Updated: December 23, 2011 10:05PM
More than eight hours of video footage released Friday showed 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.
Two agencies were involved in an altercation with Ernest “Marty” Atencio when they tried to book him into an Arizona jail on suspicion of assault last week. But until now, neither the Maricopa County Sheriff’s office nor the Phoenix Police Department had admitted to using a Taser in the melee. That was despite the fact that an attorney for Atencio’s family said doctors found obvious signs that some sort of stun gun had been used.
Now, video released Arpaio’s office shows it was one of his men, not any of the Phoenix police officers, who used the Taser to try to subdue Atencio.
The veteran was taken to a Phoenix hospital after the scuffle. There, he was pronounced brain dead and kept on life support for days. On Tuesday, his family gathered by his bedside and gave doctors the order to remove him. He died a short time later.
The video released Friday was made available on DVDs to local media outlets in Arizona. The footage showed the altercation from 26 camera angles. The struggle took place in the early hours of Dec. 16 inside a Maricopa County jail and came just hours after the Justice Department accused Arpaio’s agency of routinely violating the civil rights of Latinos.
Along with the footage, the sheriff’s office also released a statement and partial timeline of the altercation. The agency sent both to TPM.
The timeline said Atencio was brought to the jail at about 1 a.m. by Phoenix police, who had arrested him earlier on suspicion of assault.
The Phoenix officers began to have problems with him at 1:11 a.m., but the real trouble began at 2:34 a.m., near the end of the booking process. The sheriff’s timeline said that’s when a “physical altercation” with Phoenix police officers ensued.
An excerpt of video, broadcast by Phoenix TV station KPNX and embedded below, shows Atencio talking to officers, then folding his arms and backing up against a wall. Officers then grabbed him and began to wrestle him to the ground. At least 10 officers combined from both agencies can be seen in the room.
Two minutes into the struggle, according to the sheriff’s timeline, a Maricopa County detention officer used a Taser on Atencio “in order to gain compliance.” Arpaio’s office did not release the name of the officer.
Atencio was apparently subdued by the electric shock, but the sheriff’s office said he was still conscious and making comments about killing himself after that.
Because of the comments, the sheriff’s office said Atencio was searched, stripped and put into a “safe cell” at 2:41 a.m. The agency said he continued to talk as officers and medical staff left the cell.
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. He was later taken to St. Josephs Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix in critical condition.
Before the video was released on Friday, an attorney for Atencio’s family, said they had no plans to comment on it until next week.
“They are deeply grieving the death of their Marty and do not want their burden and hurt to further interfere with the joys, blessings, and good cheer that other (Phoenix area) families are looking forward to on this eve of the Christmas weekend,” attorney Mike Manning said in an email. “We will have a comment on Monday or Tuesday.”
Manning previously questioned why it had taken so long for the sheriff’s office to release the footage.
“We’re concerned about it being destroyed. Because that’s what the sheriff’s office always does in cases like this,” Manning said earlier this week. “We want that digital video released right away.”
He also said many of Atencio’s bizarre actions could be explained by the fact that the veteran suffers from bipolar disorder and was off his medication. Doctors at the hospital found no drugs or alcohol in his system, Manning said.
The sheriff’s office declined to comment further and did not explain why it took a week after the altercation to release the video.
Joel Robbins, another prominent Phoenix attorney, watched the video and told KPNX it raises a lot of questions about the officers’ use of force.
“He may have been loud. He may not have sat down when he was asked to sit down,” Robbins said. “But nothing in this video has shown me any danger to the officers that justified deadly force.”
The video from KPNX is below.
Nick R. Martin
Nick Martin is a reporter for TPMMuckraker. He comes to the site from Arizona, where he worked as a freelance journalist, investigating serial killers, extremist groups, politicians and scoundrels of all stripes for a variety of local and national news outlets. He also operated the award-winning news blog, Heat City.
As a Phoenix resident, Maricopa County resident this incident just angers me more and more because in reality although a Hispanic died in this instance it just as easily could have been a black, white, native, or asian person. The police, sheriffs, and particularly the poorly trained sheriffs staff at the County jail are just equal opportunity beat your ass off thugs. As you see in the video you dont have to resist at all to be beaten down and possibly killed by these criminal thugs. It is well know here that if a person stopped shows even a bit of VERBAL resistance you are running a risk of a violent physical beatdown by police or sheriffs. Sheriff Arpaio and the Phoenix Police Department could show the Russian communists KGB and police a thing or two.
A tip for tourists: If you ever go to Phoenix, do it in the winter. And if you meet a Sheriff's deputy, don't mention the smell of stale doughnuts; it'll get you tased.
Murder.
Flyinq Squid Actually he was a veteran.
As a resident of Phoenix who lives about 5 blocks from the downtown county jail all I can say for Sheriff Arpaio's jail system is: congratulations! Business as usual. The Maricopa County Sheriff's Department under this criminal thug has a well deserved reputation for brutatlity and corruption which the newspapers and television news media all too willingly participate in with all their cutesy stories about "Sheriff Joe". So you killed another prisoner for supposedly violently resisting arrest. Only that is not what the video tape shows as up to 10 officers swarm this prisoner who does NOT violently resist, and then they tase him. He was dying when they put him in the cell and left him. After the first 5 minutes he suffered irreversable brain damage. The unfortunate matter is we taxpayers of Maricopa county will be the ones footing the multimillion dollar payment that will be recieved by the family in this killing.But hey dont ask for any quarter on this, this is a Republican State and they loves themselves some Joe Arpaio. Hope you awarded the sheriff's deputy a ham for it Sheriff Joe. What the hell that is the least the KKK does when they kill somebody.
Headline on FOX: "Activists: Inmate on life support after jail fight"
http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/12/19/activists-inm...
Fight? (It's all so simple. Who needs to read all that print.)
museredux Wow. Sick fuckers.
<b> Brown Shirts </b> - Notice the clothing worn by Arapaio's thugs ! Look familiar?
Murder. Each of the men in black who jumped this man, when he was standing peaceably with his back to the wall, arms crossed, non-threatening, and each officer who left him for dead in his cell.
Prefabfan But, the Fourth Reich of Arizona will let them off. You are either part of the solution, people of Arizona, or part of the problem. Just like Germans 80 some years ago.
What the fuck is the matter with you people?
SOMEBODY should go to jail for a VERY long time!!
Actually this is going to be a big boost for the Sheriff's political career. If either New Gingrich or Ron Paul are moninated, he is bound for a cabinet post.
foresure6379 Secretary of Beatings and Hate
Beginning of the end game for this cruel and petty tyrant....
cooper1006 Let's hope you're right, that guy is poison.
Joe Arpaio is not fit to be in any position dealing with the badge of authority. Arpaio's disgusting racism and deep hatred of Hispanics are grounds not only to remove him but to remove the cancer within Arpaio's office. It's a known fact that men or women who cannot meet the strict requirements or show or have a history of abuse of authority fall into the garbage dumpster known as small town police.
58 YO woman, I have not seen so many civil rights abuses of American citizens since Civil Rights
Movement & Anti-Viet Nam War Movement go unanswered as I have seen these past years, not to mention Wall Street abuses of entire economy! When the tipping point finally comes, it will not be pretty!
Just a couple hours after the DOJ said Joe's department sucked, a bunch of bullies leave a Hispanic veteran who was not a threat to any of them braindead. Hmmm, hotheaded bullies behaving like a bunch of animals.
And a week to release the digital video? By a department known for destroying evidence? Oh, it is time to clean that house out.
Great job, Arpaio. You've not only brought greater shame upon your county, but you've probably bankrupted it from the settlement that will no doubt result from the civil suit arising from this tragedy.
Mickey Bitsko He doesn't care, all he wants is to make sure those he has judged receive his wrath. He's a prototypical right-wing authoritarian.
@Sweendoggedly @Mickey Bitsko You are exactly right. He will garner a great deal of support for what he has done. What the GOP presidential candidates avoid commenting on the issue, or giving him semi-support.
If you watch the end of the video you see something like 7 police officers dumping an unconscious naked man on a cell floor. And one of them kept a taser aimed at him. But not a single one thought it strange that the man never moved. Wasn't there a gutter handy?
This is sort of an aside but if it takes 8 police officers to deal with one Hispanic in Phoenix, in the immortal words of another sheriff, 'Arizona is gonna need a bigger boat.'
Weird question time. It is clear Marty is unconscious and unresponsive when his naked body is placed in the safety cell. Didn't any of the police notice this when they were dragging him there? What is the standard at MCSO for when an individual needs to be handed over to medical care? Obviously unconscious isn't one of them.
maitaiquinn He was probably already near dead and they knew it. They did this pantomime to make it look like he was not injured seriously or dead.
Marty Atencio was a combat veteran. He had years of training and experience in responding to unarmed aggression and combat. When confronted with a highly dangerous situation, his response was to back away. This is not the behavior of a bipolar person off meds. This is not the behavior of a dangerous person suffering from PTSD. This is the response of a trained individual trying to respect a legal situation.
Marty wasn't crazed, he wasn't out of control. If he had been, those cops would have really needed their tasers. He just picked the wrong damn town to live in.
maitaiquinn Your analysis is quite accurate. He was being threatened by authority. Not physically threatened but psychologically. Most likely his status as a 'beener' or 'wetback' was being hightened. His citizenship was being denied and likely as not was being told his status as a combat veteran was only in his imagination.
Being Bi-Polar myself, although compliant with my meds, I have seen lots of people off their meds. Unpredictable behavior and mood swings are a fact of life. What Atencio was accused of prior to his arrest, if it happened, sounds like someone off his meds, but his behavior in the jail seems to be that of someone who has quickly realized, be it though military training or simply a mood swing that the situation has changed. His demeanor is non-threatening. He may not be as compliant to their commands as they would like, but off his meds he's holding it together unbelievably well. Not only have these animals in Maricopa killed a man basically for being Latino, they also showed no understanding of mental illness (he was a vet, did they even consider PTSD, at least). At least one of those officers must have been a vet. Plus, these a-holes so obviously felt they were in the right that the allowed themselves to be filmed doing it. I hope not only Arpaio does massive time, but numerous members of his little posse. The lawsuits alone should send that county into freefall due to all the residents who supported or turned a blind eye to his behavior. Boycott the whole frigging state.The governor isn't exactly sweetness and light herself.
If Marty may have presented a threat, why did they take the cuffs off him? How does a single man, confronted by 8 officers who backed against the wall become a threat requiring multiple officers taking him down and tasing him, inside a secure facility?
Sorry folks, this is murder, plain and simple. Leaving an unresponsive person, naked on the floor, after tasing is flat out murder.
@maitaiquinn Soon you will hear a myriad of voices stating that the Sheriff's department was "only following standard police procedure" when officers feeling threatened.
Of course they couldn't legitmately feel threatened unless they removed his handcuffs. You see they were thinking ahead.
foresure6379maitaiquinn You're right. They were thinking ahead and this has probably been done many times before.
Sheriff Joe is destined to go down in history with such other defenders of justice and humanity like Ferdinand Marcos, Manuel Noriega, Augustus Pinochet, Mohammad Pahlavi and many others the US has defended and supported for their fine efforts to defend human rights.
And Bull Connor maitaiquinn
richardinsanjomaitaiquinn
Don't forget Jon Burge.
notjennarichardinsanjomaitaiquinn
Wow, just looked up Jon Burge. Another fat f**k like Arpaio. Maybe Shurf Jo and he can spend time together.
Here is our facebook site called: "People Against Clergy And Politicians Who Preach Hate !
Len Clark Give them what for, Len.
People Against Clergy And Politicians Who Preach Hate ! Greetings brothers and sisters. I hope you're having good holidays with your loved ones. I am writing you because of a matter I feel that could not wait. Here in Phoenix, Arizona, you might be aware that we have a Maricopa county sheriff named Joe Arpaio and that a scathing and detailed Dept. of Justice report was just released on the hate and racism he uses against the poor and people of color to stay in power. Well...unfortunately, our public leaders in the city of Phoenix (the Phoenix City Council and city manager) are continuing to hand over peopled arrested and convicted of no crime into this man's hands and jail...Joe Arpaio. We are beginning a non-violent "Love Rally" campaign to persuade our city leaders of Phoenix and supervisors of Maricopa county to reconsider allowing the Maricopa County jail to receive prisoners. We are doing this with a sense of urgency due to another killing of a Latin American Persian Gulf Veteran prisoner within hours of the D.O.J. report. The City of Phx. allowed this transfer of its prisoner into the hands of Joe Arpaio even with the knowledge of the official report detailing the dangerous abuses being committed by joe Arpaio. This is why we are writing: If you can stay tuned for our planned Love Rallys at their upcoming govt. meetings and attend our Love Rally, you might be able to help save lives. So that no more atrocities can be committed because of the hate that politicians here in Phx and Maricopa county are using to stay in power . Here.. sadly...are several links to the video of my fellow veteran being unnecessarily killed because of a "top down" hate that the leaders of city of Phoenix and of Maricopa county use to aid and abett Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio. Please...help us with what ever you can ...your prayers, your suggestions but most of all your love. Love will bring down the walls of hate here in Phoenix, if we all work together non-violently. Love and Peace- Len
Len Clark Good luck. May the MCSO not come to your protest.
I just picture one of my loved ones being murdered by the Phx PD and the corrupt sheriffs dept and that gets me going to do something non violently about this !
ntil this time people were willing to believe that the fascist Joe Arpaio let his corrupt deputies get away with murder but...now...it's plain to see that Phx PD do the same ! And if leonardclark: the city of Phx. leadership do not hold an emergency meeting on this...then they too are aiding and abetting the committing of war crimes with Maricopa county sheriff Joe Arpaio !
f we stand by and do nothing then we will never forgive ourselves when it happens to one of our loved ones !
City of Phx. now has moral and financial culpability ! This is MURDER ! by city of Phoenix aiding and abetting Sheriff Joe Arpaio's corrupt deputies ! Shame on city of Phoenix !!!!!! Immediate disciplining needs to be done of these employees ! Coroner said that there were no illicit drugs in Mr. Atencio's system !
"This is cold blooded murder and if no one is charged, then that is a cover-up of cold blooded murder by law enforcement. My guess, unless the Feds get involved the law enforcement officers who did this will go scott free"
I suspect that members of the MCSO have a different idea on what tasers do to people. It might even be probable they have tased each other, sort of like little kids pissing on an electric fence.
It appears that Federal laws may have been violated here. ERIC HOLDER GET OFF YOUR ASS AND ENFORCE THEM This should be easy for you because they are not Wall Street Types
nick1936 You mean like exactly what the DoJ is doing?
nick1936 get off his ass, when yesterday he jumped into the SC voting frey? Jduge Holder has a lot on his plate, but is doing fine...
This is an example of why we can't confine terrorists in the US. If it takes 8 police officers to subdue one passively resisting American, just imagine the hell involved in dealing with one of those highly trained terrerist types who can walk through walls and crap high explosives.
Years ago a friend of ours was walking in his Santa Ana, mainly Mexican neighborhood just before sunset when he was stopped by two cops in a patrol car. They asked him what he was doing. He said he was out for an evening walk. They said, "If you'd been a Mexican, we'd have beaten you up by now."
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