Centennial – Jailers at the Arapahoe County lockup didn’t commit a crime or fail to follow protocol when they suffocated an inmate they were trying to subdue, according to the district attorney’s office.
The inmate, Raul Gallegos- Reyes, 34, died of “positional asphyxiation” Aug. 17 when officers pressed down on his chest and placed a mask over his face as they restrained him.
Gallegos-Reyes had become agitated during his second day of incarceration and attacked jailers who were trying to find out what was wrong.
Jail workers fired a Taser stun gun 10 times, and the electrodes left five marks, though the shocks were not a factor in his death, according to the county coroner.
At no time did the guards violate tactical protocols as they tried to restrain Gallegos-Reyes, according to Byron Jones, chief deputy Arapahoe County district attorney, who released a three-page letter Tuesday describing his analysis of the investigative file.
Jones based his opinion on a 700-page report by the 18th Judicial District Critical Response Team, which investigated the death.
In the end, Jones said, it was a case in which approved techniques still produced a lethal result.
“This obviously is a bad outcome,” said Coroner Michael Dobersen, who performed Gallegos-Reyes’ autopsy. “There’s no way you can argue it wasn’t.”
If the officers who handled Gallegos-Reyes didn’t violate any protocol, then something is wrong with the protocol, said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Colorado.
“There are safe ways to restrain agitated prisoners without killing them,” he said.
Dobersen said he will meet with the guards and suggest better techniques, though he declined to say what guards might have done wrong.
Sheriff Grayson Robinson said he and his deputies will read the report and look for ways to improve.
Robinson said he could not comment on specific findings, adding that he has been contacted by an attorney for the family and expects the county to be sued.
On the day he was killed, Gallegos-Reyes was being held on $2,000 bail and faced misdemeanor counts of domestic violence and auto theft.
On Aug. 17, he received a court-ordered release on a traffic charge, but he was still being held on the domestic-violence and auto-theft charges.
But Gallegos-Reyes thought he was supposed to be released from jail and was having difficulty getting that point across because he didn’t speak English, Dobersen said.
Gallegos-Reyes began screaming and banging on his cell door at 4:15 a.m., officials said. Officer Joshua Thomas entered the cell with a Taser and fired it at Gallegos-Reyes after the inmate made a fist and charged. Gallegos-Reyes fell to the floor and yanked the prongs from the Taser out of his back, according to investigators.
Gallegos-Reyes pushed Thomas out of his cell into a second- tier railing and bit him in the hand, officials said. Thomas applied the Taser directly to Gallegos-Reyes’ back several times, trying to control him while other officers responded.
Gallegos-Reyes was yelling unintelligible noises, according to a report by a Spanish-speaking officer. The officers said they were surprised by the inmate’s tolerance for pain.
Tests have shown that repeated and prolonged applications of a Taser can tax a person’s respiratory system, Silverstein said.
“If Tasering isn’t working, officers should stop and think of some other method,” he said.
Several officers were needed to put Gallegos-Reyes in leg shackles and handcuffs. Officers also put him in a mesh mask to prevent him from spitting.
The officers were able to get Gallegos-Reyes in a restraint chair and took him down stairs in the chair. He bit another officer in the leg and was fighting frantically.
Officials said one officer held his head in his hands, but the inmate still was “flailing violently.”
Sgt. J.D. Knight, a certified trainer in using restraint chairs, told officers how to secure Gallegos-Reyes into the chair step by step, Jones wrote.
While several officers struggled to secure Gallegos-Reyes’ right wrist, he stopped struggling, according to investigators.
“Sarge, I don’t think he’s breathing,” Thomas reportedly said.
The officers immediately began CPR but could not revive him.
“They did what they were supposed to do, and they still didn’t prevent him from suffocating,” Jones said Tuesday. “It is a sad thing this happened.”
Staff writer Kirk Mitchell can be reached at 303-954-1206 or kmitchell@denverpost.com.
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