Cops blame paramedics for death of man they beat up
Fullerton pigs blame paramedics for death of homeless man they beat up. Yea, we beat the living sh*t out of that homeless *sshole and then those incompetent paramedics let him die!
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Kelly Thomas: Medics, not cops, to blame for death, defense says
May 8, 2012 | 11:04 am
The lawyer for one of the Fullerton policemen charged in the beating of a mentally ill homeless man suggested Tuesday that it was medical professionals –- not police officers -– who are to blame for the death of Kelly Thomas.
In the second day of a preliminary hearing to determine whether two police officers should be ordered to stand trial for killing Thomas outside a bus depot in July, defense attorney John Barnett questioned a trauma surgeon about the treatment the beating victim received after he was rushed to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton.
Dr. Michael Lekawa acknowledged under questioning from Barnett that paramedics had informed him that doctors at St. Jude hospital had struggled to insert a breathing tube in Thomas following the July 5 incident. Lekawa said that if a breathing tube is not inserted quickly it can lead to a low oxygen level in the blood, and eventually death.
But Lekawa, the chief trauma surgeon at UCI -- where Thomas was later transfered -- said records did not show such a problem.
"They did everything right," he testified.
A coroner's report found that Kelly had suffered mechanical compression –- pressure on the body leading to a lack of oxygen and eventual brain death.
Officer Manuel Ramos and Cpl. Jay Cicinelli are charged in Kelly’s death -– Ramos with second-degree murder and Cicinelli with involuntary manslaughter. Both have pleaded not guilty.
The surgeon said he was not initially aware of the officers' actions in the field but once he saw what had occurred he understood how Thomas could have sustained enough compression by the weight of the officers that it caused a lack of oxygen to the brain.
The testimony comes a day after a dramatic video of Thomas’ encounter with police was shown in court.
The grainy black-and-white video of Thomas’ violent tangle with police is the centerpiece of the prosecution’s case that the officers escalated a standard police encounter with a homeless man into a fatal beating.
At one point, Thomas –- a 37-year-old mentally ill homeless man who was a familiar face in the city’s downtown -– screams out: “Dad, they are killing me.”
The video and the sound of fists and a baton connecting with Thomas was graphic enough that several spectators in the courtroom left and the judge paused the video at one point as some in the audience began to groan.
He cautioned that those who couldn’t stomach the video should leave.
The case has rocked the north Orange County city, where scores of people have protested, staged memorials and even held a recent public birthday for Kelly Thomas.
Cops didn't beat Kelly Thomas to death, they strangled him to death???
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Chest compression cut off homeless man's oxygen, expert says
By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
May 8, 2012, 11:11 p.m.
The police officers who pummeled Kelly Thomas during a violent encounter last summer in Fullerton caused his death by cutting off the flow of oxygen to his brain when the fight intensified and they piled on the homeless man, a coroner's pathologist testified Tuesday.
Dr. Aruna Singhania, who told the court she had performed 11,000 autopsies, said the difficulty Thomas had breathing because of chest compression as the struggle wore on was worsened by facial and nasal bleeding.
The testimony came in the second day of a preliminary hearing that has orbited around a graphic and disturbing video of Thomas' being hit by police outside the bus depot in downtown Fullerton.
On Tuesday, the back-and-forth in the courtroom centered less on the violence captured on video than on the medical question of what — and ultimately who — killed Thomas.
Singhania showed graphic images of Thomas' body, pointing out bruises and wounds, and said the chest compression from the weight and position of the officers is what caused him to suffer hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in his blood.
The pathologist said Thomas ultimately died of brain death, acute bronchial pneumonia and blunt force facial injuries.
As images of Thomas' battered and heavily bruised body resting on a coroner's slab were about to be shown, his father, Ron Thomas, stood up and walked out of court. He said he was unable to look at the gruesome photos.
The reaction mirrored the response Monday when some spectators left the courtroom as the video played. The judge, after some in the audience groaned, stopped the tape at one point and asked those who could not stomach the images to leave the courtroom.
Thomas, who suffered shattered bones in his face, broken ribs and bruises over much of his body, was taken off life support by his family and died five days after his encounter with police.
Officer Manuel Ramos, 38, is charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter. Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 40, is charged with involuntary manslaughter and using excessive force. Ramos faces a possible life prison term; Cicinelli four years in prison. Both have pleaded not guilty.
When the images of Thomas were flashed on the screen, Cicinelli didn't look up. Ramos glanced at the photos, but only for a moment.
Prosecutors maintain that Ramos escalated what should have been a routine police encounter into a deadly beating by threatening Thomas, first saying, "See my fists," and then adding "I'm getting ready to f— you up."
During the scrum, Cicinelli can be seen on the video striking Thomas several times in the face with the butt of a Taser stun gun as officers pin him on the ground. "I just smashed his face to hell," he can be heard telling a fellow officer.
Defense attorneys sought to upend the case by suggesting that emergency medical workers — not the police officers — caused his death by failing to promptly get tubes into Thomas' airway.
Ramos' attorney, John Barnett, tried to get the pathologist to pinpoint when and where Thomas' chest was compressed to the degree that oxygen was cut off.
"It is not the heavy weight, it is the way it is compressed," she said, pointing to bruising on Thomas' left side.
She eventually agreed that the chest compression happened when Thomas' cries for help could no longer be heard on the tape.
Barnett noted that his client was on Thomas' legs — not his chest — at that time.
richard.winton@latimes.com
Fullerton pays $1 million for the police murder of Kelly Thomas
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Homeless man's mother settles with Fullerton over his death
By Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times
May 16, 2012
The mother of a mentally ill homeless man who died after he was beaten by Fullerton police has reached a settlement with the city that will pay her $1 million, officials announced Tuesday evening.
The agreement unanimously approved by the Fullerton City Council resolves Cathy Thomas' legal claims against the city involving the death of Kelly Thomas, 37. He died July 10, five days after his violent confrontation with Fullerton Police Department officers.
Thomas reached the settlement after voluntary mediation with her attorney, city officials said.
"Resolution of Ms. Thomas' claim at this time allows her to begin the healing process and avoid what would likely be protracted, expensive and difficult civil litigation," Thomas and the city said in a joint statement.
The brutal confrontation, which was captured on surveillance video paired with audio from devices worn by the officers, has rocked the north Orange County city. Thomas' death became a rallying point that sparked a mass protest movement and led to the departure of a police chief and a planned recall election next month against three council members.
The settlement does not resolve a claim filed by Thomas' father, Ron Thomas, for damages. Ron and Cathy Thomas are divorced.
Ron Thomas has pushed strongly to have the six officers involved in the incident fired and tried on criminal charges.
An Orange County Superior Court judge found last week that there was enough evidence for two of those officers to stand trial. Officer Manuel Ramos, 38, will be tried on charges of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter; Cpl. Jay Cicinelli, 40, will face trial on involuntary manslaughter and excessive force charges.
The ruling, which followed an emotionally charged hearing, means that Ramos could be the first police officer in modern Orange County history to be tried for murder for on-duty actions.
The video of the confrontation between Kelly Thomas and the officers was shown for the first time during the three-day preliminary hearing. The footage shows Thomas on the ground, screaming, as officers pile on top of him and hit him with fists, a baton and finally the butt of a stun gun.
Before the beating, the video showed Ramos growing visibly frustrated as a shirtless Thomas, sitting on a curb while detained by the officers investigating reports of someone trying to break into cars at the downtown transit center, failed to follow commands to put his legs out in front of him and his hands on his knees.
At one point, Ramos put on a pair of gloves and told Thomas, "See these fists? They're getting ready to f— you up, if you don't f— start listening."
Brian Gurwitz, the attorney for Cathy Thomas, said late Tuesday that his client hopes the settlement will help "continue the healing process that she and the citizens of this county are going through, including the many honorable members of Orange County's law enforcement community."
But, he added, "to lose a son at the hands of rogue police officers is an indescribable horror. There is nothing this council could ever do to compensate her for the loss she's suffered."
richard.winton@latimes.com
Los Angeles Times staff writer Robert J. Lopez contributed to this report.
Fullerton city council recalled over Kelly Thomas murder
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Fullerton council recall ahead, fueled by Kelly Thomas death
June 6, 2012 | 12:22 am
The beating death of a mentally ill homeless man by Fullerton police appeared to be upending local politics Tuesday as voters were on pace to recall three City Council members criticized for their tepid response to an incident that garnered national headlines.
In early returns, council members Richard “Dick” Jones, Pat McKinley and Don Bankhead were being beaten by 2-to-1 margins.
Leading in votes to replace them were Fullerton Planning Commissioner Travis Kiger, attorney Doug Chaffee and Greg Sebourn, a businessman and educator.
Jones, McKinley and Bankhead were criticized by many in the community for not aggressively dealing with the alleged police brutality caught on surveillance cameras. Eventually, Fullerton’s police chief stepped down, and two of the officers involved were criminally charged.
The recall campaign was bankrolled by businessman Tony Bushala, a Libertarian-leaning political activist and blogger often at odds with the council majority that was targeted. Some accused Bushala of exploiting Thomas’ death.
The early results showed the council majority shifting toward a Libertarian-leaning Republican slate backed by Bushala, who backed Kiger -- a blogger with Bushala's Friends for Fullerton's Future blog -- and Sebourn.
Chaffee, a Democrat, had run against Bankhead in the 2010 election and was narrowly defeated.
In an interview last week, Kiger said the sitting council members had been in the city for too long and were entrenched in power structures that "clouded their judgment."
“I think what we’re going to see if the recall is successful is a real changing of the guard,” he said. Part of that change involves chipping away the influence of the police and other public employee unions, Kiger said.
“I see them losing that influence for sure and the balance will tip back toward the taxpayer, which in my view is a good thing,” he said.
McKinley, who was police chief for 16 years before being elected to the council, said he was not sure there was anything the council members could have done to change voters' minds.
"People were so incensed by the [Kelly Thomas] incident, and they were looking for someone to hold accountable," he said.
McKinley said he wishes the winning candidates well.
"The electorate has spoken, and if I'm recalled, I'll go on my way," he said.
Fullerton citizens boot pig loving city council members