[Peace-discuss] Press Conference for Myers Case

[Brian Dolinar]

Press Conference with Michael Rich, Taser Victim in Sgt. Myers Case

Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice and Community Court
Watch Present:
Tasers and Torture: Sgt. Myers in the Champaign County Jail

Friday, December 1 at 1 p.m.
Champaign County Courthouse, downtown Urbana

Sgt. Myers will be in court at 2 p.m. in courtroom A.

In 2004, Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice stopped the
purchase of $30,000 worth of Tasers requested by the Champaign police.
Putting Tasers in the hands of police, they said, would easily lead to
abuse and blacks would be more likely to get shot with Tasers than
whites. Both of these predictions came true.

A study found that 64% of those Tasered in Champaign County last year
were African American (while Tasers are not carried by Champaign city
police, they are used by Champaign County Sheriff's deputies).

And in November 2005, Sergeant William Alan Myers was turned in for
his illegal use of Tasers on inmates in the county jail.

Michael Rich, one of Myers' victims, will be at the press conference
to tell his story of how he was brutalized, hooded, and Tasered
several times.

Sgt. Myers has been offered a plea bargain by State's Attorney Julia
Rietz. He would plead guilty to disorderly conduct and receive 2 years
conditional discharge. If he commits no crimes in the two years, his
record can be expunged. The charges of aggravated battery and
obstructing justice will be dismissed.

NO PUNISHMENT FOR ILLEGALLY USING A TASER!

They are expected to seal the deal Friday, December 1 at 2 p.m. in courtroom A.

This case is of special importance after the recent incident at UCLA
where a student was Tasered repeatedly by university police.

The discovery of Myers' abuses also sheds new light on the suspicious
occurrence of 5 deaths during the last 2 years in the Champaign County
jail.

For more read my article in the October issue of the Public i.

Torture Exposed In The Champaign County Jail
By Brian Dolinar

Many are now familiar with the infamous story of Sergeant Jon Burge in
Chicago. In 2002, it was found that Sgt. Burge and his underlings had
tortured over 150 Black men in Chicago jails.  Burge had used a
hand-cranked army field phone to deliver electric shocks to criminal
suspects.

We often assume that these incidents of police brutality only occur in
big cities like Chicago, Los Angeles, and New York. Yet the discovery
of these abuses in Champaign-Urbana, a sleepy Midwestern college town
in downstate Illinois, is a sign that they are going on all over the
country.

As violence escalates overseas, with the United States tightening its
imperial grip in the Middle East, we see a corresponding rise in
violence at home. Like Sgt. Burge who learned his torture techniques
in Vietnam, the use of hoods to torture individuals was discovered in
Champaign County jails not long after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke in
the media.

In November 2005, Sergeant William Alan Myers, a 14 year veteran of
the Sheriff's office, was turned in by fellow officers for illegally
using a Taser on an inmate in the Champaign County jail. The story
also involved placing hoods over inmates. An investigation was
conducted by the Sheriff's office and its report is where much of the
following information was gained. In the investigation, it was also
found that 21 year old Michael Rich was hooded and tased a year
earlier in November 2004. These revelations are a textbook example of
police corruption and what it takes for cops to cross the "blue line"
of silence.

Sheriff Dan Walsh praised the "professionalism and integrity" of the
correctional officers who turned Myers in. Yet the same officers who
ratted on Myers had been involved in previous beatings of Michael Rich
and willingly falsified police reports about the incident.
Additionally, Sheriff Dan Walsh had already been notified about his
rogue correctional officer.

He Looked Like A Taliban Prisoner
Sgt. Myers is currently being prosecuted by State's Attorney Julia
Rietz on charges of aggravated battery, obstruction of justice, and
disorderly conduct (Case no. 05CF2105). The incident involved inmate
Ray Hsieh, a 31 year-old Chinese man who was in jail for stealing a
car. To stop an argument between Hsieh and another inmate,
correctional officers sprayed a heavy cloud of pepper spray. Hsieh was
cleaned up in a cell shower and placed in a restraint chair. Due to
the amount of pepper spray he had inhaled, Hsieh could not stop
spitting and officers had placed a "spit hood" on him for their
protection. According to correctional officers Jeremy Heath and Joshua
Jones, who eventually turned Myers in, Hsieh was always in handcuffs
and was not trying to spit on them. Myers would later try to convince
his fellow officers to say Hsieh was not restrained, was spitting on
officers, and resisting their demands, hence his need to use a Taser
to subdue him.

After hearing about an altercation between two inmates, Myers arrived
at the downtown jail at approximately 8:00 pm on November 14, 2005. He
had called Sgt. Mennenga from the satellite jail and requested the use
of a Taser. When others saw Myers enter the shower room where Hsieh
was being held, they say he had a look of determination on his face
and was holding a Taser. Breaking police procedure requiring that
other assisting officers always be present when handling an inmate,
Myers sent officers Heath and Jones, as well as correctional officers
Arnold Matthews and Craig Wakefield, out of the room. Sgt. Myers was
their superior and they obeyed his orders. But they stood at the door
and watched as Myers, by himself, tortured the fully restrained Hsieh.

When interviewed by investigators, Ray Hsieh recalls he had a "mask
on" while he was attacked. An inmate who witnessed the incident told
an investigator that Hsieh "looked like a Taliban prisoner" with the
hood on.

Hsieh was tased four times at 50,000 volts, with several minutes
between each shot. He was later found to be mentally ill and probably
needed medication for his behavior in the jail. But before he could be
treated by a nurse, he was treated with the brutal shock therapy of
Sgt. Myers.

One inmate told an investigator that the officers "were just kind of
laughing it off and stuff." Another inmate who was interviewed said
that officer Matthews joked, "He's going to have a bad headache."

Afterwards, Myers told Heath, "This is going to take some creative
report writing."  Myers typed up a falsified police report and emailed
it to Heath, telling him "Make your report look like mine." Myers'
report read:

"Hsieh stood up and spit on my shirt and I fired the Taser again.  I
had to fire the Taser one more time until Officers Mathews and Heath
were able to handcuff Hsieh behind his back. We placed Hsieh in the
restraint chair. The entire time we were doing this, Hsieh was
spitting so I ordered a spit hood placed over Hsieh's head to prevent
him spitting on us anymore."

When officer Heath saw the report, he was offended that Myers had
included his name. "He says that I was there," Heath told an
investigator. "The main thing that really bothers me is that he said I
was there while he was being tased." Of course, Heath was not bothered
by the torture of an inmate, but that he was implicated in the
incident.

Officer Heath left the jail that night without finishing his report.
His defiance angered Myers, who told officer Jones to relay a message
to Heath: "You tell him his ass is mine tomorrow." This tale of police
corruption reveals the power that superiors hold over their
subordinates, as well as the routine practice of falsifying police
reports.

That night the officers involved – Heath, Jones, Matthews, and
Wakefield – met at Todd and John's bar for beers and discussed what
they should do. Officer Wakefield told an investigator about their
decision to turn Myers in, "we knew what we needed to do from the
beginning.  It was more a matter of, I don't even know what it was a
matter of, but we knew what we had to do from the beginning.  It was
just a matter of doing it, I guess."

Officer Mathews was also named in the report. When he read it he
responded, "the report kinda like made, I felt, kinda like made me
look like a jack ass." Matthews also was not concerned for the health
of Hsieh, but for the future of his job. He told an investigator, "I
got a house and kids, I can't lie."

It was primarily Jones and Heath who decided to go to the police union
representative, who notified Captain James Young that night. Sgt.
Myers was arrested on November 16 and taken to the Piatt County Jail
in Monticello for his own safety.

An internal investigation was conducted that involved interviewing
several witnesses, whose testimony is included in Myers' criminal case
file and is the basis of this account.

When investigators finally cornered Myers about his lying, they
lectured to him, "when someone does that, then they question the
integrity of us all." Myers claimed he panicked and said he didn't
realize he had committed a crime, "I didn't think about it till now."

Ray Hsieh was one of two inmates Myers had tortured that very same
week. According to Sgt. Mennenga, Myers later joked about torturing
inmates, "I have had to Taser somebody twice within the past week,
they might start thinking I am getting trigger happy." Myers had also
used a Taser on inmate Michael Alexander that same week. He even
bragged to Mennenga, "it seems like I am the only one with enough
balls to use the Taser."

On September 19, 2005, Sgt. Myers also used a Taser on Trina Fairley,
a Black woman who was one month pregnant. But Myers' use of Tasers and
torture goes back even further, to an incident with Michael Rich a
year before the Sergeant was turned in.

This Is The Way We Do Things Down Here
On November 6, 2004, just days after George W. Bush was reelected,
Michael Rich was picked up by Urbana police at the Canopy Club. This
was Rich's first visit to Urbana-Champaign. He had come down from
Chicago to go to a show with some friends. Staff at the Canopy Club
called the police on Rich, claiming he was drunk and had failed to pay
admission. Rich admits he had a few drinks that night but says he
sobered up quickly after the police arrived. In the report, Urbana
police officer Daniel Bailey writes that the staff member at the
Canopy Club, "said Rich was just verbally abusive and not physically"
(Case no. UU0407560).

Rich told me he was still reeling from Bush's reelection when he had
his encounter with Myers. A 21 year-old, long-haired college student
from Northern Illinois University, Rich was rebellious but not
ignorant of his rights. Rich says when he entered the jail he still
had not been read his Miranda rights. When he asked what his charges
were, the response was "shut the fuck up." He called Myers a
"fascist," and Myers proved Rich's observation to be true. Sgt. Myers
grabbed Rich by his hair and slammed his head repeatedly into a wall.
He told Rich, "This is the way we do things down here."

Already in handcuffs, Rich was placed in a restraint chair, what the
police call being "hog-tied." A hood was placed over his head while
Sgt. Myers and another correctional officer who Rich could not
identify took turns hitting him in the back of the head with an open
hand. As they were beating him, Rich asked how they were going to
explain his bloody condition. The unidentified officer said, "You came
in here like that."

In the supplemental report authored by Sgt. Myers it states, "Mr. Rich
was bleeding from his mouth area from the altercation he had prior to
coming to the jail" (Case no. S-2004-5123).

Ironically, also present were Jeremy Heath and Joshua Jones, the same
two officers who turned in Myers a year later. This time Heath went
along with Myers, even helping to cover up his torture and abuse.
Heath wrote in his report on Rich, "his lip was bleeding a little when
UPD brought him in."

After leaving Rich tied up for some time, Sgt. Myers returned to take
him out of the restraint chair and uncuffed his hands. Rich
immediately grabbed the hood, which was soaked in blood. Myers
screamed at him to let it go, but Rich refused, believing the bloody
hood was evidence of the beating. Myers drew his Taser gun and fired
it at Rich, who fell to the ground. Myers, who is six feet, three
inches tall and nearly 300 pounds, climbed on top of Rich. According
to a complaint filed by Rich:

"Sgt. Myers then tasered me in the upper left side of my back and I
fell to the ground.  He then dropped to the ground and began tasering
me in my chest and arms and I gave up and turned over onto my stomach
so he could cuff me.  He then tried to push the taser in the crack of
my butt and I rolled back onto my side and pushed Sgt. Myers off me."

This account is included in a formal complaint Rich filed with Sheriff
Dan Walsh's office, which I acquired from Rich himself. The complaint
was filed in May 2005. Captain James Young wrote a letter to Rich
dated August 3, 2005 in which he replied, "I have determined that the
force used in controlling you while in the booking area was
justified." Nevertheless, Rich met personally with Dan Walsh in late
August and the Sheriff told him he would investigate the case. Walsh
apparently did nothing.

Rich wishes to see Myers fully prosecuted and is willing to testify in
the case against Myers. Still, Rich wonders why he was not asked to
identify the second officer who participated in his beating. He was
later contacted by Civil Division Assistant States Attorney Susan
McGraff who offered him a cash settlement contingent upon his not
pressing charges against Myers. Just recently, in July 2005, Rich had
all the charges against him dropped.

Not only did Sgt. Myers physically abuse Rich, put him in a hood, but
he tried to sodomize him with a Taser. This kind of sadistic behavior,
the practice of hooding prisoners, has been banned by an Army Field
Manual recently released by the Pentagon and is officially prohibited
in the now notorious prisons of Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Are we
going to let this be tolerated in our local jails?

Rich was just one semester from finishing his B.A. at Northern
Illinois University, but after the November incident, subsequent court
dates, and personal trauma, Rich was expelled from school. His life
was literally ruined by Sgt. Myers. Will State's Attorney Julia Rietz,
who often speaks on conservative talk radio about her concern for
victim's rights, ensure that Michael Rich sees justice?

I have personally brought these documents to the attention of
Assistant State's Attorney Steve Ziegler, who is handling the Myers
case. We will see if Rietz's office fully prosecutes Sgt. Myers or if
he receives a plea bargain with no time served. Rietz herself is
married to an Urbana police officer, an obvious conflict of interest
in prosecuting cases. If the treatment of Urbana officer Kurt Hjort,
who escaped prosecution for his alleged rape of a 25 year-old woman,
is an indication of the special favors accorded to law enforcement
officers in this community, we can expect no real punishment for Sgt.
Myers.

What if Sgt. Myers had tortured a U of I student? What if Officer
Hjort would have raped a 25 year-old woman attending the U of I and
not a gas station attendant? What will it take before we as a
community are disturbed enough to take action?

Often, we refuse to believe that the those who are hired to "serve and
protect" could beat citizens and falsify police reports to justify
their abuses. The Myers story shows that this occurs regularly and is
covered up by fellow officers.

To avoid a civil law suit, Ray Hsieh was paid an undisclosed amount of
up to $10,000 and his charges were dropped. We cannot let them buy us
all off. We can no longer be silent. With over 2.3 million people in
our jails and prisons, with massive overcrowding, abuse is
predictable. Both at home and overseas, the United States is creating
a culture of imprisonment that betrays the intentions of the founding
fathers who wished to create a democracy where "cruel and unusual
punishment" is a thing of the past.

This story is largely based on public court documents. For more
information search the Circuit Clerk website at
https://secure.jtsmith.com/clerk/clerk.asp.


-- 
Brian Dolinar, Ph.D.
303 W. Locust St.
Urbana, IL 61801
briandolinar at gmail.com