Sheriff Arpaio's office chose the Friday before Christmas to finally release video of the events leading up to the death of Ernest Atencio. TPM's summary:
... it was one of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s officers who used a Taser on a Latino military veteran that later died. The video also showed the veteran was nearly lifeless when officers put him naked in a cell and left him alone for about 11 minutes.
According to the Sheriff's office, a Maricopa County detention officer used the Taser “in order to gain compliance.” They claim after being tasered he was still conscious and making comments about killing himself so the sheriff’s office searched him and stripped him naked. For his own protection they said.
TPM again:
The video, however, shows that Atencio remained on the floor in the same position they left him for the next 11 minutes.When medical staff checked on Atencio again at 2:52 a.m., they found he was unresponsive and began using CPR and other methods to try to keep him alive.
From the video it is obvious that Atencio is struggling with the officers prior to being stunned. There's no audio, but watching the body language of officers milling around the melee, it's clear no one in that room (except Atencio) felt they were in any danger. It's also clear (to me) that he could have been handcuffed by the 6 to 8 officers holding his every appendage but they eventually chose to use a taser instead.
Until the video was released, neither the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office nor the Phoenix Police Department had admitted to using a Taser in the melee.
This isn't the first suspicious death under Sheriff Joe. Back in 2007 Juan Farias Mendoza also ended up tased, naked, and dead in a Maricopa County jail.
Eleven officers teamed up to move [Mendoza]. They swarmed him, wrapped a blanket over his head, and strapped a leather restraint, known as a "belly belt," around the blanket to hold it in place.... [Mendoza] was fighting for his life. The county medical examiner documented "blunt force injuries" on his face, torso, and limbs. His neck muscles hemorrhaged internally from the strain, and a gash was notched out of his nose -- either from being struck or from being pressed into something.
Sheriff Joe needs to go.
9:49 AM PT: Here's a couple more details about the incident from inside the reality distortion field. Note this paragraph from Fox News report on the death of Atencio (emphasis mine):
Atencio's hospital emergency over the recent week intensified problems for Maricopa Sheriff Joe Arpaio.
Hospital emergency. Riiiight.
Fox did also report this nugget from attorney Michael Manning:
Manning said that in all five of the wrongful-death cases he won against the sheriff's office, video of the incidents had been degraded or destroyed.
The video of the 2007 death of Mendoza contained sound. Is there audio of the death of Atencio that has not been released?