Cincinnati watchdog group says city police culpable in 2003 custody death.

Jet, August 23, 2004

Cincinnati police who repeatedly struck a Black man with nightsticks in apprehending him, should be severely disciplined, according to a police watchdog panel.

Nathaniel Jones, who was 41 years old and weighed 350 pounds, later died after the confrontation with Cincinnati police last November in the parking lot of a fast food restaurant.

Videotape from restaurant surveillance cameras and a police cruiser showed that Jones knocked over one officer before others jabbed or struck him more than two dozen times with nightsticks. Jones stopped breathing after he was handcuffed and taken to a hospital.

The Citizen Complaint Authority (CCA) voted 5-2 to accept its investigators' conclusion that the officers used excessive force in trying to take Jones into custody.

Meg Olberding, spokeswoman for City Manager Valerie Lemmie, said there would be no comment on the issue until she has a chance to review the panel's report.

The Hamilton County coroner ruled Jones' death a homicide, but cautioned it did not imply that police used excessive force. The coroner found the struggle caused the death but added that Jones' enlarged heart, obesity and drugs in his system contributed (JET, Dec 22, 2003).

The group's report said that the 33 nightstick strikes administered by the White officers James Pike, Baron Osterman and Guy Abrams were inconsistent with Jones' level of resistance. It also suggested that Jones' obesity and his placement in a prone position on the ground may have prevented him from being able to comply with commands to put his hands behind his back.

Wendell France, the panel's executive director, said Jones' death was "clearly the result of several tragic mistakes."

The panel voted unanimously to accept an additional finding that the officers involved in Jones' arrest followed improper procedures when they failed to provide him with the standard of care and best practices included in the police department's policy and training. The group said officers left Jones lying on his stomach too long and did not recognize that he was in danger of suffocating.

Jones was at least the 19th Black man to die in violent confrontations with Cincinnati police since 1995. In 2001, there were three nights of rioting after an officer fatally shot an unarmed Black man who was wanted on misdemeanor charges when he ran from officers (JET, April 30, 2001).