Posted on 02/24/2015 2:09:59 PM PST by Responsibility2nd
Just minutes after being declared mentally incompetent, a shackled Dasyl Jeanette Rios was tugged by her feet down a courthouse hallway.
“All I wanted to do was sob for a few minutes. Cry. I wanted to cry for a few minutes because my life is in your hands,” Dasyl Jeanette Rios said, wailing, as she was pulled by a Broward Sheriff’s deputy with her feet shackled through a Florida courthouse on Monday. The 28-year-old woman had just been declared mentally incompetent before she was dragged like a suitcase through the hallways by Christopher Johnson.
The disturbing incident was captured on a cell phone by Bill Gelin, an attorney and blogger at J.A.A.B. (Justice and Advocacy in Broward County), though the details of what led to a disturbing escalation aren’t entirely clear. While the video shows Rios writhing in pain and crying “You’re hurting me! You’re ******* hurting me. Stop! You didn’t give nobody a chance,” it is not entirely clear what led Johnson to feel compelled to restrain Rios in such a seemingly disturbing manner.
In an incident report, Johnson alleged that Rios was “disturbing the public” after the court hearing, which was for a trespassing and criminal mischief case. Rios is also being held for violating her parole for a felony drug possession.
"Fearing she would cause a commotion in the public area, I then physically grabbed inmate Rios by her leg restraints and pulled her back to the D10-door," he stated in his report. Deputy Anthony Pulitano added in a supplemental report that Johnson asked Rios twice if she would walk on her own accord.
However, Assistant Public Defender Lynn DeSanti, who is married to Gelin, claimed Johnson was far less even-keeled. While she said Rios refused to get up when Johnson told her to, he proceeded to get aggressive.
"He basically picked up this girl, yanked her off the bench, and started dragging her through the hallway," she told the Orlando Sentinel. “I said 'Stop it! What are you doing to her?' But he just told her, 'You don't want to walk? I'm going to drag you.'"
While Johnson claims he feared that Rios would become an eventual threat, no witness has so far indicated that she ever appeared to pose a physical danger. That Rios did not appear to show physical aggression raises questions about why Johnson appears to take such a violent approach to detention and disregards her pleas to stop. Although she is loud and crying in the video, Rios also appears weak and unlikely to cause physical damage. Moreover, she had just been declared mentally incompetent, which would indicate she perhaps deserve greater sensitivity.
That is certainly the opinion that some of the Broward County officials have taken. There is now an Internal Affairs investigation into the incident, and Johnson, who has served in Broward County since 1988, will not be permitted to interact with inmates until it is completed.
"I am concerned by the way the deputy handled this situation, because there were other courses of action he could have taken," said Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel.
Unfortunately, there is a long history of cops miscommunicating with and even abusing people with mental health issues and a variety of physical and intellectual disabilities—and it’s one that reaches far beyond Broward County. There are cases of cops using lethal restraint against a Ethan Saylor, a young man in Maryland with Down Syndrome, or shooting dead Steven Eugene Washington, a man with autism, because his “blank stare” was suspicious. Neither of the officers in these extreme acts of violence was ultimately convicted of any criminal charges.
In one case reported to the Department of Justice, Cleveland cops used a taser on a suicidal deaf man “who committed no crime, posed minimal risk to officers, and may not have understood officers’ commands.”
There are countless incidences that show how poorly law enforcement officials are trained to interact with people who have mental health issues and disabilities. To Broward County’s credit, its officials have acted far more swiftly to investigate and determine recourse. That, in itself, is hopeful.
We don’t get to see what preceded the shiny floor ride to the cell, but I’m sure there was some swearing at the officers and/or spitting at them and/or swinging at them to wind up where she did.
If the person was physically disabled, would a wheelchair be available? That is the most callous and disrespectful treatment of a prisoner I’ve ever witnessed. Of course, I have not witnessed any prisoners being led out of the courthouse before. How did they get her out of the building? Totally disgusting.
I’m on the clock and I’m not an asshole, so I’d probably give her more than a couple of minutes to get her act together.
How long would you give her?
I question the integrity and legality of the attorney, Bill Gelin, in providing this video to the public
Our society is sick. What happened to kindness and respect?
Not long she knows the system and was just buying time. She most likely has a PHD in working it.
How would it not be legal to videotape what is happening in a public place?
The two uniformed officers pictured could have carried her away—with less squabble.
One evening, a deputy sheriff friend had arrested four burglars himself, then transported them to be fingerprinted. Without sufficient officers in the lobby, the officer tied the four together with a long rope. The elevator took off automatically, and two went up, and two were still left on the lobby floor. While nothing bad happened, sufficient officers during the evening shift would have made the situation much less awkward!
She was the racist here - she didn't obey him because he was Black... (do I really need the "/s" ?)
without seeing the tape or being there, I’d hesitate to judge here. I’ve worked with the mentally disturbed, and sometimes four point restraint is the only way to keep the cops and those around them safe.
So, would you offer to hold her upper body up and get bitten or get a head butt into your sternum? The alternative would be three cops to get her out of there.
Once I was reprimanded in an ER for having cops restrain a patient who threw a phone at me...presumably I should have sweet talked him until the psychiatrist came.... Six months later, a similar case came to that ER and ended up stabbing a few folks waiting to be seen.
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