its paramedics were accused of failing to follow their own procedures and protocols in dealing with patients who have trauma or are in altered mental states.

An April filing by the Chasse family said the city had not made an independent offer to settle since October 2007.

In addition, the city had insisted that any settlement would aim to keep secret the investigations into Chasse’s death and related training issues, family attorney Tom Steenson wrote.

The city had said in an earlier filing that the Chasse family had “declined reasonable efforts to settle.”

The original incident began when officers, including Sgt. Kyle Nice and Officer Chris Humphreys, chased Chasse down, believing he had urinated in the street. Officers knocked him to the ground at Northwest Everett Street and 13th Avenue, and struggled to handcuff him.

AMR paramedics were called to the scene but said his vital signs were normal.

Chasse was taken to the Multnomah County Detention Center and appeared to suffer a seizure while in a holding cell. The jail nurse said the jail would not book him.

Police then decided to take him to a hospital. He died in the back of the patrol car.

An autopsy revealed that Chasse died of broad-based blunt-force trauma to the chest. Among the injuries, he had 26 breaks to 16 ribs, some of which punctured a lung.

Asked today if the city still believes Chasse died of excited delirium, as city court papers had suggested, Saltzman deflected the question. “I think the point is we’re not going to trial.”

In response to a question about the Chasse family’s allegation that the officers tried to cover up an assault of Chasse by suggesting they found cocaine on Chasse, Deputy City Attorney Jim Rice said, “I don’t think there’s any cover up shown in this case.”

When asked where the mayor was, Saltzman looked from side to side, and quipped, “I don’t know.”

Later, Mayor Sam Adams released a prepared statement, saying the settlement closes a “very troubling chapter” in the relationship between the Police Bureau and the residents of the city.

“The Chasse family has had to endure a very public examination of what is, at the end of the day, a very personal matter – the death of a loved one and the ability to know the facts, grieve the loss, and begin to move on. Likewise, the Portland Police Bureau has operated under increased scrutiny, especially in cases involving mental illness. And while there have been positive developments in how the police manage issues of use of force and medical transport, we need to be more proactive in making additional improvements, ” the mayor said.

Steenson attended the City Hall news conference. At the end, as he walked off, Saltzman told him, “I appreciate the settlement.”

From the Willamette Week, May 11, 2010

Police Commissioner Dan Saltzman this afternoon apologized to the family of James Chasse Jr. after the city reached a $1.6 million settlement in a lawsuit over Chasse’s 2006 death in police custody.

“I believe this proposed settlement to be in the best interests of our city and our community, and it’s my hope that by settling this case, we can begin to heal from the tragic death of Mr. Chasse,” Saltzman said.

“Although nothing could ever make up for the loss of his tragic life, his death has led us all to take a serious look at the way we as a community treat the mentally ill,” added Saltzman, who is running for re-election on the May 18 ballot. “It has prompted the Portland Police Bureau to examine and improve many of its policies.”

Saltzman said he and Chief Rosie Sizer —who said today in a news release she was “relieved” by the settlement— attended a settlement conference Monday at federal court, where U.S. District Court Judge Ann Aiken negotiated the agreement.

Saltzman said as part of the agreement, the city will release documents from police internal investigations of Chasse’s death. Those documents have been under seal in court pending the civil trial, which was scheduled to begin next month.

Saltzman said some personal information must be redacted from the documents. He said that paperwork will be available “soon but not immediately.”

Saltzman said there were no other stipulations made as part of the settlement agreement, which still must be approved by the City Council. Saltzman said a vote could happen as early as next week. And Mayor Sam Adams said today in a news release that he is confident the council will approve the settlement.

City Attorney Linda Meng said the$1.6 million payout would be the biggest tort-claim settlement in city history. Records provided to WW by the city show Portland has paid out $3.8 million $4.8 million since 1995 to settle claims of excessive force by police.

UPDATE with comment from Chasse family:

The family of James P. Chasse, Jr., is confirming the information contained in various media reports that a tentative settlement has been reached with the City in their case against Portland Police Officer Christopher Humphreys, Portland Police Sergeant Kyle Nice, and other City defendants, arising out of James’ tragic death, on September 17, 2006.

If you will recall, in late 2006 and early 2007, the family undertook their own investigation looking for the truth as to what the police did to James and why he died. In order to get access to necessary information which was not deemed public, they filed their lawsuit in February, 2007. During the course of the lawsuit, the family’s attorneys took over 75 depositions of witnesses, Portland Police Bureau employees, and others, obtained over 40,000 pages of documents, retained a police expert and spoke with countless other individuals to assist the family in evaluating what caused James’ death on September 17.

During the case, the City and the other defendants sought a protective order which the family and the media opposed. Once the order was entered, the family repeatedly, but unsuccessfully, sought to vacate the order in the interest of allowing the public access to information which was subject to the protective order. As a result of the protective order and other considerations in the case, the family has not been able to share much of the information they have gathered during the litigation, including important training information and information about the City’s internal investigations into James’ death.

As part of the tentative settlement of the case, the family insisted upon and the City has agreed to vacate the protective order as it applies to training information relevant to James’ death, the City’s internal investigations into James’ death and any resulting reports or discipline. The family is in the process of organizing the information as part of a full release of it to the public and hopes to have it available soon. The family is hopeful that by sharing this information and telling the true story of what caused James’ death, they will be able to help the public in its quest for a more open and accountable Portland Police Bureau.

The family will be issuing a statement which will more directly comment on the tentative settlement once it is finalized. All that they can say about the additional details of the settlement at this time is that James would have wanted the truth to come out by settling the case now.

Lastly, the family wants to thank the community for the tremendous support it has provided the family over the past 3 and ½ years and to encourage the community to be ever vigilant in monitoring the Portland Police Bureau to ensure that it actually serves and protects us.

From Coming Up For Air, a monthly column for Street Roots newspaper, February 5, 2010
By Roy Silberstein, president of the board of directors

Left unblamed by the city of Portland’s attorney James Rice in his petition to move Chasse vs. Humphreys is the nonprofit advocacy organization responsible for informing the community about what happened to James Chasse.

The Mental Health Association of Portland spoke out and often about the facts of what happened to James since the day of his death, Sept. 17, 2006. We’re responsible for Rice’s desperately irrational and unprecedented request of Federal Court Judge Garr King to move Chasse v. Humphreys out of state.

James was a person with a diagnosis of schizophrenia, a person with friends, a family and a rich spiritual life. And he was a person beaten to death by those who swore to protect and to serve. His death was brutal, reprehensible and avoidable. As longtime witnesses for persons with mental illness hurt by institutions, we knew the city’s strategy would be misdirection, delay and defiance.

As advocates, we humbly accepted we would lose in court as well as in the administrative processes, politicians would be befuddled by bureaucrats, and legal justice would slip through our fingers.

So we selected a different strategy. We’ve done our best to speak to the truth about what happened to James. Advised by police officers, lawyers and colleagues, we gained an understanding of Portland’s bleak history of disciplining police officers for excessive use of force, of the number of persons with a diagnosis of mental illness killed or badly injured by police officers, and we’ve advocated publicly for changes in how police officers are recruited, trained and disciplined.

We collected every public scrap of information about James Chasse and what happened to him and put it online. And it will remain there.

We talked to the media, to students, to community groups, in church basements and living rooms, and told the story over and over. We told everyone.

We’re also making a feature-length documentary film about what happened to James. It’s called “Alien Boy,” and whether Chasse vs. Humphreys happens at the federal courthouse in Portland or on the steppes of Bhutan, we’ll be there with cameras rolling. We plan to finish filming with the end of this trial, edit the film and seek a buyer for national distribution.

We are proud of the advocacy we’ve done and will teach others to do the same. It’s the 21st century and information can no longer be contained.

Our work is far from over. We will not abide impunity.

There’s no reason to believe what happened to James Chasse will not happen again. The police insist they followed their training by beating Chasse. That training hasn’t been changed.

The police adopted a national model of training for mental health crisis, yet Officer Christopher Humphreys, ironically now himself on disability leave due to a trauma disorder — a mental illness — has used immoderate force in several incidents since his training, including shooting a 12-year-old girl with a lead pellet bag at point-blank range.

Just last weekend, a Portland police officer shot Aaron Campbell in the back with a semiautomatic rifle. Campbell was distraught because of the death of his brother. Because someone thought he might have a gun, he was left without medical attention and died in front of his family and friends who had called for help.

The truth is Chasse v. Humphreys is immaterial to the safety of our community. There’s no vindication for the officers if the family loses. There will be no sense of security or regained trust if the city loses.

Either way the civil trial goes, we all lose.

From the Oregonian, February 2, 2010

The lawyer for James P. Chasse Jr.‘s family called the City of Portland’s push to transfer the federal civil rights trial out of state frivolous, and estimated it would cost the plaintiffs alone more than $40,000, according to court papers filed this week.

Attorney Thomas Steenson says the federal court has no authority to grant the city’s request to transfer the two-week trial to Washington or Idaho because the events occurred in Portland and the plaintiffs could not have brought the case outside Oregon.

Click here to read the rest of this story

From the Portland Mercury, November 18, 2009

Attorneys working for the City of Portland are claiming a surprise new defense in the 2006 death in custody of James Chasse jr, a man with schizophrenia: That Chasse died of “excited delirium.”

“Excited delirium” is a controversial medical term often associated with deaths in police custody where a Taser has been deployed. We quoted state medical examiner Karen Gunson on it last year, in preparation for a lengthy feature on Taser use by Portland cops:

Likewise, there is controversy around the existence, or otherwise, of “Excited Delirium,” a cause of death often associated with Taser deployment, but not recognized by the American Medical Association. Oregon State Medical Examiner Karen Gunson tells the Mercury “I don’t actually think the term is controversial,” meanwhile Dalia Hashad, director of the USA program for Amnesty International, says “we need to ask why the person died, not make up the term to explain the situation.”

Indeed, Gunson has ruled, in the past, that people died of excited delirium, despite controversy around the term. For example, she did so in the 1998 death of Richard “Dickie” Dow, a man suffering with schizophrenia who was crushed by a pile of police officers. The city ended up paying out $380,000 in that case.

In the Chasse autopsy, however, Gunson ruled out excited delirium as a cause of death, ruling instead that Chasse died of blunt force trauma to the chest, caused by another person or a fall. Gunson has since been quoted in depositions saying Chasse’s 26 breaks to 16 ribs were most likely the result of kicks or a “dropped knee” by cops. Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse’s body, including 16 possible blows to the head. Chasse would most likely have lived if he had been given proper medical care, Gunson said.


If the city has procured experts of its own who are willing to say that Chasse may have died of excited delirium, then their testimony will run against that of the state medical examiner.


The city’s new excited delirium defense also appears to have come as a surprise to Tom Steenson, attorney for the Chasse family. Court documents show that Federal Court Judge Garr King granted Steenson extra time to consult with his own medical experts during a phone conference on November 12 — Steenson now has until December 18 to respond with expert testimony of his own, with a trial still tentatively scheduled for next March.


It is against the city attorney’s policy to comment on ongoing lawsuits, and Steenson declined comment this morning.


“It looks like the city is grasping at straws,” says Jason Renaud with the Mental Health Association of Portland, an outspoken critic of the city’s response to Chasse’s death. “It’s fairly clear from the forensic evidence that Chasse died of blunt force trauma, resulting from the brutal beating by the three police officers. We can also see from the video evidence and testimony that he was unconscious at times after the Tasering, and that he was denied proper medical attention.”

“Continuing to defend the indefensible erodes and degrades the authority of our leaders in city hall,” Renaud continues.

Update, 3:34pm

“Excited delirium was a term invented to try to blame deaths in custody on something other than police interaction, but in almost all cases the people would not have died if the police had not used violence on them,” says Dan Handelman with Portland Copwatch.

READ – City may try new defense in Chasse case, KATU.com, November 18. 2009

From The Oregonian, June 26 2009

Multnomah County is poised to pay its largest legal settlement, $925,000, to end its part in the federal civil rights lawsuit brought two and a half years ago by the family of James P. Chasse Jr.

Multnomah County Chairman Ted Wheeler said the settlement, which commissioners will vote on Thursday, followed substantial negotiations.

The county and Chasse’s family, Wheeler said, agree that the county needs to move beyond the legal issues and focus on improving mental health care.

“Second, we live in a litigious society, and you never know what’s going to happen,” Wheeler said Friday. “Our attorneys have advised us this agreement is in the best interests of the taxpayers.”

Portland attorney Tom Steenson said Chasse’s family would have no comment until after the commission’s vote.

Wheeler scheduled the vote as the county discusses pressing forward with a 16-bed mental health crisis treatment center in Portland. The Portland Development Commission has set aside $2 million to redevelop the David P. Hooper Center as the county’s new mental health triage center. The city and county have pledged to split the $3 million operating costs.

“I want the community to understand that as we pay out a settlement from the James Chasse case,” Wheeler said, “the county learns from its mistakes and makes good on its commitment to the public to strengthen its delivery of mental health care.”

Chasse, 42, who suffered from schizophrenia, was chased by officers who said he appeared to be urinating in the Pearl District on Sept. 17, 2006. The officers knocked him to the ground and struggled to handcuff him. He suffered broken ribs, some of which punctured his left lung, early in his encounter with the Portland officers and a sheriff’s deputy. Ambulance paramedics who responded said Chasse’s vital signs were normal, and police drove him to the Multnomah County Detention Center.

He appeared to suffer a seizure in a holding cell and lost consciousness. A jail nurse looked through the cell door window and told police the jail would not book Chasse. Portland police placed him in a patrol car, where he died on the way to a hospital. The cause of death: broad-based blunt force trauma to his chest.

The settlement would remove from the lawsuit the county and its employees, including then-sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton, who was involved in the initial struggle with Chasse, and jail nurses, who are accused of failing to examine or treat Chasse or call an ambulance.

The city of Portland and American Medical Response Inc. remain defendants in what legal observers say has become a complex, extremely expensive suit to defend.

Settlement negotiations began in February under the guidance of Magistrate Thomas M. Coffin, records show.

Once a settlement conference was scheduled in February 2009, there was little activity until U.S. District Judge Garr M. King ruled June 3 on each party’s motions to dismiss the case, largely saying there was enough issue of fact to proceed to trial.

“It doesn’t surprise me that they settled it right after the judge’s ruling,” said Jeffrey Batchelor, a civil litigation lawyer who spends 90 percent of his time mediating lawsuits. “In civil cases, the defendant, having lost that, loses the bargaining chip.”

Mediators also often urge parties to consider economics, he said. “To do a case of this complexity right, the county and the city are going to have to spend a lot of money,” Batchelor said.

The county hired medical experts and two private lawyers to assist. The trial, set for March 16, 2010, has been tentatively scheduled to last 12 days.

Parties weigh the likelihood they could lose and the cost of going to trial. If the Chasse family won in the county case, then the county would have to cover the family’s attorneys fees.

“The advantage obviously to the county is that it’s done. It’s not going to face any further liability,” Batchelor said.

And the county cuts off liability from other defendants, meaning other parties to the case can’t sue the county.

The settlement could pressure the city of Portland to settle as well. It also could allow the city to shift blame to the absent party at trial, the county jail nursing staff, for the lack of medical care provided to Chasse.

Deputy City Attorney James Rice declined to comment.

County Attorney Agnes Sowle also declined to comment, saying only that the settlement is the county’s largest. The next largest, she said, was a $200,000 payment in 2004 to the parents of a jail inmate who died after medical staff gave him an overdose of methadone instead of his prescribed painkiller.

Jason Renaud, a friend of Chasse’s and a volunteer with the Mental Health Association of Portland, praised Wheeler for recognizing the importance of a crisis treatment center, what he called the “key missing ingredient in the continuum of mental health care.”

Wheeler said he’s hesitant to estimate when the center will open, but county records suggest 2011.

Wheeled pointed to reforms already made: mandatory crisis intervention training for law enforcement; guidelines that require police to share with paramedics and jail nurses the amount of force used during an arrest; new policies that restrict when officers can place a sick or injured person in a patrol car and that require jail staff to assess an inmate’s condition and determine whether an ambulance should be called; changes in Portland’s use of force policy; and restrictions on foot chases.

“If there’s any silver lining to this tragedy,” Wheeler said, “it’s that there has already been demonstrable change in how law enforcement works with others in the mental health community.”