Police chief on use-of-force video: 'I was disgusted' by officer's actions

[Silent_Bob]

http://www.unionleader.com/Police-chief-on-use-of-force-video:-I-was-disgusted-by-officers-actions

MANCHESTER -- Confronted with their hollering and profanity, a Manchester police officer took pepper spray to three people under arrest and handcuffed to a police department bench, according to an investigation obtained by the New Hampshire Union Leader.

A video shows a police officer approaching two of the three - all siblings in custody after a drunk driving arrest - and delivering short blasts of pepper spray. The third was sprayed off camera; all three started writhing once sprayed.

"They were simply yelling at the officer," said Police Chief Nick Willard, who was the assistant chief when the incident took place in late 2013. "He (the officer) decided to punish them. I thought it was a violation of their constitutional rights and rose to the level of assault."

Willard said the police officer, Ryan Boyd, resigned in July 2014, just before a disciplinary hearing was convened as part of the termination process. Police turned the case over to New Hampshire Attorney General Joseph Foster, whose office investigated the case, Willard said.

But a grand jury did not indict Boyd, Willard said.

The New Hampshire Union Leader obtained the investigatory file last week through a Right-to-Know request. It includes written reports of the original Dec. 20, 2013, arrest, notes from Attorney General investigators, audiotape interviews, and the 29-minute videotape of Jonathan Jones, Jessica Jones and Sandra O'Donnell in a police department holding cell.

The three have hired a lawyer who has filed a notice of a civil rights violations against the city. Manchester lawyer John B. Kenison Jr. offered to settle the claims for $475,000, but said he and the city's claims adjustor have not come to an agreement on the amount.

He expects he will have to file a lawsuit against Boyd and the police department.

https://youtu.be/QORTHiBi8TA

"Whether they were drunk or not drunk, whether they had just killed the President, you handcuff them, and then you handcuff them to the wall. You don't have any right to pepper spray them," Kenison said.

According to police reports, Derry resident Jessica Jones was driving the wrong way on Pine Street and with the lights off in her car when Manchester police pulled her over.

She was arrested for drunken driving. Her brother and sister were intoxicated, police reports said, and charged with disorderly conduct and resisting arrest. Police reports said all three were uncooperative.

The videotape shows the three handcuffed with their hands behind their backs to a bench in a police department holding area.

"All three subjects were also lunging, in an attempt to stand up towards me but were restricted as they were restrained by handcuffs," Boyd wrote in a report he filed.

He called the behavior disruptive and said it placed officers, other arrestees and the suspects themselves in danger of being hurt.

Boyd wrote that he repeatedly told them to calm down. Lacing her demands with profanities, Jessica Jones asked to go to the bathroom because she had already wet herself, the report said.

"I again told Jessica that she would be sprayed with OC if she did not stop her behavior. Jessica's behavior continued after continued warnings to cease. I then delivered a one-second burst of OC in the area above Jessica's eyes," he wrote.

O'Donnell became enraged, stomping her feet and kicking. She got a one-second blast of spray. And then Jonathan got a blast, afterward he said "take me out of these cuffs and let's go out back."

Boyd said they all settled down after that, and the video shows other officers eventually cleaning their faces with towels.

"It felt like my face was on fire," said Jessica Jones, who spoke to the New Hampshire Union Leader on Friday. Instinctively, Jones wanted to bring her hands to her face, but she was unable.

"I felt traumatized; I couldn't believe it could happen. I felt scared. I didn't know what would happen after that," she said.

Jones, who is now a stay-at-home mom, said she had left a Christmas party, and police were belligerent from the initial stop. Several times she pleaded to go to the bathroom to no avail. "I was treated like an animal," she said.

She wet herself and felt both humiliated and enraged, which prompted her to yell at police, she said.

She was pleased to see that Boyd lost his job but surprised that he was never charged with a crime.

Attempts to locate Boyd were unsuccessful.

Charles Reynolds, a retired Dover police chief who consults around the country on use of force issues, viewed the video at the request of the New Hampshire Union Leader. He said the fact that Boyd lost his job is an appropriate outcome.

Excessive use of force often amounts to a misjudgment, a tactical error or a violation of policy, he said. That all can lead to a termination and even a lawsuit, but not necessarily a criminal charge, which includes proving the person intended to commit the crime.

"It's a high threshold to prove someone guilty of a criminal act," Reynolds said.
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He said police chiefs should be forthcoming when a police officer loses his job because of misconduct.

The use of pepper spray constitutes a use of force, which the Manchester Police Department requires to be documented and reviewed.

The investigation showed irregularities in Boyd's report of his use of force. Then-police Capt. Carlo Capano told investigators from the Office of Attorney General that an officer should send his use-of-force report to the officer-in-charge and the training division supervisor. The officer-in-charge should then deliver it to the patrol division captain, who then forwards it to the assistant chief.

"In reviewing the (Office of Attorney General) investigative file, it appears likely that the forms never made it form the Officer in Charge to the training division supervisor," reads investigation notes written by Attorney General investigator Todd Flanagan.

Willard said he learned about the matter several months after it happened while reviewing use of force reports and the video.

"Immediately, I knew that the officer's actions were improper," he said. The three were handcuffed to the bench and essentially no threat to Boyd, he said.

"Because somebody's mouthing off doesn't give you the right to physically abuse them. I was disgusted by the video. We don't train our officers to behave like that," Willard said. Willard said no other officers were disciplined, and he noted that some helped the three towel off the spray.

Willard said police officers have had to pepper spray people in the past when handcuffed to the bench. Kicking, spitting and headbutting are all forms of assault that necessitate a response that could include OC spray, he said.

No other excessive use of force investigations are pending, Willard said last week.

According to previous articles, Boyd joined the police force in January 2012. Boyd was the son of a Denver police officer. He was a police officer in Sudbury, Mass., and was enrolled at University of Massachusetts Lowell when he was hired.

He was earning $60,400 a year at the time of his resignation.

Willard said he notified the attorney general. He expected assault charges would eventually be filed, which would have made the matter public. It's unclear when the matter went to a grand jury, and prosecutors are forbidden to speak about the grand jury process.

A call to the prosecutor who handled the case, Senior Assistant Attorney General Ben Agati, was not returned.

Jones, who is 27, said she now becomes uneasy around police. And when she sees media reports about excessive force, she can relate to what they endure, although she quickly adds her incident does not compare to beatings or killings.

"It should be brought to light," Jones said. "It's happening more and more now."