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By Denise Lavoie and Sarah RankinAssociated Press

RICHMOND, Va. As a video was released publicly this week showing sheriffs deputies and employees of a Virginia mental hospital pinning Irvo Otieno to the floor, attorneys for several of the defendants charged with second-degree murder in his death began to weigh in to defend their clients.

During bond hearings and through statements, lawyers sought to distinguish their clients from the mass of bodies involved in holding Otieno to the floor for over 10 minutes.

One said in court that his client only worked to secure leg irons on Otieno, while another said his client put his body weight on the man for just a short period of time and then tried to position Otieno on his side so he would not have trouble breathing.

Some defense attorneys also said their clients were only trying to restrain Otieno and there was no evidence of an intent to kill the 28-year-old Black man as deputies sought to have him admitted to Central State Hospital on March 6.

At no time did he realize that Mr. Otieno ... was in any danger whatsoever, said attorney Caleb Kershner, who represents one of the seven Henrico County deputies who have been charged, along with three hospital employees.

But Otienos family and their lawyers, including prominent civil rights attorney Ben Crump, pushed back against any attempt to minimize the role they say individuals in the crowded room played in Otienos death.

During a press conference Tuesday evening, family attorney Mark Krudys quoted some of the language used by defense counsel during bond hearings earlier that day, including a description of Otieno as being in obvious need of medical attention.

Despite that they piled on him, Krudys said. Ten individuals.

Krudys and Crump said the defense attorneys were offering excuses for what the video showed while trying to cast Otieno, who was shackled and handcuffed, as combative.

They are trying to say ... Well, he was struggling. Well, he was still resisting.' No he wasnt. He was trying to breathe, Crump said at the news conference, which was punctuated by sobs from Otienos mother.

Otieno's family has said he was brutally mistreated not only at the hospital where he died but also while in law enforcement custody beforehand.

Otieno, whose family said he had long-running mental health struggles, was initially taken to a Richmond-area hospital by police for psychiatric care March 3. But after authorities said he became combative, he was criminally charged and transferred to the jail. His family says he was denied access to needed medication during his time there.

News outlets obtained video this week of the events that preceded Otieno's death at the state mental hospital in Dinwiddie County. The prosecutor had previously shown the footage, for which there is no audio, to Otieno's relatives and attorneys.

According to timestamps, an SUV carrying Otieno arrived at the hospital just before 4 p.m. March 6.

In court, defense attorneys said that before he arrived there he was resistant. One said it took approximately 12 officers to get Otieno out of his cell at the jail.

Video from the hospital shows that nearly 20 minutes after the SUV's arrival, officers remove Otieno from the vehicle and escort him inside. He appears to be upright but hunched over.

By 4:19., a different camera shows him being forcibly led into a room with tables and chairs. He is hauled toward a seat and eventually slumps to the floor, first seated and then lying flat.

An increasing number of people become involved in holding Otieno down. At times his shirtless body is obscured by the sheer number of bodies or by someone standing front of the camera.

Steve Benjamin, a Richmond criminal defense attorney who serves as special counsel to the Virginia Senate Judiciary Committee and is not involved with the case, said the video by itself is not enough to determine the criminal culpability of the deputies or hospital workers.

We don't know if those who were observing were saying to the deputies, Get off him, he cant breathe.' We don't know if he was saying he couldn't breathe or if he was threatening violence to those who were trying to restrain him. We simply have no idea," Benjamin said.

Our reaction to that video is human and natural, he said, but it doesn't go very far in answering the question of, was there a criminal offense committed here?

In Virginia case law, second-degree murder is generally defined as the malicious killing of another, meaning the conduct must be so likely to cause death or serious injury that it demonstrates utter and callous disregard for life.

The first charges in the case were announced last week against the deputies, followed by the hospital workers two days later. Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill said in an email Wednesday that while she doesn't have additional charges in the pipeline, the state police investigation remains ongoing.

A separate investigation into the events preceding Otienos death at both the hospital and the jail is also ongoing, according to Henrico County Commonwealths Attorney Shannon Taylor.

All 10 defendants have been granted bond and have pre-trial hearings set for late April or May.

Final autopsy findings have not been released. Baskervill has said in court that Otieno died of asphyxiation, though some defense attorneys have raised the possibility that injections administered at the hospital may have played a role.

The Rev. Al Sharpton has been asked to deliver the eulogy at Otieno's funeral, his National Action Network said Wednesday. Details have not been announced.

EARLIER:Video released after 7 Va. deputies charged with second-degree murder over in-custody death

Excerpt from:
Attorneys for Va. deputies charged with murder over in-custody ... - Police News

CHICAGO The Rev. Al Sharpton is coming here Sunday to lead whats expected to be a massive get-out-the-vote rally less than 10 days before a heated mayors election, making him the latest high-profile figure to get involved in a contest thats increasingly becoming nationalized.

Sharpton told NBC News he was not endorsing a candidate in the race where crime has become the central issue in a city facing a public safety crisis.

The two candidates competing in the April 4 runoff are Chicago Teachers Union-backed Brandon Johnson and former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas.

Im doing a GOTV rally on Sunday in Chicago. Both candidates are invited, said Sharpton, who is also an MSNBC host. Sharpton said some thought Vallas wouldnt come to the rally, which is being held at New Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church.

He should come. Im interested in turnout, Sharpton said of Vallas.

A spokesperson for Vallas said the campaign wasnt aware of any invitation involving a Sharpton event. A member of Johnsons campaign team indicated Johnson would attend.

While Sharpton has said hes not endorsing in the race, his mere presence at a church where the pastor has backed Johnson is tantamount to an endorsement and rally for Johnson.

We are very excited to have the reverend come to Chicago to help boost GOTV efforts, said Bill Neidhardt, a Johnson campaign adviser. We have had many insightful and inspirational conversations with the reverend in the last few months.

Johnson has the backing of Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass. No members of Congress have endorsed Vallas.

Natasha Korecki is a senior national political reporter for NBC News.

Jonathan Allen contributed.

More here:
Al Sharpton to lead GOTV rally ahead of Chicago mayoral election - NBC News

March 23, 1948, in The Star: Three persons were treated at Anniston Memorial Hospital and one was hospitalized following a freak tornado that dipped down onto Coldwater last night around 7:20. Arnold Rollins suffered a fractured vertebrae when the home of W. B. Mason was picked up, turned around and set down in the nearby garden. The Rollinses had gone to the Masons home at the approach of the storm. Four of the 12 in the house at that time were injured.

March 23, 1998, in The Star: The Rev. Al Sharpton was in Anniston last night speaking at Mount Olive Baptist Church at an observance service marking the Rev. John S. Nettles 30th year as pastor of the south Anniston congregation. I dont know anyone who has served more unselfishly and who has served more consistently than your pastor and our leader, the Rev. John Nettles, Sharpton said. Also this date: With two new motels and another on the way, the lodging construction boom that has swept the country is making noise in Oxford. The Jameson Inn and Wingate Inn, with 120 rooms between them, are the two newest entrants, and soon to join them off Interstate 20s exit 188 is the Sleep Inn.

More:
Look Back ... to a tornado in Coldwater, 1948 | Features ... - The Anniston Star

pc: BBC News

By Kaylee Pearlman

MEMPHIS TN Following the funeral of Tyre Nichols, 29, five Black Memphis officers were fired and charged with the murder, sparking talk about the color of police involved in the violence.

William Jones told NBC News that, when he was a teenager, the police routinely used violence to break up their pickup football gamesit was the Black officers who beat us worse.

According to NBC, when Jones, heard the identity of the officers charged in Nichols murderhe was not surprised at all.

If it doesnt surprise us that a gang of officers would beat a Black man to death, then it shouldnt surprise us that the gang of officers who did so were Black, Jones said.

Police are trained the same way no matter their raceand no matter their race, they belong to an increasingly militarized profession that engages the American public like enemy combatants, he added, noting we make it near impossible to hold them personally liable for any constitutional violations they unleash while in uniform.

During the funeral, Rev. Al Sharpton stated there is nothing more insulting and offensive to those of us who worked to open doorsthat you walk through those doors and act like the folks we had to fight to get you through them doors.

He added, You didnt get to the police department by yourselfPeople had to march and go to jail, and some lost their lives to open the doors for you, and how dare you act like that sacrifice was for nothing.

Police Chief in Memphis, Cerelyn Davis, created the Scorpion Unit (Street Crimes Operation to Restore Peace in Our Neighborhoods), and, according to NBC News, [it] appears to have falsely accused Nichols of reckless driving to justify its officers pulling him over.

Davis, according to NBC, has come under fire for creating the Scorpion Unit. And, after Nichols was mercilessly beaten, footage captures Scorpion officers trying to justify their brutality.

According to the New York Times, a police report attempts to do the same.

However, NBC News said the claims that Nichols started fighting them and reached for one of the officers gunsarent supported by any video evidence.

Maq Claxton of the Black Law Enforcement Alliance, stated that it is unprecedented.(not) that you would have the victim be Blackbut the multiple perpetrator officers are Black, and the police chief, the commander of the police force, is Black.

NBC News concludes, Whether its Peter Liang, the Chinese-American police officer convicted of manslaughter in the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley.or the Black and Hmong-American officers on the scene of George Floydweve seen a disturbing rainbow coalition of police officers involved in killing innocent Black people.

Go here to see the original:
Tyre Nichols Funeral Sparks Emotions about Police of All Colors - The Peoples Vanguard of Davis

DINWIDDIE A Circuit Court judge has denied a defense request to hold the body of the man who died earlier this month at Central State Hospital while in custody of Henrico County deputies, saying that a corpse is not a T-shirt" or something else that can be easily stored.

The request came Wednesday morning during a bond hearing for Kaiyel Dajour Sanders, who was in charge of the detail that transported Irvo Otieno to Central State on March 6 and who the prosecution called the most culpable of the 10 people facing second-degree murder charges. Otieno died shortly after arrival at CSH after seven deputies and three CSH security guards held down, and in some instances, lay across Otieno on the floor of the hospital administration area. The prosecution says Otieno was smothered under the weight of the people holding him down.

Otieno, a 28-year-old Kenya native living with his mother in Henrico County, was an aspiring writer, musician and singer who also had been dealing with mental-health issues for several years. At the time he was taken into custody over possible involvement in a neighborhood burglary until his death at the hospital three days later, Otieno was in a mental crisis and appeared in videos to be very lethargic and out of touch with reality. Deputies said they had to restrain him after becoming combative at the hospital, a claim the prosecution and his family refute.

Circuit Judge Joseph Teefey seemed somewhat perplexed after co-counsel Torrey Williams asked for a motion to preserve the evidence in the commonwealths case, which essentially was Otienos body. His remains currently are at the state medical examiners office in Richmond, and the ME has said it could be 10-12 weeks before a final report is issued.

Williams asked for the body to remain in the ME custody until they could get their own certified medical examiner to do an independent autopsy. Teefey repeatedly asked Williams what evidence he had to warrant such a motion, and Williams said it was concern driving the motion that not all of the commonwealths evidence was going to be available this early in the case process.

When you start with concern, youre heading down the road to speculation, the judge said. What evidence do you have?

None, Williams said.

Teefey was not finished. He asked if Williams had reached out to anyone yet to perform the independent autopsy, to which Williams replied he had not.

Teefey suggested that the defense quickly get someone with similar credentials as the states coroner to observe the autopsy process. He was, however, not going to order Otienos body not be released to his family for burial just because of speculation.

Quite frankly, were not talking about a T-shirt or a vial of blood, Teefey said. Were talking about the dignity of the human body. Im going to deny your motion.

The preservation motion was made after Teefey set Sanders bond at $25,000 when Commonwealths Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill called him the most culpable, the most responsible defendant in Otienos death because not only was he in charge of the detail at CSH but he also was the one who restrained Otieno the most of any of the deputies there, and spent most of the 12-minute restraining period holding Otienos head and upper body down. He also was the deputy seen in CSH surveillance footage feeling Otienos neck for a pulse once the deputies removed themselves from him.

More:Surveillance video shows deputies, hospital workers pinning Irvo Otieno to the ground

The most emotional moments in all of the bond hearings came during Tabitha Renee Leveres appearance right after Sanders time in court. One of the three witnesses was a retired Henrico sheriffs employee who worked with Levere for 10 years and tearfully called her the kindest person I ever met.

Levere could be seen wiping her eyes during the hearing and on a couple of instances was given tissues by Baskervill.

One of Leveres neighbors called her our rock at their apartment community because she always looked after the elderly residents. Juliana Hester recalled how Levere dropped everything she was doing and rushed a neighbor to the hospital after he apparently had a stroke.

We all feel so much safer with her in the building, Hester said.

Baskervill contended that Levere was the least hands-on of the suspects. She can be seen in the surveillance video assisting a nurse in rolling Otieno over for an injection after everyone got off of him.

However, Baskervill said, Levere's lack of action in persuading her colleagues to stop the restraint contributed to the final outcome.

If any one person had shown emotional care or common sense for Mr. Otieno, hed still be here today, Baskervill said.

Baskervill said Levere had tried to speak to Otieno while he was at the jail, but she claimed he called her a bitch.

[Levere] realized he was not going to deal with females, either, the prosecutor said.

Teefey set Leveres bail at $5,000, the lowest amount of all 10 suspects in the case.

By Wednesday afternoon, all 10 of the defendants had been granted bond. With the exception of Sanders and Levere, all of them were either $10,000 or $15,000, and all came with the stipulation that no one attempted to contact a co-defendant or have anything to do with anyone in the case for the duration.

Other defendants in the case are deputies Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; and Brandon Edward Rodgers, 48; and CSH security guards Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg, Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of North Dinwiddie.

All 10 were indicted Tuesday by a Dinwiddie grand jury on the charges.

More:Mother of Irvo Otieno 'happy' with indictments of deputies, hospital staff charged in his death

Otienos family attorneys announced Wednesday that Rev. Al Sharpton will deliver the eulogy at Otienos as-yet unscheduled memorial service. While the exact date and time are unknown, the location will be in First Baptist Church of South Richmonds Chesterfield annex.

Sharpton is founder and president of the New York-based National Action Network, a civil-rights advocacy organization. Sharpton has been a prominent figure in recent high-profile cases involving the deaths of Black men and women across the nation.

Family co-counsel Ben Crump said the time and date of the service should be announced within the next few days.

More:Civil rights leader Al Sharpton to deliver eulogy for Irvo Otieno who died at mental health hospital

Meanwhile, the Dinwiddie County chapter of the Virginia NAACP has become the latest to weigh in on the events of March 6 at Central State.

Chapter president Betty Brown said in a statement that the group stands in solidarity with the Otieno family in seeking justice for those responsible for his death.

It is imperative that law enforcement officers are trained in crisis intervention when they encounter an individual with mental health issues until certified Behavioral Health personnel arrive on the scene, Brown wrote.

Earlier Wednesday, the chair of the Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors, Mark Moore, issued a statement also condemning the actions at the hospital and waited to reiterate that no one in the Dinwiddie County sheriffs office was involved in Otienos death.

More:Dinwiddie judge denies defense motion for gag order in Irvo Otieno murder case

More:Commonwealth's attorney Baskervill on charges against deputies: To refrain from acting would be a breach of duty

Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.

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Dinwiddie judge denies defense motion to hold body of mental patient - Progress Index