Terminal Energy

“THERE IS A LOT of positive energy that has developed out of
this tragedy,” said Multnomah County Chair Ted Wheeler last Thursday
morning, July 2, discussing the county’s record $925,000 settlement for
its role in the death of James Chasse Jr.

Wheeler coupled the county’s settlement with a more positive
announcement about finally building a sub-acute facility for those who
are in mental health crisis like Chasse, who died in custody after an
encounter with two Portland police officers and a county sheriff’s
deputy in the Pearl District on September 17, 2006. Chasse—who
was pursued and tackled by police after allegedly being witnessed
urinating in the street—was 42, and had suffered with
schizophrenia since his teens.

“I think this is in the best interest of the community and the
Chasse family, and it allows us to get beyond the legal issues in the
case and move toward a better system of delivery for people in mental
health crisis,” said Wheeler.

The new center is expected to open on East Burnside and MLK, on the
second floor of Central City Concern’s (CCC) existing Hooper
detoxification center, in late 2011. In the spring, the county gave CCC
$1 million to move the detoxification center to a new CCC building at
the old Ramada Inn in the Rose Quarter by May 2010—thereby making
space for an overhaul of the Hooper building and the new sub-acute
facility.

The Portland Development Commission (PDC) has approved $75,000 in
pre-development for the project, setting aside $2 million in its
2012-13 budget to cover the cost of the sub-acute center, said PDC
government affairs specialist Keith Witcosky at last Thursday’s county
meeting. Witcosky said PDC will “be as creative as we need” to cover
the time lag between now and 2012, and hopefully move the money into
this fiscal year so that work can begin on the center as soon as
possible.

The county currently faces an $800,000 per-year budget hole in
opening the sub-acute center, said county mental health director Joanne
Fuller, but it hopes to plug the gap by working with the city, state,
and CCC. “There is also the potential for stimulus dollars,” said
Fuller.

“I don’t think a celebration is in order today,” said Wheeler.
“There’s an opportunity here.”

Wheeler said the new center, which is expected to house those in
mental health crisis for up to 10 days while they stabilize, before
moving them into housing through CCC, “is going to be effective, and
cost-effective, and I don’t want to overlook the fact that it’s
humane.”

“What was very encouraging in hearing Ted speak was that he was
taking what happened to James seriously and straightforwardly,” said
Jason Renaud of the Mental Health Association of Portland.

Meanwhile, the Chasse family’s attorneys filed documents on
Wednesday, July 1 in their ongoing case against the City of Portland
that contained troubling new allegations based on testimony about
Chasse’s death in police custody. They are as follows:

1. Chasse’s broken ribs were most likely the result of kicks or a
dropped knee. State medical examiner Karen Gunson, who performed
Chasse’s autopsy, told attorneys for the Chasse family during
depositions that some fractured ribs in Chasse’s back were unlikely to
have been caused by his fall to the ground, but that a “knee in that
particular area on the back of the neck” was a “better scenario.”
Gunson found 48 separate abrasions or contusions on Chasse’s body,
including 16 possible blows to the head. Chasse would most likely have
lived if he had been given proper medical care, Gunson said.

2. Chasse never urinated in the street. Deposition of
Portland Police Bureau Officer Christopher Humphreys reveals he never
saw Chasse urinate on the sidewalk—an alleged detail of their
encounter, which has been widely reported as a possible legal basis for
the officers stopping Chasse. At most, Humphreys thought he saw Chasse
urinating in his own pants because there was possibly a wet patch on
his trousers, he said. But Chasse was causing no distress or alarm,
Humphreys admitted.

3. Chasse screamed before going unconscious. Several
witnesses described Chasse’s screams during his struggle with police.
“He seemed like a scared animal,” said witness Melissa Jane Gaylord.
Electrician Tony Lee Carter “thought [Chasse] was dead” for a period
during which Chasse was unconscious on the sidewalk, following his
beating. Bike lawyer Mark Ginsberg, another witness, said: “I did hear
Mr. Chasse yelling ‘mercy, mercy, mercy,’ and that was personally
pretty disturbing to me.”

4. Paramedics did not adequately assess Chasse’s injuries.
Sergeant Kyle Nice radioed for backup saying Chasse was “unconscious”
on the street corner of NW 13th and Everett, but never informed
paramedics of the extent of force used or of Chasse’s prolonged
unconsciousness, according to the documents. Paramedic Tamara Hergert
wrote only that Chasse had become “extremely quiet” on the sidewalk.
“Police thought he may have passed out, he came to quickly,” she wrote.
Hergert also apparently neglected to do a body check on Chasse, beyond
checking his vital signs, which she wrote down were normal. Hergert
also told lawyers she was directed by Nice to have Humphreys sign a
medical release form on Chasse’s behalf.

5. Witnesses were shocked Chasse wasn’t taken to hospital in an
ambulance. Local developer Homer Williams said Chasse looked like a
“bag of bones” when police put him in a squad car.

6. There was mocking of Chasse’s distress. “There was clear
vocal mocking, the mocking of Mr. Chasse’s cries for help,” said
eyewitness Randall Stuart, referring to emergency workers on the scene.
Later TriMet sergeant Terry O’Keefe, who was supervising Humphreys and
Sheriff’s Deputy Bret Burton that night, sent them a message on
their in-car computers: “NICE WORK BOYS. GLAD U R OK N HE ISN’T.”

7. Police experts say cops were in the wrong. An expert
witness says Officers Nice, Humphreys, and Sheriff’s Deputy Burton did
not follow police policies and practices in the treatment of someone
who is at least suspected of being mentally ill. Lou Reiter, former
Deputy Police Chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, described the
officers’ use of force as “unreasonable,” and their failure to disclose
to paramedics the force used on Chasse as “unreasonable.”

“We should have known all this within hours of Chasse’s death, not
three years later,” says Renaud of the Mental Health Association. “The
public is stuck in the middle without the facts, waiting patiently for
legal documents to emerge so that we can discern the truth.”

It is against the city attorney’s policy to comment on ongoing
lawsuits.