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Last edited by blugiant; 10-16-2015, 10:37 PM. -
Graphic Video Shows Deputies Tasing Man in Restraint Chair
Graphic video obtained by NBC News shows sheriff's deputies tasing a mentally ill Georgia man in the groin while he was restrained in a chair.
Two Georgia sheriff's deputies and a health care worker are currently being tried for involuntary manslaughter in connection with the death of 22-year-old Matthew Ajibade, who died after being taken into police custody on New Year's Day.
A Chatham County grand jury also charged Jason Kenny, the deputy who used the taser, with aggravated assault and cruelty to an inmate. Defendants Cpl. Maxine Evans and Gregory Brown, a nurse at the Chatham County jail, were also charged with reckless conduct for failing to monitor Ajibade's status.
Ajibade, 22, was handcuffed to a restraint chair in an isolation cell after he allegedly hit his girlfriend and broke a deputy's nose while in the midst of what his family described as a bipolar episode. Officers also placed a spit mask over his mouth. He was found dead in the chair, still wearing the spit mask, in the early morning hours of January 2.
Related: Georgia Man's Death in Custody Sparks Jail Shakeup
Nine deputies who were on duty were fired in May, including Kenny and Evans. In June, the coroner ruled Ajibade's death a homicide, citing abrasions, scrapes and bumps on his upper body and head.
The minute-long video, which was shown in court Friday, comes from a camera attached to the taser. It shows Ajibade in the restraint chair, and a red dot on his thigh and groin area where the taser is pointed. The red dot stops in the groin area as the camera comes closer to Ajibade. He is heard screaming after the discharge of the stun gun against his flesh.
Though voices can be heard throughout the tape, the audio is too distorted to make out any words or identify the speakers.
Prosecutors say the tape shows that Ajibade was restrained and was not offering physical resistance when he was tased. Kenny says that Ajibade was struggling when he was tased.
Kenny's attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark O'Mara, best known for his successful defense of Georgia Zimmerman in the death of Trayvon Martin, is representing the Ajibade family, which is weighing a civil suit. Mara called the video "disgusting and vile."
"It is nothing less than torture," said O'Mara. "It's sadism."
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Bloody, Strapped to Chair, Video Shows Police Tasering Matthew Ajibade in the Testicles Before Death
Torture is not something that happens only far away in Abu Ghraib.
It is now abundantly clear that Matthew Ajibade was murdered by police in Savannah, Georgia. For over 10 months, police and prosecutors have concealed the video evidence of his murder not only from the public, but from Ajibade's closest friends and family members. His death in police custody was ruled a homicide by coroners, but the whole of Savannah's government has colluded in covering up a sadistic and brutal murder of a beloved artist and photographer who was a student at Savannah College of Art and Design.
The video below is awful and is confirmation that the United States tortures and kills its prisoners on American soil. Torture is not something that happens far away in Abu Ghraib, it's happening here. In case you can't stomach the video, allow me to explain what happens.
On New Year's Day of this year, Matthew Ajibade was arrested after a mental health crisis. Instead of being taken to a hospital, Ajibade, who was otherwise in perfect physical condition, was taken to the jail against his family's wishes. In a video we received last week, police are seen punching and kicking Ajibade in the face and head before restraining him.
Now, after Ajibade was stripped of his clothes and handcuffed to a restraining chair, we see the worst. The police Taser has a camera attached to it that is automatically triggered when the device is turned on.
Strapped to the chair after already being beaten and Tasered multiple times, we see a red light, the target of the Taser, pointed at Ajibade's groin. The audio from the Taser camera is distorted, but we see little to no movement from Ajibade. As the camera gets closer to his genitals, it is deployed. You hear the awful shock of the Taser, followed by screams. The video then ends; perhaps as the Taser is turned off, but we don't know.
Matthew Ajibade died in his cell, strapped to this restraining chair, soon after being Tasered here. The timestamp on the video states that it is 4:45AM on the morning of January 2. Police claimed they found Ajibade "unresponsive" in his jail cell at 1:38am.
Nobody was charged with Ajibade's murder and we now see that they concealed this video because they knew we'd call for such charges if we ever saw it.Comment
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Cops Acquitted Of Manslaughter For Restraining Mentally Ill Student And Tasering His Testicles Until He Died
Cops Acquitted Of Manslaughter For Restraining Mentally Ill Student And Tasering His Testicles Until He DiedComment
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Georgia sheriff’s deputies acquitted of manslaughter in Matthew Ajibade death
Two former deputies were convicted of lesser charges in the death of 21-year-old man who was found dead in a cell hours after being arrested and hit by stun gun
Two former sheriff’s deputies were acquitted Friday of involuntary manslaughter but convicted of lesser charges in the stun gun-related death of a 21-year-old detainee at a county jail in southeast Georgia.
A Chatham County Superior Court jury found former corporal Jason Kenny guilty of cruelty to an inmate and ex-corporal Maxine Evans guilty of public records fraud and lying to a grand jury.
They were charged in the January death of Matthew Ajibade, who was found dead in a cell hours after being arrested on a domestic violence charge. Though Ajibade was bloodied by punches and was kicked in the head, no deputies who took part in the fight were charged with crimes. Instead, prosecutors said reckless acts by the two ex-deputies afterward played key roles in Ajibade’s death.
Kenny shocked Ajibade four times with a Taser while his hands and legs were restrained and Evans failed to check Ajibade’s condition while faking jail logs to make it appear checks were made, prosecutors said.
Evans’ attorney Bobby Phillips said it “seemed like a vindictive prosecution.”
“I’m disappointed she got convicted at all,” Phillips said.
Kenny’s attorney Willie Yancey said he wouldn’t second guess the jury. “We accept it and we’re going to try to get Jason on with his life,” he said.
Jurors heard a week of testimony about Ajibade, a Savannah man who was arrested after a fight with his girlfriend on New Year’s Day. He died alone in a cell, strapped into a restraint chair.
Kenny told investigators Ajibade was “combative” as jailers tried to strap him into the chair, but prosecutors said video from the Taser’s built-in camera showed otherwise.
“He is slumping in the chair, there is no fight in him and Mr Kenny uses the Taser anyway — not once, not twice, not three times, but four,” prosecutor Christy Barker told the jury in her closing argument. “And how does Matthew respond? He’s screaming, ‘I’m going to die!’”
The jail requires security staff to check on inmates in restraint chairs every 15 minutes, and Evans was a supervisor in charge of ensuring they happened. Surveillance video showed Ajibade was left alone in a cell for 90 minutes before Evans found him dead.
matthew ajibade
Gregory Brown, a nurse at the jail, had also been charged with involuntary manslaughter. But the judge acquitted Brown on that charge Wednesday after an investigator testified he gave incorrect information about Brown’s duties to the grand jury that indicted him.
Brown was found guilty of making false statements to law enforcement.
Jailers testified Ajibade fought violently as they tried to book him. Surveillance video showed Ajibade was stunned with a Taser twice before he grabbed the weapon and yanked the deputy who fired it to the floor. He used the Taser to shock another deputy.
One deputy punched Ajibade twice in the face, knocking him to the floor. Another kicked at the detainee twice — one kick struck Ajibade in the head, the other sent the Taser spinning across the floor.
Investigators concluded deputies were authorized to use deadly force to stop Ajibade once he had the Taser.
Attorneys for Ajibade’s family in Hyattsville, Maryland, say he suffered from bipolar disorder and they suspect he was had a manic episode at the jail.
State medical examiners testified an autopsy found no single cause of Ajibade’s death. Dr. Kris Sperry of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said Ajibade was “stressed to death.”
Defense attorneys argued the autopsy findings made it impossible to hold any single person responsible forAjibade’s death. Kenny’s lawyer argued the defendants were taking the blame for an “incompetent sheriff” and poor training.
“What we have here is a civil case that the state wants to make a criminal matter out of,” Yancey said.
Sheriff Al St. Lawrence fired eight deputies, including Kenny and Evans, in connection with Ajibade’s death.
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Georgia ex-deputies found guilty of lesser charges in student's jail death
Two former sheriff's deputies who had been charged with involuntary manslaughter in the death of a college student in a Savannah, Georgia, jail early this year have been found guilty of lesser charges.
Former Chatham County Sheriff's Deputy Jason Kenny, 31, and his former supervisor, Cpl. Maxine Evans, 56, were accused of killing 21-year-old Mathew Ajibade.
A jury on Friday found them not guilty on the involuntary manslaughter charges, but Kenny was convicted of cruelty to an inmate. Evans was convicted of perjury and public records fraud for falsifying a report.
A third defendant, Gregory Brown, who was the nurse at the jail the night of Ajibade's death, was convicted of making a false statement. Brown was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter on Tuesday.
A cousin of Ajibade said he was not surprised by the verdict.
"I knew that that same system that failed Mathew would not be the system that got him justice," Chris Oladapo said. "I had already warned my family not to expect anything. We expected nothing, and we got nothing."
The deliberations began after an eight-day trial in Savannah during which jurors saw graphic police surveillance video the night Ajibade was taken into custody.
The video from January 1 included a more-than-one-minute clip showing a sheriff's deputy using a stun gun on Ajibade multiple times near his groin while he was in his underwear, restrained and motionless in a chair.
Nine Chatham County deputies, including Evans and Kenny, were fired in May in connection with Ajibade's death.
Force was 'justified,' former lieutenant testified
During the trial, jurors were shown video from cell surveillance footage in which Ajibade appears agitated and resists deputies.
The video shows him combative as he thrashes on the ground violently. The situation escalates after Ajibade wrests control of a stun gun being used by a female deputy. That's when video shows Ajibade struck in the head multiple times by kicks and punches from deputies. He's eventually hog-tied and dragged away, off camera, to an isolation cell just before midnight.
It's the last image of him alive.
Hours later, just after 1:30 a.m. on January 2, Ajibade was found unresponsive in a jail cell.
The family attorney has said the video shows officers went too far.
"There has been this philosophy of disrespect and then covering up for it," said family attorney Mark O'Mara, who also is a CNN legal analyst.
But in court last week, former Lt. Debra Johnson, one of the jail supervisors present on the night of the incident, testified that the video stood in favor of the officers.
"It appeared that he punched the subject because he had a weapon in his hand at the time," Johnson said during cross-examination after watching the video.
"Is that force justified?" Evans' defense attorney Bobby Phillips asked her.
"That force is considered to be justified, yes sir," Johnson answered.
Johnson was forced to retire for her role in the incident.
Three deputies were injured by Ajibade during the jail altercation, including a female sergeant who suffered a concussion and a broken nose, according to authorities.
Attorney: Girlfriend gave police Ajibade's medication
Family members claim Ajibade was a much-loved "geeky kid" who traveled to Savannah to study computer science. The 21-year-old was diagnosed with bipolar disorder three years ago and was having a medical emergency at the time of his arrest and confinement, the family's attorney said.
According to the autopsy report, Ajibade died from "blunt force trauma ... a combination of abrasions, lacerations, skin injuries about the head and some other areas of the body."
The county coroner ruled the death a homicide.
Ajibade was arrested on January 1 after Savannah police received a domestic disturbance call outside of a local gas station. Ajibade was holding his girlfriend under a blanket when police arrived, according to an incident report.
Once uncovered, the woman's face was found to be bruised and her nose bleeding, the report says, and Ajibade refused to release her when ordered to do so by police. When police tried to arrest him, the report says, he resisted in a "violent manner." He was accused of domestic violence, battery and obstruction of an officer.
His girlfriend tried to inform police of his mental health issues and "gave police a bottle of his medication," O'Mara said.
Defense attorney: 'My client was overcharged'
Officials said Ajibade had to be restrained once he was taken to the jail, and that this was when he injured the three officers. He was moved to an isolation cell because of his "dangerous behavior," a police news release said.
Deputies said they conducted welfare checks on Ajibade and on their second check, he was found nonresponsive, police said. He was given first aid by the jail's medical unit staff. Ajibade could not be revived despite CPR and attempts to restart his heart with a defibrillator, according to the news release.
During the trial, Evans' defense attorney told the jury it was not incumbent on his client alone to check on Ajibade in his cell.
"Everyone who was in the jail that night had the responsibility to check on him, not just Maxine," Phillips told CNN in a phone interview.
"The law says a deputy has to check, not a specific deputy or supervisor. My client was overcharged, no question. She did not intend to harm him."
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Jury Acquits Two Ex-Cops of Manslaughter Charges for Mathew Ajibade’s Death
Two former Georgia deputies charged with manslaughter in the death of an inmate have been acquitted by a jury.
Mathew Ajibade died in police custody following his arrest after a domestic disturbance in Savannah on January 1. During what his family later described as “a bipolar episode,” according to NBC News. The 22-year-old had been restrained in a chair in an isolation room and repeatedly tased in the groin, then left alone overnight. When officers checked on Ajibade the following morning, he was dead.
Jason Kenny, who used the stun gun on Ajibade, and Maxine Kenny were acquitted of the manslaughter charge, but found guilty on all others brought against them. Jason’s charge of cruelty to a prisoner comes with a maximum prison sentence of 3 years, whereas Maxine was found guilty of falsifying records.
An attending nurse, Gregory Brown, was acquitted of the manslaughter charge earlier in the week due to errors made during the investigation and prosecution of the case.
“I knew that that same system that failed Mathew would not be the system that got him justice. I had already warned my family not to expect anything,” Ajibade’s cousin, Chris Oladapo told NBC News. “We expected nothing, and we got nothing.”
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Cops Almost Got Away With Torturing Mathew Ajibade to Death
The black college student died still strapped in to the chair where his jailers beat and shocked him. If not for a camera, they might have never been charged.
Mathew Ajibade died alone in an isolation cell, bound by the hands and feet, strapped in to a restraint chair.
He had been brutally beaten, his body covered with bruises and abrasions. There were scrapes and bumps on his upper body and head, the result of being repeatedly punched and kicked by his jailers. Minutes later, secured and compliant in a special unit, a Taser was pressed directly on his genitals. Hit with 50,000 volts, the young man is heard on video obtained by NBC News screaming in pain.Comment
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dat oww da headline should ave read dat y mii edited itOriginally posted by blugiant View PostComment
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