Internal Fresno police reports show first-responders blaming victim in restraint-related death
Fresno County Sheriff’s detectives spoke to Joseph Perez’s parents for about 15 minutes in May 2017, questioning them about their son’s drug and criminal history before informing them of his death, newly released interview transcripts show.
Perez’s parents asked more than once whether their son was in trouble or in jail before the detectives told them he died while in custody earlier that day after emergency responders struggled to detain him.
The Bee obtained internal affairs investigative reports, audio and video files, dispatch logs, and interview transcripts on the case from Fresno Police Department through a public records request under California’s recently passed police transparency laws, providing a relatively rare glimpse into law enforcement’s internal review process.
Fresno police, Fresno County Sheriff’s deputies, and American Ambulance emergency medical technicians responded to a psychiatric emergency near Palm Avenue and Santa Fe Drive on May 10, 2017.
Perez, a 41-year-old Fresno man with a prison record and history of drug use, admitted to being on parole and on drugs. In the reports, police said Perez was acting erratically, sweating profusely and talking to himself while giving nonsensical answers to the officers. He was placed in handcuffs and ordered to sit down on the curb.
Police said it wasn’t long before they decided to restrain Perez’s hands and feet because they feared he would wander into the Palm Avenue traffic. He was placed faced down on the ground but continued to struggle with police. Eventually, an officer sat on a backboard placed on Perez’s back — causing him to go quiet and eventually lose consciousness and die.
Neil Gehlawat, the Perez family’s attorney, said the way investigators conducted their internal affairs inquiry, including the interview with Perez’s parents, demonstrated a “classic blame game” where emergency responders defame the victim’s character to avoid responsibility.
“They all want to blame Mr. Perez because he was under the influence of drugs. But beyond that, the officers were saying, ‘Well, it’s not on us because we rely on the paramedics.’ And the paramedics say, ‘Well, the officers were already interacting with him and had him in custody when we showed up,’” Gehlawat said in an interview with The Bee on Friday.
“And so they’re all in this blame game, but the reality is that they all played a part in Mr. Perez’s death,” he said.
Homicide case
The Fresno County Coroner determined Perez’s death was a homicide. His cause of death was compressive asphyxia during restraint.
The Fresno County District Attorney’s Office said the law enforcement agencies did not commit a crime in the death. The police department and sheriff’s office internal affairs investigations said the officers and deputies followed department policies during the incident.
Perez’s family is suing in federal court the city of Fresno, county of Fresno, American Ambulance, and the deputies and officers involved, alleging wrongful death and civil rights violations.
Officials with the Fresno Police Department and Fresno County Sheriff’s Office declined to comment for this story, citing pending litigation.
Officials with American Ambulance sent The Bee a statement in which they describe the company’s mission. It’s the same statement the company provided in March after video footage of the incident was released.
Fresno attorney criticizes law enforcement interview tactics
The 72-page Fresno Police Department internal affairs investigation report spends more time detailing Perez’s lengthy history of drug abuse and police encounters than explaining whether the officers followed the city’s use-of-force policy.
The report notes that between May 1994 and May 2017, Fresno police had 54 documented incidents involving Perez.
The report shows law enforcement officers also asked Perez’s family about his marital problems before breaking the news of his death.
Gehlawat said he sees similar interview tactics from other law enforcement agencies because after families find out their loved ones have died, they want details about the death.
“That’s just really disheartening for families who endure this type of loss,” he said. “It would be much better if these departments would instead focus on what actually happened in the incident rather than trying to defame the character of the person who they killed.
“They really only have one purpose in trying to come out with that information, and that’s to make (Perez) look bad,” Gehlawat said.
Internal affairs investigators with Fresno Police Department also requested toxicology data from the coroner and noted it was missing from the file, even though the manner of death was homicide. The coroner’s report listed methamphetamine toxicity as “other significant conditions.”
American Ambulance response
The documents also reveal that American Ambulance first dispatched an ambulance to the wrong location, delaying the ambulance’s arrival by about five minutes. But, the report doesn’t explore what caused the confusion. In an interview, one police officer who was restraining Joseph said he became “exhausted and frustrated” because EMS “took forever” to arrive at the scene.
Law enforcement officers and EMTs first said they didn’t know or couldn’t remember who instructed an officer to sit on a backboard on top of Perez. Police at the scene later told internal investigators the direction to sit on Perez came from one of the EMTs, but the officers said they couldn’t remember which EMT specifically.
The lead American Ambulance paramedic — whose name was redacted in the report — first denied he gave the order, but after further questioning acknowledged “it’s possible he gave the order,” but he “doesn’t recall saying it,” the report says.
Gehlawat said the lead paramedic admitted he gave the order after Gehlawat and his team requested the admission during discovery.
In the report, investigators questioned the lead paramedic about whether he had ever placed a backboard on someone’s back before the incident with Perez. The paramedic said he’d done it once before, but the tactic was used depending on the situation.
The investigation determined a Fresno police officer sat on the backboard for one minute and 13 seconds. Perez became quiet about 57 seconds after the officer sat on the backboard. About three minutes after Perez went quiet, he was rolled onto his back as the emergency responders turned over the backboard.
The report determined that since police officers did not have medical training, it was appropriate and within policy for them to defer to the EMTs.
Nevertheless, Gehlawat said, officers are trained on what’s called “positional asphyxia” and to turn someone into a “recovery position” when they’re handcuffed.
The internal affairs reports noted officers were up to date on all their training at the time of the incident.
Gehlawat said the reports show officers missed a learning opportunity.
“I think the real tragedy and sad part about the case is that there was a real opportunity for the police department to learn from this and to retrain their officers to prevent things like this happening again so that no other family had to go through the tragedy that my clients are living through,” he said. “But unfortunately, they’ve decided to double down on the conduct of the officers.”
This story was originally published July 3, 2021 at 7:36 AM.