Otto Zehm
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The Coeur d’Alene Press has posted online a press release issued by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department. The press release states that Nicholas Andrew Clason, age 30, of Spokane died Thursday at Kootenai Medical Center after being taken into custody by the Coeur d’Alene Police Department on Sunday, July 10, 2011. The Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department is reportedly the lead investigative agency.
The circumstances reported in the Coeur d’Alene Police Department press release invite some comparisons to Otto Zehm’s death while in custody of the Spokane Police Department in March 2006.
Of particular interest in the Coeur d’Alene Police Department press release were these statements:
After several minutes of verbal commands by officers to drop the object, Clason laid on the ground and officers were able to take him onto protective custody. Shortly after taking Clason into custody officers became concerned that Clason had stopped breathing. They began CPR, and continued the rescue technique until medical personnel arrived.
These specific statements along with others in the press release raise some questions that will inevitably and very logically be asked as a result of the Zehm death investigation.
– Obviously the Press ought to push to get the radio dispatch logs and audio recordings on this incident from both ISP Region 1 radio dispatch and Kootenai County Central Dispatch. These should frame the event times fairly accurately.
– The first officer to arrive was reportedly an ISP trooper who saw “…the male repeatedly trying to stab himself with a sharp object.” Did the ISP trooper request EMS at that time?
– Coeur d’Alene Police arrived. Had EMS already been requested, or did they request it upon their arrival?
– “The male, later identified as Nicholas Andrew Clason, 30, of Spokane, exhibited unpredictable, agitated, behavior consistent with a person under the influence of a narcotic.” Is EMS dispatched either before that observation or as a result of that observation?
– “After several minutes of verbal commands by officers to drop the object, Clason laid on the ground and officers were able to take him onto protective custody. ” Were any non-lethal weapons (e.g., TASER) used on Clason? How and in what position was he restrained?
– “Shortly after taking Clason into custody officers became concerned that Clason had stopped breathing. ” For how long and in what position was he lying restrained when he was seen to have stopped breathing? Was one officer specifically responsible for constantly observing him to make sure he did not experience impaired breathing?
– “They began CPR, and continued the rescue technique until medical personnel arrived.” At what time was the pre-announce dispatch of EMS made? What dispatch information was provided (e.g., ALS, breathing difficulty, etc.) when EMS was initially dispatched? At what time was EMS toned-out for dispatch? Was the initial dispatch designation (e.g., ALS) also the final one, or was EMS “upgraded” at some point? At what time did EMS arrive?
– “Clason was transported to Kootenai Medical Center for what appeared to be a possible drug overdose.” Not to mention he had stopped breathing!
The local and regional news media foolishly accepted as complete and factual the information provided by the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Department and the Kootenai County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office about the Madonna-Kralicek shootings in December 2005.
A more diligent news media properly questioned the official law enforcement accounts of the Otto Zehm death, and as a result, the Spokane Police Department was unable to conceal the facts surrounding Zehm’s death.
Any time a person dies in police custody, it needs to be thoroughly and objectively investigated. The Spokane Police Department’s handling of the Otto Zehm death and the Kootenai County Sheriff and Prosecutor’s misleading reporting of information about the Madonna-Kralicek shooting do little to assure the public that in-custody death investigations will be objective, particularly if those investigations reveal the law enforcement agencies skewed the information given to the public.
Agree and disagree. Of course any death which occurred in custody demands a clear understanding whether drug out by the press or just correctly reported by the agencies involved. But all the these incidents you have cited are very different in the character of their events. Zehm was not on drugs, was involved in a physical fight with authorities and Clason was apparently on drugs and demonstrated what sounds like psychotic suicidal behavior, perhaps drug induced.
Exactly how much knowledge can we expect from our police in the field confronting such threatening situations? From what I can ascertain about the event (and there may indeed be more facts to come) they did the best they could. There was no tasing or physical conflict. The man stopped breathing and they initiated CPR. You don’t start CPR unless the man stops breathing. They do not have cardiac kits or even medical oxygen in the field. Even within the walls of hospitals and with every medication available CPR commonly fails.
We shall see as more info arises. But for now Mr. Clason is a primary victim of his own lifestyle and behavior as far as I am concerned.
Comment by Wallypog — July 15, 2011 @ 5:05 am
Wallypog, I agree 100%.
Comment by concerned citizen — July 15, 2011 @ 7:08 am
Wallypog,
Yes, they were different in character and events, however in both cases the authorities on whom most of the news media were so slavishly eager to rely with little questioning sought to distort the facts and withhold information revealing the true character of the events. At least the in Zehm case The Spokesman-Review kept the information in front of the public. If the newspaper had not, then it becomes less likely the Center for Justice would have become interested enough to pick up the investigation. Had it not been for both the newspaper and the CFJ, it is very likely that the deceptions propagated by the Spokane Police Department would have been accepted by the public.
Here, the Coeur d’Alene Press buried the police procedure side of the Madonna-Kralicek shooting story as quickly as it could with no critical analysis. Douglas and Watson were happy with that, too. They knew from the Idaho State Police homicide report the Madonna-Kralicek shootings were completely avoidable. But for them to even hint otherwise could reasonably have resulted in costly lawsuits against the county by both Madonna’s family and Kralicek. The unsettled lawsuits would have revealed Watson’s and his command staff’s failure to properly train and supervise the deputies.
To answer your question about how much knowledge the police should have: It isn’t just knowledge. They also have a duty. From the moment Clason was taken into police custody, they became completely responsible for his personal safety. They had a duty to not only control him so he could not hurt himself or anyone else, but also a duty to continuously observe him to spot what could be a life-threatening health episode. I presume that was reinforced to our local cops in in-service and roll call training after the Zehm death. There was physical conflict; handcuffing someone on the ground is physical conflict even if he was cooperative. The interval between when he stopped breathing and when CPR was begun is not described in the press release. That needs to be established if it can be. That’s why I raised the obvious questions in the post.
Your closing comment echoes what some people said about Michael Madonna. Even if it is accurate and true, once he was in custody, the police still had a duty to protect him from harming himself or others. Clason’s choice to try and harm himself and the presence of any underlying medical conditions only emphasize the need for closer in-custody observation.
The point of this post was to encourage people to not automatically accept as complete or factual any self-serving information emanating from any of our local law enforcement agencies. The questions that I raised in the post concerning Clason’s death and the circumstances leading up to it are valid questions that should be asked and answered. Until those questions and others are answered fully and completely, the public will not have a clear, accurate, and complete picture of what happened.
Comment by Bill — July 15, 2011 @ 7:15 am
Bill I do appreciate your intent and I do agree with it. I suppose I would advance that for people who do understand medical interventions that this level of initial information is adequate enough to provide me the assurance that the matter was dealt with in acceptable fashion. I also fully agree that Clasons well being was the duty and responsibility of the authorities once he was in their custody. Perhaps the investigation will show a need for emergency transport ASAP in all such cases.
It was clear to me from the onset that Otto Zehm was incorrectly managed and that actions taken by those officers may have precipitated or exacerbated his cardiac arrest. For as much disgust as I felt then, I just as easily found this Clason episode unremarkable. But the reporting of such events could always be better. There’s also no doubt that the CdA Press lacks in investigative skills/attributes. But that failure is pretty much uniform in all of its reporting, sorry to say. I doubt if they purposefully light loaded this particular story.
Comment by Wallypog — July 15, 2011 @ 8:06 am
Wallypog,
It may have been careless or imprecise wording in the press release, but the sentence which reads, “They began CPR, and continued the rescue technique until medical personnel arrived,” caused me to ask questions about when EMS was first requested, how the request was dispatched (BLS yellow, BLS red, ALS, what?), was it upgraded at some point, when did they arrive? Logically the first officer (ISP trooper) who arrived and saw Clason trying to stab himself repeatedly with a sharp object would have been justified in requesting EMS right then. And maybe EMS was. Typically at a scene where someone in Clason’s state is uncontrolled and not in custody, EMS will stage nearby until told by law enforcement it is safe to come to the scene. That’s appropriate, and that may have been what happened here.
Comment by Bill — July 15, 2011 @ 8:23 am
Bill,
You might be spot on correct. Still I’d wager to say that most of us westernized folks are not too intent on successful hara-kiri by a sharp object, even if under the influence of mind altering drugs. More information is needed, as you correctly note. But it seems like the man had some sort of cardiac event and did not succumb to any consequences of his self inflicted wounds. Yeah, if the police came across someone spurting blood from a severed carotid then it is 911 time for a really fast pressure bandage (to exaggerate your point). We shall see. On the surface he was a relatively young man and not someone you would expect to go into either respiratory or cardiac arrest. The police more likely anticipated that they would calm him down, get him safe and stable and then take him in to ER to evaluate his wounds and mental status. That would not be unreasonable in my experience.
Comment by Wallypog — July 15, 2011 @ 8:41 am
Wallypog,
Hopefully the Spokane County medical examiner’s findings and toxicology reports will fill in some of the gaps.
Comment by Bill — July 15, 2011 @ 8:45 am