Xavier Roger
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DINWIDDIE, Va. — Three employees of a mental health hospital in Virginia were charged with murder Thursday, joining seven sheriff’s deputies who have also been charged in the death of a man who died in handcuffs and leg irons while being subdued.
Irvo Otieno died March 6 while being held down at the Central State Hospital in suburban Petersburg, Virginia.
“They tortured him to death,” Otieno’s mother, Caroline Ouko, said tearfully during a news conference Thursday with her lawyers outside the Dinwiddie County Courthouse. “They treated him like a dog … worse than a dog.”
One of Otieno’s family lawyers, Mark Krudys, said the video shows all seven deputies pushed down every part of Otieno’s body with “absolute brutality.”
“I was not really prepared to see this,” Krudys told reporters. The video has not yet been released to the public.
Sheriffs claim Otieno became violent while being admitted to the hospital and was restrained by seven Henrico County Sheriff’s deputies who brought him there.
Security camera footage shows that the seven sheriff’s deputies at the hospital “smothered” him and waited three hours to report his death, prosecutors said during the officers’ initial court hearing.
Prosecutor calls video of victim handcuffed, shackled ‘disturbing’
A video from the hospital’s patient intake area apparently shows the deputies throwing a handcuffed and shackled Otieno face down and lying across him to restrain him, and “smothered him to death,” Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Ann Cabell Baskervillsaid during Wednesday’s hearing.
The entire episode on video lasted about 12 minutes. While the footage was not shown in court, Baskervill called it “disturbing” and proof of unnecessary cruelty against the victim. Baskervill said after watching the video, she immediately sought the deputies’ arrest.
“You can see that they’re putting their back into it,” said Krudys about the video at the conference. “Every part of his body is being pushed down with absolute brutality. You cannot even see his image many times.”
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Otieno’s family retains civil-rights attorney Ben Crump
Thursday’s hour-long news conference was called to introduce Ben Crump as co-counsel for Otieno’s family. Crump is a nationally known civil-rights attorney who featured prominently in several high-profile cases involving the deaths of George Floyd, Trayvon Martin, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor, victims of high-profile murders in the last 10 years.
Crump, Krudys and Otieno’s family were shown the video of Otieno’s treatment both at the local jail in Henrico and later at the hospital. They all said they could see no evidence of Otieno being disruptive or violent as the deputies had claimed.
Instead, as Crump said, they saw “almost a lifeless body” in handcuffs and leg chains being manhandled by deputies.
“What we just viewed on the video leading to the death of Irvo was a commentary on how inhumane law-enforcement officials treat people who are having a mental-health crisis as criminals rather than treating them as people who are in need of help,” Crump said.
At the jail in Henrico County, they said, a surveillance video showed Otieno handcuffed and naked in the cell with feces on the floor purported to be his when deputies came in and began striking him. When he was taken from the jail to the hospital, he was shirtless but had on some pants, and was in both handcuffs and leg chains and appeared to be extremely catatonic.
Krudys said the hospital video showed Otieno seated in a chair at a table in the hospital’s intake area with deputies holding him down. At no time, Krudys said, did Otieno ever attempt to stand up and fight, and was pushed from the chair to the floor and held down.
The video, the lawyers say, showed not only the deputies restraining Otieno but also the three hospital employees who were arrested. Everyone else, Krudys said, appeared to be standing around “with their hands in their pockets” and not trying to intervene.
Crump likened Otieno’s case to that of George Floyd, a black man who died in Minneapolis Police custody in 2020. The video seen worldwide showed a police officer with his knee across Floyd’s neck and saying, “I can’t breathe” several times.
“He was just lying there on the floor,” Crump said. “What possible threat could he have been?”
Crump and Krudys said they want the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation. They also said they would like to see Baskervill release the hospital video, but Baskervill reiterated that is not something she plans to do.
The prosecutor said a key element of that evidence is the surveillance video from Central State Hospital that captures the intake process.
“To maintain the integrity of the criminal justice process at this point, I am not able to publicly release the video,” Baskervill said.
Also Thursday, prosecutors also released the names of the three hospital employees also charged in Otieno’s death. They are Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg; Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield; and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of North Dinwiddie.
Lauren Cunningham, a spokesperson for the state Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services, said the three hospital workers have been arrested and put on administrative leave. Cunningham also said the hospital and DBHDS “are fully cooperating” with the Virginia State Police, the agency leading the investigation.
“We will respect the legal process while we and our staff continue to provide important care to the patients at Central State Hospital,” Cunningham said in an email to The Progress-Index, a part of the USA TODAY Network.
It wasn’t immediately clear on Thursday if the workers had retained attorneys.
2 deputies granted bond
All the deputies were previously held without bond after turning themselves in on Tuesday, but two of them were released on bond after Wednesday’s hearing. Baskervill had objected to the granting of bonds for the two officers.
But a Dinwiddie Circuit Court judge granted bonds of $15,000 for both Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45, and $10,000 for Bradley Thomas Disse, 43, during the deputies’ initial court appearance Wednesday.
Branch and Disse were ordered not to be in contact with anyone involved in the case while out on bond.
Edward Nickel, an attorney for Disse, said in an email to the Associated Press Thursday that Disse has served “honorably” during a 20-year career with the sheriff’s department.
“He is looking forward to his opportunity to try this case and for the full truth to be shared in court and ultimately vindicated,” said Nickel to the outlet.
The other five deputies, Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Tabitha Rene Levere, 50; Brandon Edward Rodgers, 48; and Kalyell Dajour Sanders, 30, remain in custody and are being held at regional jails. It is not clear if they have retained lawyers.
A Dinwiddie grand jury is set to meet on March 21 to determine if the deputies and the hospital workers should be indicted. A second-degree murder conviction carries a maximum 40-year prison sentence in Virginia.
Henrico Sheriff Alisa Gregory told The Progress-Index that all seven deputies are on paid administrative leave pending the outcome of their cases.
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Prosecutor: Otieno’s cause of death was asphyxiation
A preliminary cause of death was asphyxiation, authorities said. The state medical examiner also preliminarily ruled the manner of death as a homicide. A final cause has not yet been determined.
Baskervill said Virginia State Police, which is leading the investigation, was not notified of Otieno’s death until more than three hours after the incident took place.
Otieno, a native of Kenya who lived in Henrico, reportedly experienced mental health issues and was a suspect in a Henrico burglary three days before his death, authorities said.
Otieno’s family attorney Krudys said his clients are “grief-stricken” after learning about the “brutal nature” of his death.
“The public, and experienced mental health professionals alike, will be appalled when the facts of this case are fully disclosed,” said Krudys who described Otieno as a deeply loved and well-regarded young man. The lawyer added that Otieno was an aspiring musician who also had been a well-known high school athlete in the area.
Krudys said the video showed a lack of urgency to help Otieno after the deputies determined that he was “lifeless” and not breathing.
“And then you see people standing around with their hands in their pockets and looking away,” Krudys said at Thursday’s news conference. “And there’s an appreciable period of time before any kind of rescue efforts are started.”
After CPR is administered, Krudys said the deputies “drift away out of the room and into a conversation by themselves.”
Contributing: Associated Press
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