Three sheriff\u2019s deputies rush in and wrestle a handcuffed man to the ground, face down.<\/p>\n
All three hold the man: one kneeling on his back, another appearing to kneel on his neck. They attempt to re-cuff the man, hands behind his back. The prisoner eventually loses consciousness. After a few minutes, the deputies leave him, unmoving, on the floor of the jail cell.<\/p>\n
The handcuffed man regains consciousness and knocks on the jail cell door. The deputies return as he kneels, offering no resistance. They roll the handcuffed man onto his side and chain him, hands behind his back, to a urine grate in the floor.<\/p>\n
He\u2019s left there for two and half hours.<\/p>\n
The man is\u00a0Juan \u201cTony\u201d Sancho. He was an actor performing with the Oregon Shakespeare Company when this incident happened at the Jackson County Jail in Medford, Oregon, in April. Last month, he filed a civil lawsuit against Jackson County, alleging excessive force.<\/p>\n
Jackson County Sheriff Nathan Sickler told the\u00a0Medford Mail Tribune\u00a0that \u201cHolding someone down temporarily to control them, across their back and shoulders, is much different than kneeling on someone\u2019s neck and restricting their breathing.\u201d OPB reached out to the Jackson County\u2019s DA\u2019s office for further comment, but has received no response.<\/p>\n
One of his lawyers, Matthew Rowan, spoke to OPB\u2019s Weekend Edition recently about the case and the questions it raises.<\/p>\n
Rowan said the Sancho was walking home after a night out celebrating with his fellow Oregon Shakespeare Festival performers when he encountered the Ashland police.<\/p>\n
\u201cDuring the course of that conversation, Tony Sancho very clearly and lucidly explained that his house is two blocks away,\u201d Rowan said. \u201cHe even gave the address to that house.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a\u00a0video of the arrest\u00a0Sancho appears intoxicated, repeating himself as he speaks, but he expresses fear of being a Latino man being apprehended by police in a 92% white city.<\/p>\n
\u201cWait, wait, wait, please, please no I\u2019m not going to relax,\u201d Sancho says in the video. \u201cI\u2019m not going to relax because I\u2019m a brown man, I\u2019m a brown man in this situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
His agitation escalates, and the officers apprehend him. He says \u201cDon\u2019t do this, don\u2019t do this, please.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cLet\u2019s keep in mind that Tony at no point was placed under arrest at all,\u201d Rowan said. \u201cIn fact, at one point he was told by law enforcement that he was not in trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sancho was initially charged with resisting arrest, but Ashland Police Chief Tighe O\u2019Meara requested that the Jackson County District Attorney\u2019s office drop the charge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI did this not because I felt the charge was unwarranted,\u201d O\u2019Meara said in a statement, \u201cbut rather because I thought that an important ongoing dialogue and relationship building effort would be ill-served by pursuing this prosecution.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ashland\u2019s mayor and city council also\u00a0condemned the actions of the Jackson county jailers.<\/p>\n
Sancho\u2019s night in the Jackson County Jail happened long before George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis, but the similarities are striking: another brown man, being violently detained by a squad of white law enforcement officers.<\/p>\n
Rowan said the public has voiced its opposition to the type of force that both Floyd and Sancho experienced. \u201cThe needle has been moved on a societal level on what type of police force our community deems to be tolerable,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Race isn\u2019t an allegation or a component of Sancho\u2019s lawsuit for the time being, but Rowan said that doesn\u2019t discount what Sancho felt as he was being detained.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat my client was feeling as a racial minority while he was being questioned by law enforcement, his own feelings,\u201d Rowan said, \u201cI would imagine that informed the fear and trauma that he experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n
And Rowan sees clear parallels between the excessive force Sancho accuses Jackson County deputies of using against him and the reports of police brutality that sparked this year\u2019s protest movement across the country. Jackson County Sheriff\u00a0Nathan Sickler publicly condemned\u00a0the policing that led to George Floyd\u2019s death; his deputies used similar techniques against Sancho.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of the statements that he said are directly quoted in our lawsuit,\u201d Rowan said. \u201cYou never leave somebody on their stomach, it increases the risk of positional asphyxia; you don\u2019t want to put your full body weight on individuals: you can clearly see that happening in our case as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sancho sustained bruises on the wrist, knee and elbow. The actor is currently living in California.<\/p>\n
Rowan said the encounter with police was a life-altering experience.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s still dealing with the trauma of what occurred to him, and he\u2019s not prepared to speak about it,\u201d Rowan said.<\/p>\n
Sancho\u2019s case is a civil one; Rowan is not advocating for criminal charges against the deputies who detained his client, and he said he doesn\u2019t know if the Jackson County district attorney is pursuing charges either.<\/p>\n
But as the nation continues to grapple with excessive force in America, Rowan said the case is asking the same question protesters are asking in the streets every day: What constitutes excessive force by police \u2014 and what should the consequences be when officers do go too far?<\/p>\n
\u201cIs there a level of force that is excessive \u2014 which you can see, for example, in the video involving my client \u2014 will those types of cases be prosecuted?\u201d Rowan asks. \u201cThat remains to be seen.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Three sheriff\u2019s deputies rush in and wrestle a handcuffed man to the ground, face down. All three hold the man: one kneeling on his back, another appearing to kneel on his neck. They attempt to re-cuff the man, hands behind his back. The prisoner eventually loses consciousness. After a few minutes, the deputies leave him, unmoving, on the floor of the jail cell. The handcuffed man regains consciousness and knocks on the jail cell door. The deputies return as he kneels, offering no resistance. They roll the handcuffed man onto his side and chain him, hands behind his back, to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3325,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n