Family Of Man Who Died In Arlington Jail Reacts To Video
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ARLINGTON (CBS11) - The family of a man who died while in custody at the Arlington jail says video taken as jailers struggled to restrain him shows a murder. Jonathan Paul died as jailers restrained him. Paul's family says they're disappointed the guards indicted in Paul's case weren't charged with murder. And they say they're baffled by the way Paul was behaving when he was arrested.
Police video shot in the backseat of the police car shows Paul apparently repeating, "Thank you" repeatedly before suddenly sobbing loudly.
Paul's family says they've never seen him in a disturbed state of mind like he was when police arrested him.
"No!" said Paul's uncle Marvin Phillips. "He never had an episode. Never. This is the first time of anything that we're aware of. It was labeled psychosis from the medical examiner. That's only a hypothetical."
Video in the jail shows Paul roaring and yelling "I am the lion king" before stripping out of his clothes and flooding his jail cell with water from the toilet. Guards forcibly removed Paul from his cell, held him down and pepper sprayed him. Paul was left unattended and he stopped breathing.
Two guards, Pedro Medina and Steve Schmidt were indicted for negligent homicide. Paul's family had hoped for a murder indictment.
"I was glad that indictments were returned," said Paul's uncle Benjamin Paul. "But it wasn't enough indictment. Especially for the people involved my nephew's death."
The attorney for the two guards, Robert Rogers released a statement stating in part:
"These two dedicated public servants with impeccable records had the misfortune of being on duty when a criminal in the midst of a drug-induced psychotic episode flooded his own cell with toilet water and fiercely resisted multiple officers as they tried to move him to a safe, dry cell."
An autopsy showed marijuana but no other drug or alcohol in Paul's system.
The Arlington police department continues an administrative investigation. And today the department revealed the investigation goes far beyond the two indicted guards.
"Our administrative investigation will look at all involved employees," said Lt. Chris Cook, spokesperson for the Arlington Police Department. "You saw multiple employees on the videos. We'll look at the procedures and protocols for that each and every employee had with mister Paul, we'll look at all those employees."
Cook says even officers who were present in the jail are under scrutiny as the department analyses its policies and procedures. The administrative investigation is expected to wrap up in two weeks.
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