Pasadena Officers Cleared; City Agrees to Pay $1.5 Million to Family of Reginald Thomas

A young woman holds a handmade sign that reads “My blackness is not a crime” outside the apartment complex where Reginald Thomas died in 2016. – Photo by Terry Miller/Beacon Media News

By Terry Miller

The City of Pasadena and the plaintiff family members of Reginald Thomas have reached a tentative settlement in the lawsuit brought against the City (Lindsey v. City of Pasadena, et al.).  Thomas died on September 30, 2016, following an ‘altercation with Pasadena police officers who were attempting to restrain him after he had failed to comply with their instructions,’ according to a press release sent out from the city of Pasadena.

Additionally, the DA has cleared the six officers involved in that 2016 incident.

“Following settlement discussions that were conducted with U.S. District Court Judge S. James Otero, the City will pay the family $1.5 million to settle all claims,” the release stated.

According to the press release, “In the early morning hours of September 30, 2016, officers from the Pasadena Police Department responded to emergency 911 calls from family members within the apartment, as well as others, requesting police assistance at an apartment in the 200 block of East Orange Grove Boulevard, in Pasadena.  Upon the officers’ arrival, they observed the 35-year-old Thomas outside the apartment door holding a fire extinguisher, and carrying a large dagger under his arm.  In the apartment were four children and Thomas’ girlfriend. Thomas was acting erratically and appeared to be under the influence of controlled substances. Officers learned that before they had arrived, Thomas had sprayed the fire extinguisher inside the apartment, including spraying one of the children.”

“From the time the officers arrived, and in an effort to safeguard the minor children and others, they instructed Thomas to drop the dagger and fire extinguisher numerous times.  When he did not comply, Thomas was tased by the officers but remained uncooperative and slammed the front door on the officers as he was re-entering the apartment.  Additional officers arrived and they entered the apartment and attempted to take Thomas into custody.  A struggle ensued, Thomas later became unresponsive and the officers immediately commenced CPR.  The paramedics from the Pasadena Fire Department were called and, upon arrival, took over CPR efforts.  However, Thomas was declared deceased at approximately 3:26 a.m.

The facts of this incident are currently under review by the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office.  Additionally, the Pasadena Police Department is undertaking an administrative review of the incident to assess whether the officers acted within Department policy.”

However, according to the family’s attorney, Carre Harper the details of that early morning incident were substantially different.

The following paragraphs briefly recount the incident and include comments by Police Use of Force Expert, Roger Clark:

“On September 30, 2016 at approx. 2:50 A.M., Pasadena PD dispatch report reflected a radio transmission that Mr. Thomas was in custody. Therefore, Mr. Thomas was handcuffed and hobbled from 2:50 a.m. until 2:55 A.M., when it was broadcast that the hobble was being removed. It appears that from the initial tasering (2:48 a.m.) until the removal of Mr. Thomas’ hobble and handcuffs, that Mr. Thomas had no less than six Officers kneeling on him, placing body weight on him, tasing him, striking him, and forcing him into a prone position.

Mr. Thomas exhibited signs of intoxication, but never uttered a threat or aggressed on any officer.

Roger Clark further stated that, “it is important to note that the autopsy reports trauma to Mr. Thomas’ head, which appears consistent with blows or kicks to Mr. Thomas’ head. Officers are trained that blows to the head can result in serious injury and death, and are not to use blows to the head absent the protection of life.  With six Officers present, and Mr. Thomas on the ground, no Officer’s life was in danger; therefore, any kicks or blows to the head of Mr. Thomas were out of policy, reckless, and excessive.

It is uncontested in the record that Officer Butler and Officer Orosco inflicted repeated multiple cycles of tasering from their Tasers into Mr. Thomas.

In my opinion, Officer Orosco’s and Officer Butler’s gross departure from the standards is reflective of the custom and practice of the PPD to endorse the gross over-dependence on the Taser weapon when other far more reasonable and appropriate methods of force (if actually necessary) should be deployed.  Mr. Thomas called 9-1-1 for medical help, was abruptly confronted by PPD Officers, was not combative, assaultive, and uttered no threats to any Officer. As such, Mr. Thomas did not fall under the “active combatant” rubric.  Although Mr. Thomas had a knife wedged in his armpit, and was holding a fire extinguisher, he did not make any sudden moves toward the Officers, or make any attempt to handle the knife. In my opinion, the use of a Taser in this instance grossly deviated from the POST and federal training that Officers Orosco and Butler had allegedly participated in and completed.

Officers are trained that because of the dangers of positional asphyxia, the Hobble Restraint Device must not be used to bind an individual’s hands to his/her feet in any manner. Additionally, the Hobble Restraint Device must never be applied to the head or neck of an arrestee. Once the handcuffs are secure and the Hobble Restraint Device has been applied to a suspect’s ankles, the suspect should be searched (if appropriate) and then immediately rolled into an upright, seated position.  Secured arrestees must never be placed in a recumbent; position causing them to lie on their stomach or side.

The Pasadena Police Department cannot be excused for apparently dissembling, ostensibly criminal uses of force against Mr. Thomas by the Officers in this case.”

In a stunning turn of events, Pasadena Police Chief Phillip Sanchez suddenly quit the department, effective: April 18, 2018 – the date he would have provided trial testimony in the Thomas wrongful death case.

On January 12, 2018, Chief Sanchez walked out of his deposition with his attorney after questioning turned from the Reginald Thomas case to the more recent videotaped beating Christopher Ballew where another Black man was beaten by Pasadena police officers.  Mr. Ballew survived the beating.  Soon to be former Chief Sanchez was heavily criticized after he did not discipline officers Mathew Griffin and Jeffrey Newlen who shot and killed unarmed Black teenager Kendrec McDade in March, 2012.  In the Reginald Thomas case, Chief Sanchez testified that he did not know anything about the details of the Thomas case, the defendant officers’ statements or witnesses statements.   When pressed about why he willfully chose not to know the details of the Thomas killing after a year and a half and the possibility of Villicana and the other defendant officers being rogue yet still on patrol, Chief Sanchez was unfazed.

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