[108028] in Cypherpunks
Whats up with Nevada?
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (lcs Mixmaster Remailer)
Mon Feb 1 22:33:02 1999
Date: 2 Feb 1999 03:20:04 -0000
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
From: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
Reply-To: lcs Mixmaster Remailer <mix@anon.lcs.mit.edu>
The following is from:
http://www.free-market.net/forums/main9902/messages/324451369.html
Drunken driving suspects face force over blood tests
Refusing a blood and breath test can have rough results as authorities have
ways of making you give.
By Glenn Puit
Review-Journal
Andrea Jones' 12-year-old son used to talk about being a police
officer, but not anymore.
Ever since his father, Terry Jones, died in police custody in
November as jailers were trying to draw blood from his arm, the boy has
nothing but animosity for law enforcement.
"The people that killed my husband should be arrested," Andrea Jones
said. "Why in the world did they have to stand on his head and kick him
just for a blood-alcohol test?"
Las Vegas police say Terry Jones' death was an accident and that
state law mandates the use of force when suspects refuse to have their
blood drawn.
But regardless of whether Jones' death involved criminal conduct by
guards at the Clark County Detention Center, the case has raised serious
questions about how Las Vegas Valley law enforcement draws blood from
resisting drunken driving suspects.
Individuals who refuse to submit to the blood tests have been
restrained at the hands and feet, had towels placed over their faces, and
according to a witness in the Jones case, kicked in the head to ensure a
driving-under-the-influence conviction.
"If you have someone dying in jail, maybe somebody ought to be
looking at just what is reasonable force in these circumstances," said
former Clark County prosecutor Craig Mueller, now a defense attorney who
specializes in driving-under-the-influence cases. "Right now a lot of
officers are interpreting the state law as, 'We will get the sample, one
way or another.' "
Terry Jones, 33, of Las Vegas was a repeat drunken driver. When he
was found by police passed out in the front seat of his vehicle Nov. 21, it
was his third arrest for driving under the influence, meaning he was facing
a felony count and a potential lengthy jail sentence.
Jones was taken to the county detention center, where he threatened
corrections officers and refused to give a blood sample, according to
police reports filled out by the arresting officer in the case. He became
combative, prompting officers to place him on his stomach on a padded
table. He then started kicking, biting and thrashing about.
Police said Jones fell on the floor, bloodying his nose.
"While he was on the floor he began to kick and bite officers and
continued to struggle," the arresting officer wrote in police reports. "The
booking nurse, while the individual was on the ground, attempted to
withdraw blood from both of his arms, but because of his large size, she
was unable to do so. At this time she attempted to draw blood from his
foot."
A witness told homicide detectives that Jones was kicked twice in the
head. The witness also told police that an officer actually "stood" on
Jones' head during the confrontation, according to police reports.
Eventually, Jones lost consciousness and died.
So far no lawsuits have been filed, but the Jones family is
considering pursuing the matter in civil court.
"The force they used on him was not reasonable," said Las Vegas
attorney Christopher Gellner, who is representing Andrea Jones.
The Clark County coroner's office ruled the death an accident, saying
the obese man's poor health, and not the blows to the head, caused Terry
Jones' heart attack.
While Jones' wife doesn't dispute that her husband died from a heart
attack, she says her husband would be alive today if police had a different
way to deal with such situations.
"There has to be a different way to do it," she said. "If you were
being held down like that, you'd start to struggle."
Las Vegas police spokesman Steve Meriwether said an internal affairs
investigation into whether detention center officers violated police policy
is ongoing. So far, no one has been disciplined.
But the Jones case is not an isolated incident. Mueller said he has
heard of at least four different cases where drunken driving suspects had
to be handcuffed, restrained and ended up struggling with police.
Northwest Las Vegas resident Rickey Martin, 48, thinks he has a
pretty good idea of what Terry Jones went through.
Martin is the first to admit he was driving drunk Jan. 9 when he
crashed his car into a chain-link fence near Rancho Drive and Lake Mead
Boulevard. He has already pleaded guilty to driving under the influence,
his second offense.
Immediately after his arrest, he was taken to the North Las Vegas
Detention Center, where he and detention center officers exchanged barbs.
He says jailers never even asked him to give a blood or breath sample
before taking action -- detention center authorities adamantly deny that.
"I thought we were just joking, going back and forth, and then all
hell broke loose," Martin said.
Jailers handcuffed him twice at his wrists, then at his ankles, and
threw him on the floor of the detention center. They placed a towel over
his face and held it down as a nurse repeatedly jabbed a needle into
Martin's arm in an attempt to draw blood.
"When they put the towel over my face I started to get real, real
scared and I started to fight back," Martin said. "I thought they were
going to kill me."
Two weeks after the incident, Martin's arms and legs were still badly
swollen.
North Las Vegas Detention Center Sgt. Dan Lake said corrections
officers were justified in restraining Martin because he refused to provide
them with a breath or blood sample for analysis and that excessive force
was not used.
"The bottom line is this guy was resisting and combative," Lake said.
"The last measure we want to take is a forced blood draw, but he refused.
"In the state of Nevada, if you refuse the blood sample, your blood
will be taken, period."
Martin is adamant that detention center guards were out of control.
Since the incident he has twice gone to the detention center to fill out a
complaint requesting an internal investigation -- but was turned away both
times.
"They told me to go get an attorney," he said.
Lake said Martin is unwilling to accept the fact that corrections
officers had every right to pin him to the ground and put the towel over
his face, a practice to prevent suspects from spitting or biting guards.
"These people need to stop drinking and start reading the laws of
Nevada," Lake said.
And, as in the case with Terry Jones, what happened to Martin depends
on whom you believe. Lake said the detention center does not videotape the
handling of prisoners when drawing blood, so it is basically the word of
corrections officers against Martin's. Jones' death also is not on
videotape.
"They did not need to do what they did," Martin said. "I would have
given them the blood if they had asked me."
Police say the problem isn't with their policies -- it is with the
law itself.
About four years ago, the state of Nevada had a provision in place
that allowed jailers to avoid such confrontations. If suspects refused a
breath or blood analysis, their driver's license was automatically
suspended for six months. That penalty is actually stiffer than the average
90-day license suspension that one receives for a
driving-under-the-influence conviction.
But there was a problem with the statute, said Sandy Heverly,
executive director of the Las Vegas-based STOP DUI. State law dictates
increasing punishment with every drunken driving offense, but when people
refused to take a blood test under the old law, their license would only be
suspended and they could feasibly avoid a felony
driving-under-the-influence charge that comes with repeat offenses.
Heverly said the law was changed to eliminate the loopholes and that
making suspects give up a blood sample is necessary to make sure drunken
drivers receive the appropriate criminal sentence.
"The blood-alcohol level is so important in prosecuting a DUI case,"
she said. "Without that, they really don't have much of a case."
Heverly also pointed out that at least 130 people died on Nevada's
roadways last year because of drunken drivers. In contrast, law enforcement
authorities cannot remember any deaths like Jones' occurring in recent Las
Vegas history.
"Drivers make an agreement with the Department of Motor Vehicles when
they get their license," she said. "They know that if they are pulled over
and suspected of driving under the influence, they are going to be
subjected to the blood test."
Heverly said prosecutors used to be able to rely in court on
officers' individual observations a lot more, but she believes moving away
from that trend has brought the increased reliance on blood tests.
Meriwether said Las Vegas police are not reviewing policy or
procedures in light of Jones' death. He said state law dictates that the
blood samples have to be drawn and police will use whatever means necessary
to get that sample as long as the force they use is not excessive.
That doesn't sit well with Andrea Jones and her mother, Sheila Wilson
Washington.
"I think they were messing with him, saying it's your third DUI, you
are going away, and he got upset," Washington said. "If someone is refusing
to give them their blood, why can't they automatically be presumed drunk?
Even if he got his license suspended, even if he did time in prison, Terry
would still be here with us."
