Excessive force claims against two Lane County sheriff's deputies stemming from the 2020 death in custody of Landon J. Payne can proceed to trial in the pending civil rights case, a federal judge ruled.
Payne, 36, died after he was handcuffed, shot with a stun gun and then held down with deputies' knees on his back outside the jail, despite his pleas that he could not breathe, according to court documents.
Payne's wife had called Eugene police for help on March 27, 2020, concerned her husband was in a mental health crisis while using methamphetamine. Police ended up arresting Payne on a three-year-old civil warrant out of Marion County in a child-support case and struggled to take him into custody.
Payne was restrained upon arrival at the Lane County Jail for 90 seconds before he became unconscious, according to the judge's opinion. He died two days later at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center at RiverBend from a lack of oxygen to the brain stemming from cardiac arrest during restraint by sheriff's deputies, U.S. District Judge Michael J. McShane wrote, based on a review of his death certificate.
The death certificate said the manner of death was "undetermined," but emails between Lane County medical examiner Dr. Daniel Davis and the county's district attorney indicated Davis' original intent was to classify the death as "homicide," according to a footnote in the opinion.
The two exchanged emails in mid-June 2020, just weeks after the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man by Minneapolis police. Lane County District Attorney Erik Hasselman had urged Payne's death be classified as "accidental," explaining in a deposition later that classifying the death as homicide would require the district attorney's office to do a lot of "additional education ... to explain why we weren't pursuing any charges," according to attorneys who filed suit against the county and city on behalf of Payne's wife.
The judge ruled that the deputies involved are not entitled to qualified immunity at this stage in the case, finding that the deputies "knew or should have known" that placing pressure on Payne's back or neck could result in asphyxia.
McShane noted in his 23-page opinion Monday that Lane County deputies - including Zachery Fulton and Conor West Santini - have been trained to know that "applying pressure to the back of a prone, handcuffed individual who was struggling to breathe was constitutionally excessive" and could result in asphyxia.
"Viewing the facts in the light most favorable to Plaintiff, and assuming that at least two deputies placed significant pressure on Mr. Payne's back, less intrusive alternatives were available -- the most obvious being to not place any pressure on Mr. Payne's torso," McShane wrote. "It arguably should have been apparent to officers that Mr. Payne was emotionally disturbed. Mr. Payne's unintelligible grunts and screams could have indicated to a reasonable officer his fragile and agitated mental and physical state."
The judge, however, also found that the Payne family's lawyers did not provide any evidence to support their claim that Lane County acted with "deliberate indifference."
Eugene police responded to a 911 call on the night of March 27, 2020, from Landon Payne's wife, who reported that her husband was experiencing a mental health crisis and she believed he was on drugs, according to the judge's summary. Thirty minutes after officers arrived, they arrested Payne on an unconfirmed Marion County warrant for unpaid child support.
Without warning, two officers approached Payne to take him into custody. Payne pulled his arms up and away, "perhaps not understanding what was happening," McShane wrote. Within seconds, he was prone on the ground and shot with a Taser stun gun four to five times over the next two minutes.
Payne told the officers he could not breathe while officers told him not to resist. After his arrest, he was moved to a police cruiser. His face was pale, and he was sweating profusely and uttering unintelligible groans, which were captured on video, the judge wrote.
The officers called emergency medical technicians to evaluate Payne. When they arrived, the EMTs were unable to obtain vital signs to medically clear him.
Yet Eugene Police Sgt. Robert Griesel, after speaking to the EMTs, decided that Lane County medical staff could evaluate Payne at the jail prior to booking, according to the judge's opinion.
Griesel testified that one of the medics told him it was "safe to transport" Payne to jail. The EMT's report, however, notes that the police "decided to transport" Payne to jail after they were informed of the EMTs' inability to obtain Payne's vital signs.
Whether medics told police it was safe to take Payne to jail is in dispute, largely because Griesel "muted his body cam" audio while talking with medics, in violation of Eugene police policy, the opinion said.
Griesel directed Eugene police officer Jairo Solorio to drive Payne to the Lane County Jail but never told him that EMTs hadn't medically cleared Payne for transport to the jail, the judge wrote. Solorio believed Payne had been medically cleared and informed sheriff's deputies he was bringing to jail an "uncooperative arrestee" on an outstanding warrant who had been Tased.
"Officer Solorio did not inform deputies about Mr. Payne's mental health crisis, that his state had significantly changed since being tased, or that he had not received a medical evaluation since being tased," McShane wrote.
Upon arrival at the jail, several Lane County sheriff's deputies removed Payne, who was handcuffed, from the police cruiser. Payne "either fell or was placed face down on the ground," and 7 to 8 deputies applied varying degrees of pressure to his arms, legs, head and back, the opinion said.
Deputies planned to "subdue" Payne and secure his legs with leg irons as he kicked his feet, to allow a nurse to take his temperature to comply with new jail COVID-19 protocol, the judge wrote.
Two deputies, Fulton and Santini, applied pressure to the upper right side of Payne's body while the jail nurse took his temperature, according to the opinion.
After 15 seconds on the ground under the deputies' weight, the opinion said, Payne "exasperated, 'I cannot breathe.' ''
Shortly after that, Deputy Jeremy Fifer moved to Payne's right side. He testified that he asked another deputy, determined to be Santini, to move his knee "down off (Payne's) back," according to the ruling.
"The County concedes that Santini's knee applied pressure to Mr. Payne's 'right arm' or 'right flank' for as long as 18 seconds," the opinion said.
Fulton testified that he placed his knee on Payne's right shoulder blade area while using his hand to press Payne's head into the ground, according to the opinion.
"Payne continued to grunt, shriek and gasp for air for the next minute before his body started twitching," according to body camera footage.
About 90 seconds after Payne was removed from the police car, one or more deputies noticed he had lost consciousness.
Six deputies and two jail nurses performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Payne, who remained handcuffed. He remained unconscious for more than nine minutes before an ambulance and EMTs arrived, the opinion said.
Payne's wife was told in a phone call from a Eugene officer that Payne had "collapsed" at the jail and was taken to the hospital. He died at the hospital on March 29, 2020.
Attorney Andrea Coit, representing Lane County's deputies, argued in court papers they "did everything they could to help Payne."
"They were presented with a man high on drugs, who had been tased multiple times, who was yelling, thrashing and incoherent, and told to house him," she wrote. "Before they could complete their medical screening to see if housing Mr. Payne in the jail was allowed, he stopped breathing. There is no evidence that the deputies used excessive force or failed to provide necessary medical care for Mr. Payne."
Disputes remain about the precise location, duration and amount of force used by deputies Fulton and Santini, the judge wrote. Fulton said he placed his knee on Payne's shoulder; another deputy said he asked Santini to remove his knee from Payne's back, according to the opinion.
Attorney Kimberlee C. Morrow, representing the city of Eugene, argued in court papers that Eugene officers used "minimal force" that was reasonable to arrest "the resisting Payne."
"The officers could not have known that Payne would suffer a cardiac arrest. They called medics, who evaluated Payne and determined that it was safe to transport him to jail," Morrow wrote.
Multiple people, including Payne's wife and CAHOOTS crisis response workers she asked to respond to the home to help deescalate her husband's encounter with police, had expressed concern for Payne's health after he was shot with a stun gun and asked if officers were going to have Payne medically evaluated before taking him to jail.
The judge said he'll also allow a negligence claim to proceed against the city of Eugene. The claim, filed by Payne's wife, alleges Eugene's officers failed to inform the county of Payne's altered mental and physical state and lack of medical clearance after he was shot with the stun gun.