Arpaio's Arizona Jail Faces Suit After White Public Servants "Dog Piled" & Tasered Latino War Veteran to Death

From [HERE] The Ninth Circuit ruled Friday that Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s detention officers must face excessive-force in the death of a mentally ill Army veteran. The incident was partially captured on jail video. Arpaio, [racist suspect & Trump surrogate in photo], styles himself "America's Toughest Sheriff" and is known for unlawful sweeps to round up illegal non-white immigrants and inhumane treatment of Latinos.

The officers asked a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit last month to grant them qualified immunity from a wrongful death lawsuit filed by the family of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, a 44-year-old mentally ill Latino man who was a Gulf War veteran.

Atencio was arrested in 2011 for an alleged verbal assault or yelling at a [white?] woman and was taken to the Fourth Avenue Jail, run by Arpaio. [However, the woman explained to police, "Marty did not physically threaten me at any time. He did not make comments that made me think he would harm me . . . . . I didn’t want Marty to be arrested; he had not touched me, he wasn’t verbally belligerent. I knew there was something wrong with him and I just wanted him to go to the psych ward, at 24th and Van Buren, to get some help, not necessarily go to jail because he had not done anything" [MORE]

At the jail he was mocked, beaten, electrocuted, stripped naked, and killed by white public servants [cops]. [MORE]

According to court records, officers described Atencio as “humorous and jovial” while having his mugshot taken, but his behavior shifted when police roughly took him to a “linescan” room. A police witness in the jail said, "the guards were escorting Marty by leading him with his hands and arms bent in what looked to be a very painful position."

According to witnesses at the jail, though the Officers were needlessly inflicting pain on Marty, he was never aggressive, abusive, or resistive. So much so that the officers then removed Marty’s handcuffs. Although he posed no threat to the officers and reportedly made no threatening statements or movements Marty was surrounded by no less than nine white law enforcement officers.

When asked to take off his shoes, which were to be put through a scanner with his clothes, Marty removed his right shoe pursuant to the Officers’ instructions. When asked to remove his left shoe, Marty, according to the Officers, refused to do so. What happened next was the shocking commencement of the jailers’ riot that would kill Marty Atencio. According to one Sergeant from the MCSO, as well as others, “the best way to describe” what happened next was a group of law enforcement officers formed a “dog pile,” on top of Marty.

In an incident partially caught on videotape, Officers Hanlon and French helped hold Marty down, allowing MCSO Sergeant Weiers to continuously electrocute Marty with his Taser. Officer Nicholas French used a chokehold on Atencio, and a number of officers piled on top of him, crushing him. One of the witnesses to this brutality stated that “Marty was screaming in pain, in a deep voice.” A woman, who told the witness that she works in a medical office, said, “if they tase him anymore, they are going to kill him.” And, indeed, they did.

MCSO DOs carried Marty out of the Linescan Room and into their “Safe Cell 4.” While Marty’s life was slipping away in their “Safe Cell,” Officer Hanlon, with employees of the County, took a moment to laugh and joke about the events that had just transpired. Indeed, the jail’s surveillance video, outside of “Safe Cell 4,” shows Officers Hanlon and Hatton, with smiles on their faces, talking to other Officers, while two white women dance and bump their butts together.

Nine minutes after Marty was left alone in their “Safe Cell,” County employees found him without a pulse and without a breath. He died at a hospital.

A police officer said when he entered the jail "he was dressed nice, he had a leather jacket, a polo, slacks, normal dress shoes. Uh, had all his clothing on." At some point the cops stripped him naked. [MORE]

“Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to Atencio, including the available video evidence, several of defendants’ acts could be found by a jury to constitute excessive force,” the panel ruled in a memorandum order issued Friday.

The three officers should have known they were “prohibited from the type and amount of force used against Atencio, including multiple strikes to the face, repeated tasering, and a knee strike, when Atencio was at most passively resisting, he posed no threat to the officers, and he was already being physically restrained by several officers,” the panel found.

Ninth Circuit Judges Richard Clifton and Paul Watford sat on the panel. They were joined by Circuit Judge Michael Melloy, sitting by designation from the Eighth Circuit.

“Today the Ninth Circuit found that there is evidence showing law enforcement officers, from both the city of Phoenix and Maricopa County, used excessive force against a United States Army Veteran – Marty Atencio,” Larry Wulkan, an attorney for the Atencio family, said in a statement. “While the Atencio family mourns the loss of Marty each and every day, they look forward to presenting Marty’s case to a jury so that justice may be served and, hopefully, others are not subject to the brutal treatment that resulted in Marty’s death.”

The ruling mostly affirms a decision last year by U.S. District Judge Paul Rosenblatt that the detention officers involved in Atencio’s death do not have immunity.

“There is a genuine factual dispute as to whether these officers were integral participants in the use of excessive force in the linescan room and/or the safe cell, as well as whether these officers violated a duty to intervene to prevent the use of excessive force,” Rosenblatt wrote.

The panel did find qualified immunity should be granted to Sgt. Anthony Scheffner and Officer Patrick Hanlon for their roles in the incident.

Even though Scheffner may have seen Hatton deliver a knee strike to Atencio, “there is no evidence that Sergeant Scheffner directed or otherwise knew that the solitary knee strike would occur, physically participated in the knee strike, or had a realistic opportunity to stop the knee strike from happening.”

The panel found similarly for Hanlon, who grabbed Atencio by the wrist when he disobeyed commands.

“Hanlon could not have reasonably foreseen that his use of a wrist lock would cause or would trigger events ultimately leading to Atencio’s death,” the ruling states.

Arpaio lost re-election to Paul Penzone, a Democrat and former Phoenix Police Department sergeant, last month after legal troubles and declining popularity plagued the six-term lawman.

Two racist suspect female cops (top left) celebrate Atencio's murder with a dance after the "jailers riot"

lol. An MCSO Detention Officer Anthony Hatton (bottom left) enjoying a chuckle after he and others leave Atencio for dead in a "safe cell." More on the Psychopathic Racial Personality.