|
The Owensby family's frustration over the fallout from their son's death in police custody erupted last week in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.
Judge Ethna M. Cooper heard arguments Feb. 2 in the city's appeal of an arbitrator's order to rehire Patrick Caton, one of two Cincinnati Police officers charged in connection with the 2000 death of Roger Owensby Jr.
As the hearing ended, Caton and attorney William Gustavson were exiting the courtroom. Kabaka Oba, a member of the Black Fist, said to Caton, "Hey, Pat, I ain't seen you in a while."
"I don't know who you are, sir," Caton replied.
Then Roger Owensby Sr. spoke to Caton.
"You know who I am, don't you?" Owensby Sr. said.
Caton's response to the dead man's father is a matter of dispute. Owensby Sr. says Caton responded, "I don't care who the fuck you are."
But Gustavson disputes that version.
"Pat didn't make that comment," Gustavson says. "I was standing 2 feet from Pat."
'How much more?'
Whatever Caton's words, what followed was ugly.
"You murderer!" Victoria Straughn yelled as Caton exited the courtroom.
Owensby Sr., apparently exasperated by Caton's comment, yelled at him.
"You don't care?" Owensby said. "That was my motherfucking son!"
Oba and John Helbling, Owensby Sr.'s attorney, held him from going after Caton.
"Get the sheriffs up here now!" a deputy yelled into his radio.
Straughn and a man calling himself Brother X continued yelling expletives at Caton as he walked down the hallway. Several Owensby family members quietly followed behind them.
"I turned to walk back to the courtroom, when several deputies came running down the hallway," says Shawn Owensby, Owensby Jr.'s brother. "First they grabbed Brother X, who said 'Get your hands off me, pig!' Then Caton's attorney said, 'No, that's him,' pointing to me."
Alleging that Shawn Owensby was engaging in turbulent behavior, a deputy arrested him on a charge of disorderly conduct. The deputy slammed Shawn Owensby against a stairwell wall, upsetting his mother.
"How much more of this mess y'all think we're going to take?" Brenda Owensby yelled.
The situation worsened when Owensby Sr. rushed into the stairwell after hearing of his son's arrest. Oba and Helbling pulled Owensby Sr. onto an elevator, trying to calm him.
"Let me go!" he yelled, tears streaming down his face. "They got my son!"
Several deputies then tried to pull Owensby Sr. off the elevator and arrest him.
"He's going to jail," one deputy yelled.
Overwhelmed, Brenda Owensby fainted in the elevator. Paramedics were called but she regained consciousness in less than two minutes. Another deputy intervened and decided Owensby Sr. should be taken outside, not arrested.
"Were back to day one," Owensby Sr. said. "They killed my older son, now they arrest my younger son for nothing."
Roger Owensby Jr. died in 2000 of mechanical asphyxiation in the parking lot of a Roselawn gas station. The Hamilton County Coroner ruled the death a homicide, saying the asphyxiation could have been caused when former Cincinnati Police Officer Robert Jorg placed him in a choke hold or by the weight of Caton and Jorg subduing him (see "Piling On," issue of Oct. 3-9, 2002).
A jury acquitted Caton of assaulting Owensby Jr., although two officers testified they saw him hit Owensby Jr. after he was handcuffed. A jury acquitted Jorg of assault, but deadlocked on a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
'Haunt the city'
After spending a year assigned to the city's impound lot, Caton's police powers were reinstated, but it wasn't long before he was in trouble again. In 2002 he was stripped of his police powers when he was caught on an in-cruiser camera saying, "You stupid nigger!" as he maneuvered around traffic. Caton's record also includes a 2000 conviction for driving under the influence and possessing a weapon while intoxicated.
After internal investigations and disciplinary hearings, in 2003 City Manager Valerie Lemmie fired Caton for failure of good behavior and neglect of duty. Several other officers involved in Owensby Jr.'s death received lesser penalties.
Caton filed an appeal and the FOP requested arbitration. Last year an arbitrator ruled that only some of the administrative charges against Caton could be proved and he should have faced only a five-day suspension. The city appealed and Common Pleas Judge Fred Nelson reversed the arbitrator's decision.
"Nelson said the arbitrator should have looked at all the circumstances," says Jonathan J. Downes, an attorney representing the city.
The city has had a difficult time getting rid of Caton because of the police department's vague "discipline matrix," a listing of standards of conduct and discipline. The arbitrator relied solely on the matrix in vacating Caton's dismissal, but the matrix isn't part of the city's contract with the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP). The city is arguing that the arbitrator's reliance on the matrix violates the terms of the contract.
Representing the FOP and Caton, Gustavson filed an appeal of Nelson's decision, arguing that, under the contract, an arbitrator's decision is "final and binding."
"The penalty imposed on Pat Caton was the same as every other officer that did the same thing," Gustavson told Judge Cooper. "So why is the city fighting so hard over the Pat Caton case?"
Downes replied that the other officers disciplined in connection with Owensby Jr.'s death had not been physically on top of him.
"The extenuating circumstances of the failures that were committed by Mr. Caton differentiate him from the other officers," Downes said.
Cooper is expected to rule in a week.
Caton's fight to regain his job isn't the only continuing legal battle related to Owensby Jr.'s death. His family is pursuing a lawsuit in federal court against the city, Jorg and Caton.
U.S. District Judge S. Arthur Spiegel last year granted summary judgment on part of the lawsuit, ruling Owensby Jr.'s right to medical care while in custody had been violated by five police officers, the city of Cincinnati and the village of Golf Manor, whose officers aided in the arrest.
The city of Cincinnati and the officers appealed that ruling, delaying the trial, according to Paul Martins, the attorney for the Owensby family.
"The Owensbys cannot have their day in court until the city's delay tactic of an emergency appeal in the Sixth Circuit is resolved," he says.
Last week Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters announced he won't retry Jorg in connection with Owensby Jr.'s death. Last month City Councilman Christopher Smitherman had asked Deters to reopen the case.
Jorg joined the Pierce Township Police Department in 2002 and resigned last year.
In a letter to Deters last week, Smitherman said he next hopes to get the U.S. Justice Department involved in the case.
"I believe that the death of Roger Owensby Jr. will haunt the city of Cincinnati for decades to come because we have not yet brought to justice those responsible for his death," the letter says. ©
