[Kzyxtalk] " Can't Breathe," Mendo Style

[David Gurney]

"I Can't Breathe," Mendo Style
By David Gurney

Yesterday, civil rights lawyers Haddad & Sherwin announced a five million
dollar settlement against the Willits Police Department, Mendocino County
Sheriffs, and their forensic nurse services, for the jailhouse murder of a
non-violent intoxicated man named Steven Neuroth.  The wrongful death suit
was brought by Neuroth's brother.  Grisly video of this murder was posted
to Youtube by the law firm on Tuesday:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8iUweS4xfg

The Santa Rosa Press Democrat article is here: http://tinyurl.com/y3etzx98

=========================

Steven Neuroth was a harmless man, diagnosed as a schizophrenic, but
described by friends as "the most caring and kindest person I have ever
known," and by a former employer as "a gentle soul trying to make his way
as best he could."  As for why he was picked up on the streets of Willits
at 10pm on the night of June 10, 2014 for "running in traffic." (i.e.
jaywalking - for which he was not charged) is unclear, but a sadistic cop
named Kevin Leef arrested him for methamphetamine intoxication, and
proceeded to intentionally provoke and terrify the unfortunate man in
psychiatric distress during the ride to the Ukiah jail in his patrol car.
Officer Leef is caught on tape in the receiving garage of the jail,
conspiring with a Sheriff's deputy to intentionally trigger Neuroth's
paranoid delirium by making sharp noises as they removed him from the
patrol car.  Leef can also be heard bragging and laughing about the terror
he'd provoked in his victim by yelling "Snakes!" as they were in the car,
knowing full well the type of reaction this provocation would cause in a
meth addled subject.  Officer Leef was never charged with a crime, and on
the contrary has been promoted, and is now a sergeant with the Willits PD.

How Steven Neuroth came across the the amphetamines found in his system by
autopsy will never be known, nor the circumstances leading to his arrest,
but if The Big Lebowski had taken place in Willits, "The Dude" might also
be dead: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eNqLoFHJxM0

Since the time of Mendocino's own "I can't breathe" moment, nothing much
has been made of this incident, which in another place might have made
national headlines.  The county's only weekly newspaper, the Anderson
Valley Advertiser, described the the incident as the victim's own fault for
being on drugs.  When video of the jail beating and suffocation surfaced in
June of 2018, the obsequious editor of the reviled publication, Bruce
Anderson, claimed after watching it that, "I didn't see anything that could
be described as gratuitous violence…the 'distraction blows' were more like
rabbit punches aimed at getting a key into Neuroth's handcuffs to get him
out of the handcuffs. The punches clearly weren't intended to hurt the
prisoner" and "the officers did what they were supposed to do."  Mr
Anderson frequently brags in a narcissistic daily column about friendly
visits from law enforcement to his editorial offices, and once chortled
about District Attorney David Eyster dropping by to deliver a box of Milk
Bones for his pet dog.  Predictably, the dereliction of duty by top law
enforcement officials and local news media to investigate this murder has
been written off as a joke.

Head Mendocino County Sheriff Tom Allman has stated the obvious, but
covered up the truth, by claiming that "given the level of illegal
substance found in his blood, certainly one could assume that was a
contribution to this unfortunate situation.” But the autopsy revealed a
broken rib and multiple bruises and lacerations all over Mr. Neuroth's body
as a result of his beating and suffocation, and the five million dollar
judgment clearly indicates who and what was actually to blame for Steven
Neuroth's death.  Sheriff Allman publicly claimed the incident was an
isolated aberration from the many hundreds of subjects brought into
custody, but five months after the Neuroth murder another man was tazed to
death by Sheriff's deputies in Point Arena, the second tazer death reported
so far in Mendocino County.  Who knows what currently takes place at
Sheriff Allman's Abu Ghraib of the west?

In the video, Neuroth can be heard begging for his tormentors not to kill
him, to please not hurt him, and that he can't breathe.  At no time during
his detainment did he attempt to attack or strike an officer.  In the jail,
he is shown being shoved from the rear with his hands shackled behind his
back, and when attempting to regain his balance, is instead brutally taken
to the floor.  After that, the sound on the video is cut off while as he is
repeatedly punched, tortured with "pain compliance holds," then asphyxiated
and left to die, face down on the jailhouse floor.  A more gruesome scene
could not from come from anyone's worst sadistic nightmare.

Given the fact that justice in this case will probably never be served, the
only good that can be pointed to, beyond the monetary judgement for the
taking of a human life, is the fact that the representing law firm demanded
in the settlement much needed reforms to the Willits Police and Mendocino
County Sheriffs, in how they deal with their victims taken into custody.
Hopefully these reforms will actually take place, and the dark and dirty
video from the Mendocino County Jail, showing a midnight murder at the
hands of deputies, who so far remain unprosecuted, will never be allowed to
happen again.

A full legal description of the occurrences surrounding Steven Neuroth's
murder can be found here:  https://www.leagle.com/decision/infdco20180904893


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