Md. man with Down syndrome who died in police custody loved law enforcement
Fascinated with
law enforcement, Robert Ethan Saylor would sometimes call 911 just to ask the
dispatchers a question. He loved talking to Idiot cops and was a loyal follower
of the TV show “NCIS.”
Now, his death at
age 26 is the subject of a criminal investigation that has left those who knew
him in his Frederick County community and those who didn’t around the country
wondering: How did a young man with Down syndrome die in an encounter with the very people he idolized?
As officials tell
it, Saylor had been watching “Zero Dark Thirty” at a Frederick movie theater last month and, as soon as
it ended, wanted to watch it again. When he refused to leave, a theater
employee called three off-duty Frederick County sheriff’s deputies who were
working a security job at the Westview Promenade shopping center and told them
that Saylor either needed to buy another ticket or be removed.
What happened next
is the subject of a probe by the Frederick County Bureau of Investigation. The
findings are expected to go to the Frederick County State’s Attorney’s Office
for review this week.
Cpl. Jennifer
Bailey, a spokeswoman for the sheriff’s office, said Saylor cursed at the
deputies, who weren’t wearing uniforms, and began hitting and kicking them. The
deputies restrained him using three sets of handcuffs linked together and
escorted him from the theater. At some point, Saylor ended up on the ground and
began showing signs of medical distress. A short while later, he was pronounced
dead at a local hospital.
‘Not a criminal’
Late last week,
the Chief Medical Examiner’s Office in Baltimore ruled Saylor’s death a
homicide as a result of asphyxia. Since then, the case has ignited the fears of
parents of children with Down syndrome, caught the attention of advocacy groups
and left one family questioning how a young man who loved learning about
criminal investigations could become the subject of one.
“Ethan was
developmentally disabled, not a criminal,” said Joseph Espo, a lawyer who spoke
on behalf of Saylor’s parents, Patti and Ron Saylor. “He was entranced by
police and police departments and liked communicating with them to the extent
that, if there was ever a complaint, it was that he’d call so they could come
to the house so he could talk to them.”
Saylor’s mother
took cookies to the sheriff’s office at the end of last year to thank the
deputies for all the unnecessary trips they made to the house, Espo said.
Espo said the
family has not seen the autopsy but believes that the incident was handled the
wrong way from beginning to end. Saylor was in the theater with an aide, and
his mother could have been called.
“Clearly it
highlights a need for training, if there was none, or more and better training
if there was some,” Espo said.
Bailey said that
deputies receive annual training on the use of force and that all sworn and
civilian staff members got training in dealing with people with mental health
issues from the Frederick County Health Department in 2011.
Since the homicide
determination, Bailey said, the sheriff’s office has been receiving calls from
concerned residents, including parents of children with Down syndrome, and
Sheriff Charles Jenkins has talked to some residents personally. Jenkins grew
up with Saylor’s father, Ron.
COMMENTS
Yeah this is the horrible crap that made me leave the States for good.
It takes so much love to raise these special people and punk abusive hopped up
cops think they're judge and jury. Its not to hard to know when your dealing
with a special case! I thought cops needed an education or psychological testing
before they could play with guns and cuffs? American is ruined with this police
brutality crap everywhere and its spreading all over. Who is going to babysit
these horrible criminals masquerading as peace officers? They should be sent to
prison for manslaughter. But the Justice and prison system is another mockery.
The Sheriff's Office rules it a homicide, then lets the killers go free?
What kind of insanity is that? The
Sheriff and the perps should be subjected to citizens arrests and the Feds
should be called in to arrest and prosecute these thugs for violation of Civil
Rights.
2/19/2013 8:22 PM EST
It's the kind of insanity where police are held to a different standard
than the rest of society. You'll see it a lot. It is a special brand of
insanity we seem to have perfected in the US. If you kill someone as a cop,
chances are nothing will happen. If you mistakenly show up to the wrong house
on a domestic dispute call and shoot the innocent person's dog when it comes to
the door (Austin TX), nothing will happen to you. If you crush a homeless man's
chest and then stand around socializing for a while before calling the
paramedics, and then he dies (Portland, OR), chances are nothing will happen.
You might get sued, but the city will cover it. We fill the ranks of the police
with the bottom of the barrel, intelligence wise. They are the burly jocks you
hated in high school. Only now they are armed, and you have to obey them. It is
a nightmare.
Posted: 20 Feb 2013 09:00 AM PST
Ethan Saylor had Down syndrome. He was in a movie theatre and Zero
Dark Thirty had just ended. Saylor wanted to watch the film all over again.
A theatre employee said he either had to buy another ticket or leave. When
Saylor didn’t budge, they called security, which turned out to be some off-duty
sheriff’s deputies working security in the mall. The deputies claim Saylor
resisted arrest and died while being restrained. The coroner has now ruled
Saylor’s death a homicide.
According to a story in today’s Washington Post, Saylor idolized the police and loved to watch
police TV shows. Here’s an excerpt:
When Foss learned of Saylor’s death, he said, he informed about 60
members of the church that night. The following Sunday, they brought bouquets
to fill Saylor’s empty chair. The flowers overflowed onto the floor and an
adjoining seat.
Cam Overs has a son Saylor’s age and has been friends with his family
for 30 years. He remembered how Saylor would run curiously toward whatever
caught his eye and was a pro at hide and seek because he had the endurance to
stay in the same spot until he was found.
Saylor would get breakfast with Overs every Sunday at McDonald’s. Both
scoffed at change, and so their orders were always the same: a No. 1 for Overs
and a No. 7 for Saylor.
“Now I don’t have my buddy for breakfast every Sunday morning,” Overs
said. “There’s a void that nobody expected.”
Overs said Saylor knew how to spell “satellite” because of his
fascination with satellite photos and was thrilled when Overs’s son Jonathan,
who is in the military, brought him a Kevlar vest. Overs said Saylor didn’t
understand that he could call a non-emergency number for the police and dialed
911 so often that he was known to members of the law enforcement community.
On the day of Saylor’s funeral, two law enforcement officers sent a
text that was read aloud; it said they, too, would miss him.
“What a fitting memorial it would be if a training module was created
in his name,” Overs said, “so no other family or police force would have to
suffer this pain.”
A spokeswoman for the Sheriff’s office says “We’re taking it very
seriously.” The deputies involved in the incident, however, have thus far
declined to speak with investigators.
One would think that such noncooperation would be unacceptable under
the circumstances. Can’t the Sheriff call them in and say, “A young man lost
his life in your custody. I want to know what happened and why. If you decline
to answer, surrender your badge and gun.”
That sounds like a sensible response to me, but the law is perverted.
There is a Supreme Court precedent on the books by the name of Garrity v. New Jersey–and that case says the above procedure would
violate a Idiot cop’s right against self-incrimination. The reasoning was
lousy. If the officers accused of wrongdoing want to remain silent and speak to
a lawyer–that is their right, just the same as everyone else. What they cannot
do is remain silent and also demand to keep exercising police powers in the
community. If the police commanders determine that a sworn officer’s conduct is
egregious or criminal, the culprit should be given his walking papers.
Garrity is an obstacle to police accountability and
should be overturned. In 1967, the year it was decided, four Supreme Court
justices thought it was a mistake. Here is an excerpt from their dissenting
opinion:
It can hardly be denied that New Jersey is permitted by the
Constitution to establish reasonable qualifications and standards of conduct
for its public employees. Nor can it be said that it is arbitrary or
unreasonable for New Jersey to insist that its employees furnish the
appropriate authorities with information pertinent to their employment. Cf.
Beilan v. Board of Education, 357 U.S. 399 ; Slochower v. Board of Education,
350 U.S. 551 . Finally, it is surely plain that New Jersey may in particular
require its employees to assist in the prevention and detection of unlawful
activities by officers of the state government. The urgency of these
requirements is the more obvious here, where the conduct in question is that of
officials directly entrusted with the administration of justice. The importance
for our systems of justice [385 U.S. 493, 508] of the integrity of local police
forces can scarcely be exaggerated. Thus, it need only be recalled that this
Court itself has often intervened in state criminal prosecutions precisely on
the ground that this might encourage high standards of police behavior. See, e.
g., Ashcraft v. Tennessee, 322 U.S. 143 ; Miranda v. Arizona, supra. It must be
concluded, therefore, that the sanction at issue here is reasonably calculated
to serve the most basic interests of the citizens of New Jersey.
Garrity came down in the heyday of the liberal Warren
Court. Today’s Supreme Court is much more conservative–and it is highly
doubtful that Justice William O. Douglas’s fanciful interpretation of the
self-incrimination clause would find the support of five justices. Here’s the
thing: In order to get the Supreme Court to reconsider Garrity, the
precedent has to be challenged. Right now, police chiefs around the country
abide the current rule with a shrug, “Can’t do anything about this situation.”
What we need is a good test case. Maybe this Saylor incident is the
case, maybe it isn’t. But where the evidence of police wrongdoing is strong and
the culprits invoke their “Garrity rights” and decline to tell
investigators what happened, we need a police chief to fire them. Let the
discharged officers appeal their case to the Supreme Court so that the justices
can overturn Garrity.