Kelly Thomas

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Kelly Thomas Biography

Kelly Thomas was born April 5, 1974, to Ron Thomas, a former Orange County Sheriff’s deputy, and Cathy Thomas. Thomas, who was diagnosed with schizophrenia, was a “fixture” among Fullerton’s homeless population. The death of Thomas has sparked debate about systemic reforms in treatment of the mentally ill.

Kelly Thomas (April 5, 1974 – July 10, 2011) was a homeless man diagnosed with schizophrenia who lived on the streets of Fullerton, California. He was beaten to death by six members of the Fullerton Police Department, on July 5, 2011. Thomas was taken to St. Jude Medical Center before being transferred to the UC Irvine Medical Center, where he was comatose on arrival and not expected to recover. He never regained consciousness, and died on July 10, 2011.

Between 1990 and 2011, Thomas had 92 encounters with the police. These encounters ranged from minor infractions such as trespassing to a guilty plea in an assault with a deadly weapon case sixteen years prior.

In August 2011, the Internet activist group Anonymous demanded that the officers involved be prosecuted, the Fullerton Police Chief resign, and that Thomas’s family be awarded US$5 million in compensation; they threatened to shut down the Fullerton municipal website if their demands were not met. In January 2014, after the police officers involved were acquitted, Anonymous released their personal addresses, as well as the identities of the jurors. On January 18 and 19, Anonymous took down several websites belonging to or run by Fullerton police and municipality.

On September 21, 2011, Orange County district attorney Tony Rackauckas held a press conference to announce the results of the investigation. Rackauckas announced that according to the Orange County coroner, the cause of death was “asphyxia caused by mechanical chest compression with blunt cranial-facial injuries sustained during physical altercation with law enforcement.” Rackauckas said Thomas died because of the force of the officers on his chest, which made it impossible for him to breathe, causing Thomas to become unconscious. He then became comatose, and died when taken off life support five days later.

In late September 2011, the officers involved were arrested on murder charges. Local law enforcement personnel showed support by raising money for their bail and criminal defense.

On Saturday August 6, 2011, a large street protest was held outside of the Fullerton City Hall. Activists at that protest, which was attended by hundreds of people, called for the release of a surveillance video shot by cameras installed at the bus depot and carried signs with slogans like “Jail All Killer Cops” and “End Police Brutality.”

On August 2, 2011 many members of the public spoke out about the beating at the biweekly city council meeting at the Fullerton City Hall. Over 70 members of the public spoke to the city council, the vast majority of whom criticized the police. Among the speakers was Ron Thomas, the father of Kelly Thomas, as well as Kelly Thomas’s stepmother. The public comment session lasted for approximately three hours. The city attorney emphasized that the city council could not respond to the comments, however following the public comment period discussion was given to provide clarification on the city’s policy regarding the mentally ill. In addition, Tony Bushala, a local developer and conservative activist, announced plans to recall three members of the city council thought to have responded insufficiently to the beating. The recall qualified on the ballot in February 2012 with a recall election scheduled for Don Bankhead, F. Dick Jones, and Pat McKinley on June 5, 2012, consolidated with the statewide primary election. On June 5, 2012 all three council members were successfully recalled by Fullerton residents.

On July 18, 2011, a large protest outside the Fullerton Police Department was organized by several people, including the victim’s father Ron Thomas.

Kelly Thomas was removed from life support and died on July 10, 2011, five days after the beating. Initial reports claimed that Thomas had been very combative with officers and two had suffered broken bones. Later, the police department confirmed that no officers had suffered any broken bones, and that no one other than Thomas had any significant injuries. By the end of July, several news outlets had picked up the story and it had become international news.

The story of his beating broke shortly before his death. An investigation into the beating was undertaken by the Orange County district attorney starting on July 7, 2011, and later the FBI became involved. The decision to involve the FBI was praised by the American Civil Liberties Union, which claims the Orange County district attorney has an “abysmal” record when investigating shootings with police involvement.

Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas gave a detailed account of the events during a press conference on September 21, 2011. Using digital audio recording devices carried by the officers, surveillance video from a pole camera at the Fullerton Transportation Center, and other evidence, Rackauckas provided evidence that Thomas did comply with orders from Ramos, who had put on latex gloves and asked Thomas “Now see my fists? They are getting ready to fuck you up.” Rackauckas went on to describe how Thomas begged for his life, before being struck repeatedly by the officers. He was admitted to the hospital, slipped into a coma, and died five days later.

On July 5, 2011, at about 8:30 PM, officers of the Fullerton Police Department responded to a call from the management of the Slidebar that someone was vandalizing cars near the Fullerton Transportation Center. While investigating, they encountered the shirtless and disheveled Thomas and attempted to search him. According to statements given by the officers, Thomas was uncooperative and resisted when they attempted to search him, so backup was called. “Now you see my fists?” Fullerton police officer Manuel Ramos asked Thomas while slipping on a pair of latex gloves. “Yeah, what about them?” Thomas responded. “They are getting ready to fuck you up,” said Ramos, to which Thomas replied, “Start punching, dude”. A video of the event surfaced. Thomas can be seen being uncooperative with the officers, but sitting and being non-aggressive. After the officers grab Thomas to arrest him for stolen mail they apparently found, Thomas can be heard repeatedly screaming in pain while officers are heard repeatedly asking him to place his arms behind his back. He audibly responds “Okay, I’m sorry!” and “I’m trying!” while the officers stretch his arm back. The police officers claim that, unable to get Thomas to comply with the requests, they used a taser on him (up to five times according to a witness statement, and the video footage), and in the video Thomas can be heard screaming for his father. Six officers were involved in subduing Thomas, who was unarmed and had a history of mental illness. Thomas was initially taken to St. Jude Medical Center in Fullerton but was transferred immediately to the UC Irvine Medical Center with severe injuries to his head, face, and neck. One of the paramedics testified that he was first instructed to attend to a police officer’s minor injury and then noticed Thomas lying unconscious in a pool of blood.

Medical records show that bones in his face were broken and he choked on his own blood. The coroner concluded that compression of the thorax made it impossible for Thomas to breathe normally and deprived his brain of oxygen. His parents removed him from life support five days later, and he died from his injuries on July 10, 2011. Officer Manuel Ramos was charged with one count of second-degree murder and one count of involuntary manslaughter; Corporal Jay Cicinelli and Officer Joseph Wolfe were each charged with one count of felony involuntary manslaughter and one count of excessive force. All three pleaded not guilty.

On July 3, 2012, Ramos’ employment was terminated. According to a statement issued by Fullerton Police, Joe Wolfe is no longer employed by the department as of July 16, 2012. Jay Cicinelli is no longer employed by Fullerton Police as of July 20, 2012.

In a landslide June 5, 2012 recall election, city council members Dick Jones, Don Bankhead and Pat McKinley were voted out of office. Each was voted out by an almost identical majority of nearly 66%. Their replacements were: Travis Kiger, a planning commissioner and blogger for the site Friends for Fullerton’s Future, who filled Jones’ term, which expired December 4, 2012; Greg Sebourn, a land surveyor, who filled Bankhead’s term, which also ended December 4; and attorney Doug Chaffee, who filled McKinley’s term, which ended December 2, 2012. All were sworn into office in July 2012. Tony Bushala, a leading organizer of the Fullerton recall election, said he was seeking accountability for Kelly Thomas’ death. The city’s other two council members did not face a recall.

One day after this statement, on June 13, 2012, after months of denials, Slidebar owner Jeremy Popoff stated on KFI’s John and Ken Show that one of his employees did, in fact, call police the night Kelly Thomas was beaten. He declined to say what the employee reported, citing the criminal investigation into Thomas’ death, but said a recording of the call has been reviewed by the District Attorney’s Office and other investigators. Popoff and his lawyer denied the claims of an anti-homeless policy during a press conference.

In June 2012 Michael Reeves, a former employee of the Slidebar Rock-N-Roll Kitchen, filed a lawsuit for wrongful termination against Jeremy Popoff related to the beating. The Slidebar, which is owned by Popoff, the guitarist for Lit, was the source of the call that caused police to report to the area and confront Thomas. Reeves, a bouncer at the establishment, made statements to investigators claiming the Slidebar had a policy to do “anything necessary” to keep loiterers out of the area and that his manager lied about Thomas breaking into cars when calling the police to get them to respond more quickly. He further claims that Thomas was only loitering in the area that night and not causing trouble. Soon after making statements to investigators about what he saw that night he claims his managers were “furious at him for it” and slowly started taking away his responsibilities, culminating with his firing two months later. Reeves also claims that Popoff wanted everyone working at the Slidebar to act as if the “Slidebar had nothing to do” with the beating of Thomas and his refusal to echo these statements is the chief reason why he was fired. Eric Dubin, an attorney representing the Slidebar and Popoff, claims the suit is without merit and that it should be quickly dismissed. Dubin claims that “This whole thing is all copy from blogs and sold to some lawyer” and that, while the call did originate from the Slidebar, “that she [the manager] never used the phrase ‘breaking into cars.'” Dubin further claims that “Everything in that lawsuit is 100 percent false” and the real reason Reeve was fired was because of a confrontation with a manager in front of customers. On June 12, 2012, Ron Thomas organized a small gathering outside of the Slidebar to protest the false police report. Thomas and Popoff talked during the event and Thomas later said that if the report was correct, “then I have no beef” but that if there are any inconsistencies then “I have to do what I have to do”.

On May 16, 2012, press reports indicated that the Fullerton City Council had agreed to pay Thomas’ mother one million dollars as a settlement of her civil complaints against the city. This did not impact the ongoing civil actions by Thomas’ father or the criminal trial.

A preliminary hearing to determine if there is sufficient evidence for a trial was held on May 9, 2012. The court ordered that two of the police officers involved will stand trial. Manuel Ramos was charged with second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter, and Jay Cicinelli was charged with involuntary manslaughter and felony use of excessive force. Both officers pleaded not guilty at the second arraignment on July 13, 2012. Attempts by the defendants to dismiss the charges were denied. In September 2012, Officer Joseph Wolfe was indicted on charges of involuntary manslaughter and use of excessive force.

Thirty days after the incident all six officers involved in the beating were placed on administrative leave with pay and benefits intact. Several people, including two members of the Fullerton City Council, called for the resignation of police Chief Michael Sellers, who was later placed on medical leave in August 2011 for undisclosed reasons. Sellers continued his medical leave for 7 months and resigned on February 18, 2012 having never returned to work. 19,948 people have signed an online petition calling for the firing of all six police officers that were present during the beating.

Trials for Cicinelli and Ramos were scheduled to begin October 18, 2013, but actually began on December 2, 2013. Proceedings concluded on January 13, 2014 with both Ramos and Cicinelli being found not guilty of any criminal charges. After the verdicts, the District Attorney’s office announced that it would not proceed with Wolfe’s trial.

On January 13, 2014, Manuel Ramos was acquitted of second-degree murder and involuntary manslaughter in the 2011 death of Thomas. Jay Cicinelli was acquitted of involuntary manslaughter and excessive use of force.

The protests picked up again after the acquittals. On January 18, 2014, 14 people were arrested for protesting after ignoring a dispersal order from the police.

A judge declined to dismiss the charges against the officers in January 2013, finding that “a reasonable person could infer that the use of force was excessive and unreasonable.” An appeals court judge also denied a request to overturn the lower court’s decision. On January 13, 2014, Ramos and Cicinelli were found not guilty of all charges, while the trial for Wolfe was pending. Following the verdict for the two officers, the district attorney’s office announced it would not pursue the case against Wolfe. On January 17, 2014, charges against Wolfe were dropped.

On January 23, 2017, federal prosecutors announced that they would not bring charges against former officers Ramos, Cicinelli and Wolfe for violating Thomas’ civil rights.

On January 23, 2017, federal prosecutors announced that they would not bring charges against former officers Ramos, Cicinelli and Wolfe for violating Thomas’ civil rights.

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