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Cincinnati Police Cleared in Custody Death
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By LISA CORNWELL
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3/23/2004 8:16:00 AM
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CINCINNATI (AP) Prosecutors have closed the case of a man who died after police officers repeatedly struck him with nightsticks, saying he was the only one in the videotaped struggle who broke the law.
"It's a tragedy that he's dead," Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen said. "But he is the one who committed the crimes."
Allen said at a news conference Monday night that his office found no evidence that the police who struggled with the 350-pound Nathaniel Jones Nov. 30 committed any crimes.
"It is my decision that this case is now closed and will not be presented to a grand jury," Allen said.
Allen said the conclusion is supported by the police investigation and an independent forensics expert who extensively reviewed the video.
Jones, who died shortly after the struggle, was at least the 19th black man to die in violent confrontations with Cincinnati police since 1995.
A police cruiser camera videotape showed Jones, 41, knocked over one officer before officers jabbed or struck him two dozen times with nightsticks for almost three minutes until he was handcuffed.
Allen said that Jones probably would have been charged with felonious assault for attacking the officers and with aggravated robbery for trying to take one officer's gun and the other officer's nightstick.
Attorney Kenneth Lawson, representing Jones' family, said he was not surprised by the prosecutor's decision.
"It was typical Mike Allen, demonizing another black male and making excuses for police misconduct," said Lawson, who is conducting his own investigation.
There is also an internal police probe and another by a citizens' panel, and the Justice Department has said it was gathering information.
The Hamilton County coroner ruled Jones' death a homicide, but cautioned it did not imply that police used excessive force. An autopsy showed the direct cause of death was the struggle, but Jones also suffered from an enlarged heart, obesity and had intoxicating levels of cocaine, PCP and methanol in his blood that contributed to the death, the coroner concluded.
The death angered some activists in Cincinnati, where three days of riots occurred in April 2001 after a white officer shot and killed an unarmed black man who ran from police. The officer was cleared of criminal charges at trial.
A federal investigation of that shooting and a lawsuit by black activists led a 2002 agreement with the Justice Department to tighten use-of-force policies and improve handling of citizen complaints.
Activists claimed the officers provoked Jones into attacking them. Police union leaders vehemently disagreed.
"When a 350-pound man high on cocaine, PCP and embalming fluid punches one of our cops in the face, puts him in a headlock and takes him to the ground, there is always the possibility of severe consequences," said officer Keith Fangman, vice president of Cincinnati's Fraternal Order of Police union.
As a result of the Jones death, the City Council voted in December to equip all police officers with stun guns as an alternative for subduing suspects.
The officers who responded five whites and one black were put on administrative leave for a week, then were returned to patrol duty.
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