Advocates for people with disabilities are asking Pima County Sheriff Mark Napier and the county’s Board of Supervisors to ensure incidents like the recent physical restraint of a teen with a disability never happen again.
Five Arizona organizations and two state lawmakers signed a Nov. 21 letter asking Napier and the county’s governing board to require deputies to wear body cameras and to receive more crisis-intervention training.
They also ask the county board to hire a representative “familiar with the disability community” and “committed to transparency” to serve as a liaison with the Sheriff’s Citizens Advisory Committee.
The letter follows a Sept. 26 incident that became public in mid-November when the county’s public defender released a video that went viral. The eight-minute video shows a portion of an altercation between Deputy Manuel Van Santen and two teen residents at a Tucson foster care group home.
Van Santen is now on administrative leave and a criminal investigation has been launched after the deputy was video-recorded pinning to the ground a 15-year-old boy who does not have arms or legs while arresting him for disorderly conduct. The charge against the teen was dropped by county prosecutors after they saw the video on Nov. 13.
The teen, Immanuel Oloya, lives in a group home because he is in foster care and is in the custody of the Arizona Department of Child Safety.
The video was taken by another youth living in the home.
The main concerns outlined in the letter include what advocates says is a lack of openness and accountability for any problems, as well as the deputy’s “lack of ability to de-escalate the situation.” The deputy used “excessive force” on a minor who “represented no serious threat,” the advocates wrote. Mark Evans, communications director for the county, referred questions to the Sheriff’s Department. The law enforcement agency cited an ongoing investigation and referred the Arizona Daily Star to a letter Napier wrote on Nov. 18 that’s already been made public.
“The conduct we observed on the video at face value is shocking, disturbing and personally saddening to watch,” the letter from Napier says. “However, we understand that a short video segment may not represent the complete picture of any incident.”
The incident is under investigation and “does appear to be completely incongruent with that which we expect of our personnel.”
“We share the public’s concern over what we viewed on the video,” the letter from Napier continues. “We do not believe what we observed is in any way representative of the manner our deputies serve the community.”
Van Santen released a written statement Friday and said the video does not show the entire encounter at the group home.
“There are events before and after the video clip that were critical to the use of force and the overall context of the arrest,” the deputy wrote in a letter released by his attorney, Stephen Portell.
“Unfortunately, some interactions were not captured in the video clip or cannot be seen in the clip — interactions that were critical to my training and use of force.”
Van Santen also stated that he will be “completely transparent” in any inquiry to come.
“I am offering to testify in front of any grand jury regarding my conduct,” he wrote. “I followed my training and the directives of the Pima County Sheriff’s Department. Nothing more, nothing less.”
The letter by advocates calling for changes in county management and the sheriff’s department was signed by Kirsten Engel and Domingo DeGrazia, both state representatives of District 10, as well as by the Arizona Center for Disability Law, the DIRECT Center for Independence, Ability360, the Alliance for Global Justice and Arizona ADAPT.
“We became aware of one of your deputies using abusive and unethical force against Immanuel, a 15-year-old boy with a disability,” the letter reads.
“As a group of elected officials and organizations committed to social justice for people with disabilities, we must bring our concerns and recommendations to your attention.”
Engel said the deputy’s use of force “appeared wholly inappropriate giventhe circumstances.”
“This, plus the fact that juveniles with disabilities are many times more likely to be the subject of physical abuse than juveniles who are not disabled, at the very least training of law enforcement in nonviolent crisis intervention is needed,” she said. “Neither the sheriff’s office nor the public should learn about these incidents through cell phone videos sent to the media.”
J.J. Rico, CEO of the Arizona Center for Disability Law, said people in his organization were shocked by the deputy’s actions in dealing with the teen.
“It was apparent from the video he didn’t have the training needed for a situation such as this one,” Rico wrote in an email to the Arizona Daily Star. “Now that the video is out in the public eye, the goal should be to make sure this does not happen again.”
Rico said he would like to see the Pima County Sheriff’s Department undergo “proper training” for interacting with people with disabilities.
“All agencies should focus on collaborating with one another when providing services without any form of escalation,” he wrote. “We need to look for solutions, improve standards and have a meeting with Pima County on next steps.”
The incident was one that “shocks the conscience,” said Chuck Kaufman, the national co-coordinator for the Alliance for Global Justice. “Alliance for Global Justice responds to human rights abuses in other countries, but you can’t have global justice without local justice, so of course we signed on to this letter when we were asked,” he said.
The advocates and advocacy groups requested a response from county officials within two weeks.
