Family Sues Joe Arpaio Over Death Of Mentally Ill Veteran
By Simon McCormack, Huffington Post Latino Voices
“When he went into that facility everyone knew he was mentally ill,” Michael Manning, the lawyer representing the family of Ernest Atencio, told The Huffington Post. “He wasn’t resistant, violent or combative and they mocked him, they made fun of him, and when they finished with that, they decided they would just beat him up.”
Atencio was 44 years old when he was arrested in 2011 on an assault charge after he yelled at a woman in a parking lot in Phoenix, according to a video produced by the ACLU, which is not a party in the Atencio lawsuit but does have pending litigation against Arpaio’s office.
Once inside a Maricopa County jail, Atencio — who had been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, according to the ACLU — was beaten and shot with a stun gun by jail officers in an unprovoked attack, the lawsuit claims.
The family said the altercation began when Atencio refused to take off his shoe,according to an ACLU blog post. After the alleged beating by the officers, Atencio was given a “cursory exam” by health care personnel before being carried face down to a “safe cell,” the ACLU details, and was then stripped naked and beaten again before being left in “dire medical condition” facedown in the cell.
In May, a medical examiner’s report failed to reveal the exact cause of death, according to the Arizona Republic. The report said “acute psychosis, law enforcement subdual and … multiple medical problems” contributed to his death.
This article was first published in Huffington Post Latino Voices.
Simon McCormack is an editorial assistant for the Huffington Post. He lives in New York City.
[Photo courtesy ACLU Video]