Columbus Dispatch – by Mark Gillispie
CLEVELAND — A grand jury will determine whether criminal charges should be filed against two Cleveland police officers in the death of a woman having a mental-health crisis in November, a spokesman for the Cuyahoga County prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday.
Tanisha Anderson, 37, died on Nov. 12 after her family called police asking for help because Anderson, who had schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, was disoriented and walking outside on a cold day wearing only a nightgown.
Anderson initially agreed to go with officers to a hospital but panicked and tried to escape from the police cruiser. Her relatives say the officers slammed her to the ground and handcuffed her and that she quickly lost consciousness. Paramedics couldn’t revive her.
The county medical examiner said Anderson could not breathe after being placed on the ground on her stomach and that her heart problems and mental illness contributed to her death.
On Tuesday, the Cuyahoga County sheriff said the county prosecutor has asked him to investigate Anderson’s death. Cleveland police handed off the investigation to Prosecutor Tim McGinty in February.
McGinty’s spokesman, Joe Frolik, said there is value in having an independent agency look at the circumstances of Anderson’s death.
“It’s reassuring to the public to have this done,” Frolik said.
An attorney who filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of Anderson’s family against the city and the two officers, Scott Aldridge and Bryan Myers, said he hadn’t been told that the case would be presented to a grand jury. David Malik said the request for a sheriff’s office investigation “ reflects the prosecutor’s unwillingness to rely on the Cleveland police.”
A spokesman for the city said Cleveland is fine with McGinty asking for another probe. Myers and Aldridge remain on restricted duty.
Anderson’s death and those of other minorities while in police custody have been a rallying cry for protesters in Cleveland.
A grand jury also is expected to consider whether charges should be filed against two Cleveland police officers in the fatal shooting of Tamir Rice, a 12-year-old boy playing with a pellet gun at a park. Rice died 10 days after Anderson.
Treatment of the mentally ill is a key component of an agreement between Cleveland and the U.S. Department of Justice on how to reform the city’s troubled police department. The Justice Department said in a report in December that its investigators had found that Cleveland officers too often used excessive force and violated people’s rights.
The agreement calls for additional training for officers on how to better help people having mental-health crises.
Why bother with the grand jury charade? Just let the pigs off the hook now, because that’s what’s going to happen anyway. They’ll get what they deserve later.
The show must go on, even if no one’s watching it anymore.
“A grand jury will determine whether criminal charges should be filed against two Cleveland police officers in the death of a woman having a mental-health crisis in November,…
Exactly WHAT is there to determine?
“The county medical examiner said Anderson could not breathe after being placed on the ground on her stomach and that her heart problems and mental illness contributed to her death.”
She was murdered.
Oh so they’ll just “consider” it. Well that makes me feel so much better that they actually “consider” it, but won’t actually DO it.
Friggin idiots.