Darrin Hanna Death At The Hands Of North Chicago Police Officer Reclassified As A Homicide

                                      

http://newssun.suntimes.com/photos/galleries/11717285-417/hanna-lawyers-question-reports-reasonable-force-finding.html

NORTH CHICAGO — New photos of the bloodied, bloated and deformed face of Darrin “Dagwood” Hanna, shown during this week’s meeting of the North Chicago City Council, caused some in attendance to yell “murder” and jeer official findings that police used reasonable force in Hanna’s Nov. 6 arrest.

The photos, obtained by Hanna family attorneys under a Freedom of Information Act request, were taken by arresting North Chicago police officers inside Hanna’s apartment shortly before he was carried to an ambulance.

They show severe wounds to Hanna’s head and numerous marks, likely inflicted by a Taser, to his back. Hanna died at Vista Medical Center East in Waukegan a week after his arrest for the alleged battery of his pregnant girlfriend.

Lake County State’s Attorney Michael Waller, in a review of findings in a four-month long investigation into the incident by the Illinois State Police Integrity Unit, as well as an autopsy and pathology reports undertaken by the Lake County Coroner’s office, declared March 20 that “police utilized reasonable force” in subduing and arresting Hanna, 45.

But attorneys for the Hanna family, who filed a federal wrongful death suit in December, point to discrepancies in police statements and question other aspects of the 300-plus page ISP investigative report, obtained by the Lake County News-Sun through a FOIA request.

Police narratives in the report assert that injuries to Hanna’s face are the result of two “quick, closed-fist strikes” by Officer Brandon Yost and, perhaps, from hitting a wood floor after a tackle by Officer Tristin Borzick.

“What these photos show doesn’t happen from two punches or a face hitting the ground,” said Attorney Kevin O’Connor, who hopes to prove that police beat Hanna after he was handcuffed.

“There is no way two hits could swell both eyes, bust a forehead, a nose and tear into a mouth,” O’Connor said. “Nobody reports striking him in the back. But we counted at least 15 marks on him. An officer beat him with a baton to the legs, in addition to him being Tasered.”

The ISP report also fails to accurately detail, O’Connor said, the extensive dry Tasering done to Hanna. In a dry Taser, the implement is held directly against the skin. Officer Gary Grayer admits to applying the Taser only twice, apparently because he didn’t believe it was working properly.

The Taser might have provided video evidence of its use, had its battery not been removed. According to the ISP report, no one at the NCPD knew how to retrieve the video from the Taser, so a representative from the company was summoned. The expert told investigators that “the battery had been removed from the Taser for a period of time” causing a “corruption” of data including dates, times and discharge statistics for accompanying videos.

O’Connor said the Taser taken into evidence contained 360 videos, none of them of the Hanna arrest.

According to the ISP report, Hanna lunged at Borzick after he was confronted by arresting officers inside his dark apartment. Officers report that Hanna, his fists clenched, yelling “Shoot me, shoot me,” appeared on the heels of his girlfriend, Dionne Wilcox, who ran screaming and naked from the couple’s bedroom. Immediately tackled by Borzick, according to arresting officers, Hanna resisted handcuffing.

An official autopsy found Hanna died from a combination of sickle cell crisis, kidney problems, uncontrolled high blood pressure, cocaine abuse, and physical and Taser restraint.

The city of North Chicago is conducting its own internal investigation of Hanna’s arrest. Both Interim Police Chief James Jackson and special investigator Robert Johnson, a retired State Police lieutenant colonel, will decide if the seven officers involved in the incident complied with department policy and procedure.

  

This photo of Darrin Hanna was taken after North Chicago police used a stun gun on him during a struggle on Nov. 6, 2011. Hanna died about a week later.

'Put me down, please, I was down,' suspect is heard yelling on tape

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/01/23/darrin-hanna-death-at-the_n_2534963.html

The 2011 beating death of a 45-year-old man in North Chicago, Ill. was reclassified as a homicide Tuesday, the latest development in an emotional case that has drawn the ire of community members who say they are still waiting for justice to prevail amid allegations of police brutality.

The reclassification in the case of Darrin Hanna's death by Dr. Thomas Rudd, the new Lake County Coroner, differs from last year's ruling of Artis Yancey, the county's previous coroner, that the cause of Hanna's death was "undetermined," NBC Chicago reports.

Still, Rudd has been careful to note that his ruling in Hanna's death does not imply criminal intent on the part of the police officers who, on Nov. 6, 2011, responded to a report of domestic battery and, after a struggle that included multiple discharges of a stun gun and left the 45-year-old with injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, detained Hanna.

Hanna, who suffered from sickle cell anemia, had been accused of striking his pregnant girlfriend and attempting to drown her in a bathtub. He died several days after his arrest.

"Homicide occurs when a person’s death results from a volitional act committed by another person to cause fear, harm, or death," Rudd told CBS Chicago, clarifying his assessment. "Intent to cause death is a common element, but is not required for classification as a homicide."

Two of the seven North Chicago officers suspected of being involved in Hanna's beating death previously faced disciplinary action, one of them -- Brandon Yost -- was immediately discharged from his post in April, while the other -- Arthur Strong -- was suspended for 30 days without pay. Police Chief Michael Newsome was also suspended and then resigned following the brutality scandal.

No criminal charges have been filed against any officers involved in the incident -- and that is not expected to change following Tuesday's homicide reclassification.

Nevertheless, the Tuesday development has reignited the hopes of family and supporters of Hanna in a pending civil rights lawsuit filed by Hanna's family against the city. Hanna's family engaged in a heated exchange with the attorney representing the seven officers named in the lawsuit outside the North Chicago City Council chambers Tuesday (watch the exchange embedded above).

"We've been saying it was homicide since 2011. Here it is 2013 and they're just now realizing it," Hanna's cousin Ralph Peterson told the Tribune.

In a Tuesday statement, North Chicago Mayor Leon Rockingham Jr. noted that he respectfully disagreed with Rudd's findings and reiterated that the city will not be changing its position on the case, ABC Chicago reports.

Last spring, audio recordings, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request, went public that showed Hanna begging for his life and shouting "They're killing me" during the struggle with police. The tape was not included in original police reports on the incident.

http://articles.chicagotribune.com/2012-04-10/news/ct-met-darrin-hanna-tapes-0410-20120410_1_city-council-meeting-state-police-officers

April 10, 2012 | By Robert McCoppin and Susan Berger, Chicago Tribune

An audio recording, apparently captured during a violent encounter between North Chicago police and a man who later died, renewed controversy over the case Monday when the tape was played during a City Council meeting.

The quality of the tape is poor but the subject of the arrest, Darrin Hanna, is seemingly heard yelling, "Put me down, please, I was down," after an officer is heard telling him in a calm, even voice: "You are OK. You're safe. Relax. Calm down."

Hanna, 45, died a week after the early November encounter, in which officers tackled, punched and Tasered Hanna while trying to subdue him after reports that he was beating a pregnant woman, according to a state police inquiry. His death prompted a spate of other brutality claims against the city, a lawsuit by Hanna's family and the departure of the police chief, though county authorities determined there were no grounds to press criminal charges against the six officers involved.

As they have since his death, though, relatives of Hanna and other critics of the Police Department crowded into the council chambers Monday night and continued their call for disciplinary action against the involved officers, who have been on desk duty since the incident. Just before the meeting Monday, Hanna's mother, Gloria Carr, began wailing and crumpled to the floor, where she was assisted by paramedics. She complained that she had been harassed and that her home was egged, and Mayor Leon Rockingham said he would increase patrols around her home.

The audio recording was not released along with the state police report, but Muriel Collison, an attorney for Hanna's relatives, said it was released to them through a Freedom of Information request. Rockingham confirmed the tape's authenticity, though it's unclear whether it was edited or exactly when during the arrest it was recorded, apparently by an officer's radio. It was played at the City Council meeting by a cousin of Hanna, Ralph Peterson, who asserted the city had tried to cover up the contents of the tape.

City officials did not address the content of the tape Monday evening. But Rockingham pleaded for patience, saying the city needs more time to complete its internal investigation. And he said the city has not ruled out dismissal as a possible consequence.

"I told you I would do everything and review every policy," the mayor said. "It comes from our chief regarding discipline or dismissal, and we are in the process of completing our investigation."

Carr, Hanna's mother, was apparently overcome after seeing newly revealed photos, apparently taken of an unconscious Hanna before he was taken to the hospital following the encounter with police. They show him on the ground, his head bleeding, bruised and swollen. The photographs were shown at an earlier City Council meeting and passed around again Monday by Peterson, who asserted they cast doubt over authority's determination of what happened to Hanna.

According to the state police, the North Chicago officers said Hanna charged them with fists clenched yelling, "Shoot me!" They said one officer tackled him head-first to the wooden floor, and when he continued to resist, one officer punched him twice in the face, and other officers hit him repeatedly with batons on the back of his legs and tried to shock him twice with a Taser, before subduing and handcuffing him.

Hanna died from multiple causes, according to the Lake County coroner's autopsy, which blamed chronic cocaine use and sickle cell disease along with police restraint and trauma.

Kevin O'Connor,  another attorney for the Hanna family, argued that the tapes show police had subdued Hanna within 12 seconds, that he was compliant, not combative, and coherent but terrified. Yet by the time an ambulance took him away, he was beaten almost unconscious, and was mumbling incoherently, according to the state report.

In contrast to officers' description of Hanna as an out-of-control aggressor, O'Connor said, the tape suggests the officers were in control while Hanna was begging for his life.

"This is the smoking gun that was never talked about by the state's attorney or state police," O'Connor said.  "It's the complete opposite of what they reported. And nobody analyzed it because nobody wanted to analyze it."

The autopsy describes six  wounds on his face, yet police describe only the fall to the floor and two punches.

The autopsy also describes 11 Taser marks on Hanna's back, yet the officers mention only two or three attempts to Taser him without apparent effect.

Peterson also and announced plans for a protest march to the North Chicago Police Station and City Hall on April 21.

Susan Berger is a freelance reporter.

rmccoppin@tribune.com



http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/10/darrin-hanna-recordings-n_n_1414626.html

Newly-uncovered audio recordings show that a suburban Chicago man who died after a physical altercation with police was begging for his life during the struggle.

A group of North Chicago, Ill. residents have been clashing with local police over the death of Darrin Hanna, 35, whose case community members say represents the most severe in a long series of excessive police force in their area.

Hanna's relatives played police-recorded audio they obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request for city council members Monday, CBS Chicago reports. In the recording, Hanna can be heard pleading for his life. "They're killing me," Hanna can be heard shouting in the tape, which was not included in original police reports on the incident.

Police officers were responding to a report of domestic battery last November and detained Hanna, who had been accused of striking his pregnant girlfriend, according to ABC. Hanna struggled with police, sustaining injuries consistent with blunt force trauma and multiple discharges of a stun gun, and died several days later.

Hanna's death was officially attributed to several factors, including physical trauma and restraint and cocaine use that exacerbated his existing sickle cell anemia, according to the Chicago Tribune. But Carr's family says police officers involved should be held responsible.

Hanna's mother, Gloria Carr, became hysterical when new photos of Hanna's face shortly before his death were displayed at Monday's meeting.

(See footage from the meeting above.)

Council members did not formally respond to the new evidence Monday, and an internal investigation into the alleged police brutality is ongoing.

North Chicago community members campaigning for more accountability in the Hanna case are planning a protest at the North Chicago Police Station April 21.