| November 5, 2004
Dear Cayenne: My grandmother, my dad's mom, will definitely be able to attend along with my Nanna's brother's/family in Vegas, Long Beach and L.A. I'll even see about getting Betty, Booker, and my Aunt Jean out to the conference too. I will be there about ready to deliver my second child on Nov 20. I want to thank the UNION for caring about the pepper spray death of my dad on August 27. You are a miracle in our lives. I have a 15 year old sister who lives on the East Coast. Ciara
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Please don't have the baby before or during the press conference, bless your heart. We want to support this legal action because every inmate in California is at risk when we ignore something this important. Your father may have been mentally ill but he had a short sentence, not a death sentence and CMC is supposed to be a facility that takes care of the mentally ill. This same gross method of pepper spraying an inmate until he died while wearing a spitter's mask happened at CSP Lancaster last month. So we can see that the guards think they have gotten away with murder. We will need the active participation of your entire family in all our UNION events and organizing. You will help others and become a part of our base of active writing, fighting, picketing, suing, voting activists for change. You will join the Swisher, Shumake, and Ware families who are out building our voting group everyday. Each time you appear at an event or someone from your family participates in an interview or writes a letter to the editor you are supporting our work, which enables us to help others. You are us now, a part of the UNION family and your contribution to the good of all inmates and their families will be great. Your life has purpose and I believe God has tapped you on the shoulder for bringing an important message to Governor Termite Schwarzenschnitzel. We will all be standing beside you on Friday, Nov 12 at 10:30 am in Los Angeles. The conference will be held at the Roybal Federal Court at 255 East Temple (near Los Angeles Street). I will be sending a separate email once we get the flyer ready which should be tonight. B. Cayenne Bird
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/9543502.htm Tue, Aug. 31, 2004
Anthony Brown died Friday less than two hours after he reportedly hit an officer; no CMC staff members are suspected of wrongdoing Adam Jarman The Tribune
California Men's Colony officials and the Sheriff's Department are investigating the Friday death of an inmate.Anthony Brown, 46, was pronounced dead in the prison's hospital less than two hours after he reportedly assaulted an officer.No CMC staff members are suspected to have caused Brown's death, said prison spokeswoman Lt. Shelly Thompson, and none have been placed on administrative leave. According to Thompson, Brown "became agitated with staff" around 6 p.m.
Friday while in his living unit. He hit an officer on the forehead with
either his elbow or fist, Thompson said, causing bruising and swelling
above the officer's right eye.When Brown then moved toward another officer,
Thompson said, staff used pepper spray to subdue him.The inmate then complied
with orders and was taken to the prison hospital, which Thompson said is
standard procedure after
"He was thrashing about."Brown was restrained in a hospital bed, and
prison staff held him on his side to avoid positional asphyxia, Thompson
said. That is a condition in which a body is placed in a position that
interferes with breathing.Jay Vestal of California Valley died in August
2003 of positional asphyxia while being arrested by sheriff's deputies.
The FBI, Sheriff's Department and District Attorney's Office have all separately
cleared deputies of wrongdoing in that case.In the CMC hospital, Brown
was trying to move around but eventually settled down, Thompson said. Around
7 p.m., prison staff noticed he had stopped breathing. Medical staff tried
to resuscitate him, but he was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m.An autopsy,
which will indicate the likely cause of death, is not expected for a week
or two, Thompson said.The Sheriff's Department is investigating Brown's
death. Department officials could not be reached late Monday for comment.CMC
and the state Department of Corrections are also
"There's no indication that there was any excessive use of force or
that there was anything done that's outside the law," Thompson said. "It's
an unfortunate incident. As with anything like this, we want it fully investigated
in order to clear any cloud of doubt."No other inmates were involved, Thompson
said. Three officers handled the initial assault. In all, 19 prison employees
-- including medical and correctional staff -- were involved with Brown's
restraint and
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/local/10172653.htm Posted on Sat, Nov. 13, 2004
Inmate's family claims murder
Family members of a prisoner who died after a struggle with California Men's Colony officers in August have sued top state officials, alleging that prison guards plotted the inmate's murder. The wrongful death suit, filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court, also alleges that correctional officers violated 46-year-old Anthony Kirk Brown's Eighth Amendment rights against cruel and unusual punishment before he died. The lawsuit does not offer any evidence to back up the murder claim, simply saying Brown died "after being beaten, sprayed with pepper spray and suffocated." An internal affairs unit with the California Department of Corrections and other agencies are still investigating the Aug. 27 incident and had yet to determine a cause of death, said Lt. Shelly Thompson, a CMC spokeswoman. She declined any further comment because of the pending suit. Thompson previously said that no CMC staff members are suspected to have caused Brown's death and none have been placed on administrative leave. Brown had been at CMC since February 2003 on a Tulare County conviction of theft and assault with a deadly weapon. In August, prison officials said Brown became agitated with staff and struck an officer on the forehead, causing bruising and swelling above the officer's eye. When Brown then allegedly moved toward another officer, staff used pepper spray to subdue him. Officers took him to the prison hospital, where "he became agitated again and was thrashing about," Thompson said days after the incident. So staffers then restrained Brown in a hospital bed on his side, prison officials said. Around 7 p.m., medical staff noticed he had stopped breathing and tried to resuscitate him. He was pronounced dead at 7:40 p.m. Mark Ravis, a Beverly Hills attorney who filed the suit, said officers applied a "spit mask" on Brown to prevent him from spitting at them. "They had to know that using this amount of pepper spray inside a mask was going to cause death," said Ravis, who is also a medical doctor. "If you spray pepper spray underneath that thing, you get a concentration of it being inhaled and then you're not getting any air." Brown's family hopes the suit will draw attention to the correctional officers' actions, Ravis said. Brown's mother, Francis Brown, and daughter, 23-year-old Jamila Brown, seek at least $75,000 in damages and are asking for a federal jury trial. They have named as defendants Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, CDC Director Jeanne Woodford, CMC Warden John Marshall, sheriff's watch commander Sgt. Pete Hodgkin, who responded as coroner, and unnamed correctional officers and other prison staff. Ryan Huff covers courts and county issues for The Tribune. He can be
reached at 781-7909 or rhuff@thetribune
.
Dear Editor: On the November 13th Ryan Huff article on Anthony Kirk Brown "Inmate's Family Claims Murder" "Lawsuit alleges correctional officers plotted to kill prisoner, but relatives of the victim offer no evidence" "Wrongful death" is used in the lawsuit and I interpret that as "actions of intent or negligence that have caused death". The guards are accused of "over reacting" to a perceived threat and have gone beyond the act of making themselves "safe". Brown was restrained and turned on his side (a conscious act to protect the prisoner's airway) but he was again pepper sprayed directly in the face and a "spit mask" placed over his face (causing obstructed breathing). Then he is not adequately monitored by medical staff who finally realize that he is dead, and dead long enough that he can no longer be rescesitated. Usually in medical emergencies this then is not a "witnessed cardiac or respiratory failure" and implies he was unaided for at least 10 to 20 minutes ( no return to life) before anyone began rescesitation attempts. The point here was the pepper spraying medically needed or a real safety needed to the guards, or was this "cruel and unusual punishment" that resulted in an inmates undeserved death? Mr. Brown was in a facility designed to treat mental health patients as prisoners. Brown was bi-polar, a psychiatric diagnosis that is important to this story. He has diagnosed disease involving "brain chemistry malfunctions" that make his acting out behavior a DISEASE, not just a conscious act to irritate the guards. In a mental health facility, the assumption is the staff knows how to control mental patients without hurting them. The assumption is the mental health staff is professional enough to not react personally to a patient's disease attributes; i.e. become angered and punish the patient prisoner by tormenting them with a caustic chemical that has been known to cause death by asphyxiation. There is also that added dimension that Brown was scheduled to be released in a year. He wasn't in prison for a death sentence. His assault with a deadly weapon was that he banged into the rear of a car to get the attention of a person who owed him money for a mechanical job he had performed. The "deadly weapon" was his car. There is something wrong here that officers in a "shooting death" with a "lethal weapon" are AUTOMATICALLY placed on administrative leave until an internal investigation is completed. Yet, when we have death by "non lethal" weapons ( i.e. it is NOT expected to cause death), the officer is NOT placed on administrative leave and the "official CDC versions" are that no policies were violated. A NON LETHAL WEAPON CAUSED DEATH, WHY DID IT DO THAT? WAS IT USED IN AN INAPPROPRIATE MANNER OR SHOULD WE NOT CLASSIFY PEPPER SPRAY AS A NON LETHAL WEAPON? If you write this from the "family has offered no evidence" of intentional
harm...... Brown transferred ALL of his papers and legal documents out
of the prison just before this fatal incident occurred. Why? Did
he have a "premonition" that something deadly was going to
Sincerely, Kate W.
To: rhuff@thetribunenews.com Sent: Monday, November 15, 2004 4:37 PM The "evidence" that Mr. Brown was indeed murdered was the beating,
the pepper spray and the suffocation mentioned in your story. What
other evidence could the Brown family present? It's unfortunate that
some prison guards and officers are just crooks with badges. Let's
weed them out and allow the law to work, rather than cover up for them
and prolong prison inmate abuses and neglect. Report all the facts
so the public is aware what is wrong with California penal institutions.
Living in a dream world and simply paying the tax bill to fund them is
not going to make the problems go away.
As the prison population continues to grow in California new leaders
and experienced, professional staff are a must. The days of the wild
west are over. This kind of corrupt management will put our state
further in debt. Maybe that's a language people can relate to, if
Cheryl S.
To: Editorletters@thetribunenews.com CC: Rightor1@aol.com Sent from the Internet (Details) Mr.Morem I'm commenting on your newspaper article regarding the death of inmate, Anthony Brown. What's happening within our penal systems is completely unacceptable. These inmates, in spite of what crime they're charged with, their still human beings. Yet, they're mistreatment is cruelty at it's best. Mr.Brown suffered from mental illness as do many who are confind within our prison system. How many other mentally ill inmates are going to pay with their lives because their illness creates a need to "act out"? It's obvious that the people who work in these prisons have no knowledge as to how to deal with the mentally ill. Killing them is not the answer! Place the mentally ill in hospitals not prisons!!! Beverly B.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2004/11/15/state1021EST0040.DTL News briefs from California's Central Coast
(11-15) 07:21 PST SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (AP) -- Relatives of an inmate who died following a struggle with California Men's Colony officers have filed a wrongful death lawsuit claiming prison guards plotted the inmate's murder. California Department of Corrections and other agencies are still investigating the Aug. 27 death of Anthony Kirk Brown, 46, said Lt. Shelly Thompson, a department spokeswoman. A cause of death has not yet been determined. She declined to comment further because of the suit. Brown had been at the prison since February 2003 after being convicted of theft and assault with a deadly weapon. The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in a Los Angeles federal court, also accuses correctional officers of violating Brown's rights against cruel and unusual punishment before he died. It claims Brown was killed "after being beaten, sprayed with pepper spray and suffocated." Brown's mother and daughter seek at least $75,000 in damages as well as a federal jury trial. In August, officials said Brown "became agitated with staff" while in his living unit. He hit an officer on the forehead with either his elbow or fist causing bruising and swelling above the officer's right eye, officials have said. When Brown then moved toward another officer, pepper spray was used to subdue him. Brown was taken to the prison hospital, where he again became agitated, Thompson has said. Prison staff later noticed he had stopped breathing. Medical staff were unable to resuscitate him and he was pronounced dead, Thompson said. "There's no indication that there was any excessive use of force or
that there was anything done that's outside the law," Thompson has said.
Kate is a respiratory therapist and her letter to the editor is too long to get published but it gives you more talking points. rhuff@thetribunenews.com, msaltzer@thetribunenews.com,
Dear Mr. Huff, I read your article on the lawsuit filed by Mark Ravis for the family of Anthony Kirk Brown. I wanted to thank you for addressing this important story in your paper. I have been following this story for several reasons, one is the continuos amount of prisoner deaths attributed to the use of pepper spray as a "non lethal" weapon for crowd and individual control. I am hoping you or your paper will do a follow up on the Anthony Kirk Brown story in reflecting the many deaths this year of prisoners dying from being "subdued" by pepper spray. There were some comments that I had about the way your story was written. First is the title that gives a hint to your perspective on this event: "Lawsuit alleges correctional officers plotted to kill prisoner, but relatives of the victim offer no evidence" I am not sure that is really the major point of the lawsuit, Ryan.
"Wrongful death" is used in the lawsuit and I interrupt that as "actions
that intent or negligence have caused death". The point
Then he is not adequately monitored by medical staff who finally realize that he is dead, and dead long enough that he can no longer be rescesitated. Usually in medical emergencies this then is not a "witnessed cardiac or respiratory failure" and implies he was unaided for 10 to 20 minutes ( no return to life) before anyone began rescesitation attempts. The point here : was the pepper spraying medically needed or a real safety needed to the guards, or was this "cruel and unusual punishment" that resulted in an inmates undeserved death? Mr. Brown was in a facility designed to treat mental health patients as prisoners. Brown was bi-polar, a psychiatric diagnosis that is important to this story. He has diagnosed disease involving "brain chemistry malfunctions" that make his acting out behavior a DISEASE, not just a conscious act to irritate the guards. In a mental health facility, the assumption is the staff knows how to control mental patients without hurting them. The assumption is the mental health staff is professional enough to not react personally to a patient's disease attributes; i.e. become angered and punish the patient prisoner by tormenting them with a caustic chemical that has been known to cause death by asphyxiation. There is also that added dimension that Brown was scheduled to be released in a year. He wasn't in prison for a death sentence. His assault with a deadly weapon was that he banged into the rear of a car to get the attention of a person who owed him money for a mechanical job he had performed. The "deadly weapon" was his car. I think you answered your own title line by giving Mark Ravis' statement further down in your article: Mark Ravis, a Beverly Hills attorney who filed the suit, said officers applied a "spit mask" on Brown to prevent him from spitting at them. "They had to know that using this amount of pepper spray inside a mask was going to cause death," said Ravis, who is also a medical doctor. "If you spray pepper spray underneath that thing, you get a concentration of it being inhaled and then you're not getting any air." It is also important to mention that a "rally" was being held by other
concerned prisoner advocates, who are members of U.N.I.O.N. (United for
No Injustice, Oppression, or Neglect) and that these advocates are a part
of a bigger reaction to the continuing problem of prisoners who die under
"unusual circumstances" while under the medical care and custody of state
officials. There is something wrong here that officers in a "shooting
death" with a "lethal weapon" are AUTOMATICALLY placed on administrative
leave until an internal investigation is completed. Yet, when we
have death by "non lethal" weapons ( i.e. it is NOT expected to cause death),
the officer is NOT placed on administrative leave and the "official CDC
version" is that no policies were violated. A NON LETHAL
WEAPON CAUSED DEATH, WHY
And there was one more point here, if you write this from the "family has offered no evidence" of intentional harm...... Brown transferred ALL of his papers and legal documents out of the prison just before this fatal incident occurred. Why? Did he have a "premonition" that something deadly was going to happen to him....or was he threatened by guards before he died? That is a subtle but rather disturbing turn of events, that really makes one question how much of this was "accidental". But "no", it's not conclusive in and of itself. I think that is why cases are put up for jury hearings. So you may have missed your own point and answer to your title line Thank you for doing this story. And I look forward to a follow up as the case evolves. Sincerely,
President and Publisher Maureen Saltzer 805-781-7825 msaltzer@thetribunenews.com Executive Editor Sandra Duerr
Letters To The Editor Bill Morem, Editorletters@thetribunenews.com I have been an avid reader of your newspaper and have been following the lawsuits filed on behalf of family members of inmates in the State of California. I read this the other day and I am just completely floored. Your writer, Ryan Huff, is not very "seasoned" is he? He left out critical points regarding the death of Anthony "Kirk" Brown and the lawsuit that has been filed on behalf of his family members. He left out important issues that were discussed at the press conference. Mr. Huff's article says nothing about the fact that Mr. Brown suffered from Bipolar disorder and that the prison he was in where he died was designed to house and medically care for inmates with mental illnesses. Obviously the prison guards are not that skilled at handling Bipolar episodes and have decided to use deadly force against someone who is mentally ill. I also saw that UNION's (United For No Injustice Oppression Or Neglect) B. Cayenne Bird was the supporting group behind the lawsuits and I don't see any of that information in Mr. Huffs unskilled writing. I am a student and I am using all information collected for my thesis. Here is where the media comes in. It shows how one writer can manipulate words and influence readers opinions simply by excluding information. If Mr. Huff's memory retention is that low then you have a different problem all together. And talk about sticking one's foot in one's mouth first he starts off by saying this, The lawsuit does not offer any evidence to back up the murder claim, simply saying Brown died "after being beaten, sprayed with pepper spray and suffocated." He then decides to add this extremely important information, Mark Ravis, a Beverly Hills attorney who filed the suit, said officers applied a "spit mask" on Brown to prevent him from spitting at them. "They had to know that using this amount of pepper spray inside a mask was going to cause death," said Ravis, who is also a medical doctor. "If you spray pepper spray underneath that thing, you get a concentration of it being inhaled and then you're not getting any air." I think that is enough said! Patty, Riverside, CA
Dear Editor I would like for Ryan Huff who wrote the article about the murder by
pepper spray to include that the attorneys demand public disclosure of
the "investigation" Not only do the attorneys demand it but the UNION,
a large coalition of groups and individuals demand to see what
Then I would like to take a canister of pepper spray, designed for crowd control put a bag over Huff's head and spray three of these canisters under the the bag while holding him by the back of the neck. The autopsy describes serious injury to his neck, also not mentioned in Huff's story. Huff may be mentally deficient and not mentally ill but would he be alive after this experiment. Could we put this experiment with Huff taking large canister's of pepper spray while handcuffed, shackled with a bag over his head, held by the neck on television so that the voters can see what Brown was made to experience? It would be ok for this to be done since Huff thinks it was ok for the guards to do it to Brown. If he dies, we'll call it an "accident." Susan R., San Luis Obispo
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