The STAR Center, at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Va., 2018 photo.
Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
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Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
The STAR Center, at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie County, Va., 2018 photo.
Bob Brown/Richmond Times-Dispatch via AP
Ten law enforcement officers have been charged with second-degree murder over the death of a Black man at a state psychiatric hospital last week, according to a Virginia prosecutor.
Irvo Noel Otieno, 28, was urgently arrested on March 3 after experiencing a mental breakdown.
He spent three days in a local prison in Henrico County, south of Richmond, Va., where his family’s attorney said he was “tortured” by officers — including being sprayed with gas. spicy, stripped naked and drugged – before being transferred to the State Hospital Center, a state-run psychiatric facility in Dinwiddie County.
Otieno was bound with handcuffs and foot shackles throughout his hospitalization, according to Dinwiddie County Commonwealth Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervill. In court on Wednesday, she speaks The videos show the sheriff’s seven deputy officers keeping him on the ground for about 12 minutes.
“They strangled him to death,” she said. “He died of suffocation from asphyxiation.”
Baskervill, who filed the lawsuit, said the video showed “deliberate and cruel” treatment. charges for providing criminal information — a way to initiate criminal proceedings without a grand jury vote — against deputies.
In a statement shared with NPR, Baskervill described it as a rare but necessary step.
“This legal tactic is intended to protect other residents of the Henrico County jail,” she said. “It allows for the immediate and justifiable removal of these seven individuals from their present capacity.”
Baskervill’s office named the delegates as Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37 years old; Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45 years old; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43 years old; Tabitha Renee Levere, 50 years old; Brandon Edwards Rodgers, 48 years old; and Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, 30.
Henrico County Sheriff Alisa Gregory said on Tuesday. They were arrested – each facing a felony of second-degree murder – and turned themselves into state police that same day.
On Thursday, Baskervill’s office said three other deputies had been charged with second-degree murder in the case, bringing the total number of arrests to 10.
They are Darian M. Blackwell, 23 years old; Wavie L. Jones, 34, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27.
Baskervill said Thursday that the case will be put before a grand jury next week “to make a final decision on future charges.”
She added: “The criminal information wanted warrants are based on the evidence collected, analyzed and evaluated to date. “The key element of that evidence is the surveillance video from the Central State Hospital that captures the admission process.”
The sheriff’s office said it was cooperating with the Virginia State Police investigation into the incident, as well as conducting its own independent review.
“The events of March 6, at their core, represent a tragedy because Mr. Otieno’s life was lost,” Gregory said. “This loss is felt not only by those close to him but our entire community.”
Otieno’s family is being represented by civil rights attorney Mark Krudys, who is also working with Ben Crump on the case. They plan to hold a press conference on Thursday afternoon, after seeing the video of Otieno’s death with his family for the first time.
Krudys told NPR it expects the video to be made public at some point, possibly early next week – though Baskervill said Thursday that “to maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process At this time, I cannot make the video public.”
In the meantime, he said he wanted people learning about the case to focus on the person at its heart.
Otieno’s family, which he describes as very close, moved to the US from Kenya when he was 4 years old. He was a standout athlete on his high school basketball and soccer teams, had been in college for a while, and is pursuing a career in music.
“Ivor loves sports, music and the beach,” his brother Leon wrote on the GoFundMe page raising money for his funeral. “He used to say that he wanted to be great one day and help our village in Kenya with their needs.”
Krudys said Otieno’s death is not only heartbreaking for his family but also for others in their community, from neighbors to high school friends.
“He is living a very productive, productive and meaningful life, which is changing the people around him and he has a host of mental health issues that come with it,” says Krudys. it,” said Krudys, declining to give a specific diagnosis. “This is something that happens from time to time, it happens to a lot of people, and it requires love, not force.”
What we know so far: The original incident
Krudys said his team has a lot of questions about what happened to Otieno that led to his death on March 6, but is starting to piece together a picture based on the information they’ve gathered. hitherto.
Otieno experienced a mental health breakdown on March 3, which his family has made clear, and Krudys said he may have “collected things that sound like powered lawn lamps.” solar energy” from a neighbor’s yard.
“It was something we considered a misunderstanding, but the police were called,” he said.
According to Krudys, Otieno’s mother was alarmed to see so many officers, some of whom were “armed and armed”. He said she “wrapped herself around her son when he was outside and begged the officers not to take any action.”
Police Henrico said in a statement that officers responded to reports of a possible burglary, along with members of the county’s crisis intervention team. Based on their observations and interactions with Otieno, they placed him under urgent supervision and transferred him to a local hospital for further evaluation.
Police said Otieno then “assaulted” officers, who arrested him and sent him to an area prison, where he was charged with vandalism, disorderly conduct and three counts of assaulting law enforcement officers.
Krudys and Baskervill allege that the authorities mistreated Otieno while he was in prison. He was naked in his cell in the cold and was also pepper sprayed, with no evidence that someone washed the chemicals out of his eyes.
“If you’re handcuffed, like he is, and they spray that thing in your eyes and you’re naked, you’re going through a mental health crisis and none of your loved ones are there – then it’s a scary situation,” Krudys said.
He added that Otieno’s mother had visited several times to try to bring him medicine and at one point was told it would be “some time” before he could see a doctor. Krudys said that Otieno’s family is worried that his condition will worsen without medication.
What we know so far: Hospitalization
On March 6, Otieno was transferred to Central State Hospital – which Krudys notes was about 45 minutes away, much farther than another hospital about a minute’s drive from the prison – with what Krudys described There is a heavy police presence.
He said seven of Henrico’s deputies accompanied Otieno to the hospital in a Ford Explorer and other vehicles with “horns on and flashing lights on”.
“I’ve never heard of so many people transporting a shackled prisoner, but that’s what happened,” he said, noting that Otieno was wearing both handcuffs and leg shackles.
When the group got inside, Krudys said, the video — which Baskervill watched and apparently described to him — showed Otieno at one point sitting in a chair and then lying on his stomach on the ground, though it’s unclear if he was. Do we move on our own? .
The roughly 12-minute video shows all seven deputies, whom Krudys describes as “pretty big guys” on top of Otieno.
“The commonwealth’s attorney said all the defendants were present at one point,” he said. “She said that it was even difficult to meet Irvo because he was under the weight of all the sheriff’s deputies.”
The prosecutor’s office said in its statement that the Henrico County Sheriff’s Office arrived at the hospital around 3:58 p.m. to receive Otieno as a patient. More than three hours later, at 7:28 p.m., the Virginia State Police were called to investigate his death.
“State police investigators were informed that he became belligerent during his hospitalization,” the statement continued. “Otieno, who was physically restrained, died during the reception.”
Krudys challenges the idea that Otieno is belligerent, as he is restrained and overwhelmed by the deputies and hospital staff around him. He said it was just one of many questions the family was hoping to get answered.
“Our focus is not just on seven [arrested] but about the Central State Hospital staff there and their actions, and what happened, for example, at the prison while he was there?” he said. in his cell, why was he pepper sprayed, why did all of that happen to someone who was in a mental health crisis and shouldn’t have been pushed into the criminal justice system like he.”
