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After pulling over an African-American man for speeding, Cincinnati Police officers handcuffed him, then sprayed chemical irritant in his face. An officer then pinched the man’s nose shut and held it that way for more than two minutes.
A camera in a police cruiser recorded the Dec. 2, 2002, traffic stop on Liberty Street that led to the arrest of Leon Coleman. The incident casts doubt on the implementation of reforms enacted last summer by the city of Cincinnati, according to the Rev. Damon Lynch III. Changes in the use of force by police are part of a collaborative agreement among the city, the U.S. Justice Department, the Black United Front and the American Civil Liberties Union.
After viewing a tape of Coleman’s arrest, Lynch said the officers’ behavior violates the agreement.
“I think everything we’re fighting for in the collaborative says this is wrong,” he said.
He went ‘willingly’
The city’s agreement with the Justice Department restricts the use of chemical irritant on prisoners who have already been restrained.
“The CPD will revise and augment its chemical spray policy to provide that chemical spray may be used on a restrained individual only when, absent the use of spray, the subject or another person is likely to suffer injury or escape,” the agreement says.
In a complaint in Hamilton County Municipal Court, Officer Scott Owen reported seeing crack cocaine in Coleman’s mouth. Coleman refused to spit out the cocaine even after being maced, according to Owen.
After his car was stopped, Coleman refused to face Owen and open his mouth, according to a police supervisor’s “Use of Force” report.
“Mr. Coleman refused initially, but did open his mouth enough that Officer Owen observed what he thought was a large rock of crack cocaine,” the report says. “Officer Owen ordered Mr. Coleman to spit it out. Mr. Coleman refused and leaned away towards the passenger seat and attempted to roll up the window.”
Owen then sprayed Coleman in the face and again ordered him to spit, the report says. When Coleman refused, he was maced a second time.
The Use of Force report says Coleman did not resist police.
“Officer Owen grabbed the arm of Mr. Coleman in an attempt to control him,” the report says. “Mr. Coleman slid out of the driver’s seat and went to the ground willingly and was handcuffed.”
But after cuffing Coleman, Owen maced him a third time.
“Officer Owen administered another burst of chemical irritant, but Mr. Coleman was finally able to swallow the crack,” the report says. “Mr. Coleman was transported to University Hospital, where he refused treatment.”
Police charged Coleman with tampering with evidence, drug abuse, speeding and failing to wear a safety belt. But a Hamilton County grand jury threw out the tampering charge.
“The grand jury refused to indict on all the felonies,” says Coleman’s attorney, Kenneth Lawson. “I don’t see no reason other than giving the man a ticket why they had to mace him and drag him out of the damn car, which is what they did.”
The police tape of the traffic stop contains no sound — only video — of the officers and Coleman while they were on the street. But as officers put him in a cruiser, an audio recording inside the car shows Coleman asking why they maced him. One officer told Coleman they believed he’d swallowed crack and they were taking him to University Hospital to have his stomach pumped to “make sure you’re not going to die on us.”
But more than 15 minutes passed from the time Coleman was pulled over until the tape concludes. If police were concerned about Coleman’s health, they should have taken him to the hospital rather than remaining at the scene so long, according to Lawson.
The police eventually took Coleman to the hospital, but he refused to have his stomach pumped. Then, rather than leave him at the hospital for observation, the police took him to jail, Lawson says.
If a person is believed to have swallowed a small amount of drugs, he is not necessarily taken to a hospital with emergency lights and sirens, according to Lt. Kurt Byrd, spokesman for the Cincinnati Police Department.
“The ideal thing would be to get them there quickly,” he says.
Who nose the purpose?
In addition to the propriety of macing a handcuffed man, other questions surround Coleman’s arrest. For example, the Use of Force report makes no mention of the fact that officers pinched his nose shut for two minutes — a practice that several officers say is not authorized. The officers apparently were trying to force Coleman to open his mouth or to vomit.
“The nose thing I’ve never seen before,” says Scotty Johnson, president of the Sentinels Police Association. “I don’t know what that was about.”
Byrd says he’s unaware of any policy or training that approves holding a suspect’s nose.
After viewing the tape of Coleman’s arrest, City Councilman David Pepper asked why someone hasn’t filed a complaint with the new Civilian Complaint Authority set up by the collaborative agreement.
“Obviously parts of this look unsettling,” he said. “The point here is that we have to kick in the processes that we’ve created if we think they make sense. Let’s get it into our process and have it examined.”
Lawson says he prefers to wait until after a criminal case is over before filing a complaint about police misconduct because of the possible negative effect on his client.
A police log of communications from car 1321 on the night of Coleman’s arrest mentions the very reforms Pepper says should be given a chance.
“I hate this job!” an officer said. “The use of force reporting and DOJ (Department of Justice) requirements are going to get worse, such as reporting all gun draws.”
Police attitudes about the reforms concern Lynch.
“Until there’s some discipline, officers aren’t going to automatically change,” he says.
Coleman has served time in prison for drug trafficking, possession of drugs and assault. But on Dec. 2 there was no paraphernalia in Coleman’s car indicating he’d used crack cocaine, and there were no warrants for his arrest, Lawson says.
Furthermore, police once before charged Coleman with tampering with evidence — and on that occasion the charge was dismissed.
Lawson has moved to suppress evidence in the possession of drugs charge and the speeding and seat belt citations, arguing the stop and search were conducted without a warrant and without reasonable suspicion.
Lawson also questions a change in information provided by prosecutors.
On Dec. 31, 2002, prosecutors said they were unaware of any written, summarized or recorded statements by Coleman. But on Jan. 3 prosecutors reported Coleman had said, “Why you fucking with me? You arrested me for nothing, motherfucker. For all you know, that was gum.”
The prosecutors’ amended report also says Coleman told a police officer he would contact Lawson.
“(Coleman) stated to police officer he was going to make this a racial think (sic) and call Ken Lawson, stating, ‘You’ll see,’ ” the report says. ©
This article appears in Feb 19-25, 2003.