The video, submitted in a wrongful death trial before a federal district court in Tennessee, is at the heart of another claim that another black man died unnecessarily in custody due to misconduct by law enforcement. All accused have denied these allegations in court records.
He said that although he did not believe the police had handled the situation properly, "it is far from being criminally responsible for a homicide."
Edwin Budge, a Seattle-based lawyer representing the Higgins estate, said the videos are crucial evidence and that the grand jury "should have been informed of these facts; and now it's our job as civil lawyers to reveal these facts. "
Higgins' death raises questions not only about the events of the night and the use of force by the police, but also about police training and practices on how to handle people who behave strangely or who appear to be be mentally distressed.
Nathan Tilly, the lawyer representing the three prison officers named in the trial, declined to comment, other than saying "we have denied the allegations". John Burleson, the lawyer representing the arrest agent, Robert Orsborne, declined to comment. In court records, Orsborne denied having caused Higgins' death. All officers have claimed qualified immunity, a doctrine that keeps officers safe from personal responsibility for acts done in their official capacity unless they violate clearly established law or constitutional law. The city and the county also denied the wrongdoing.
According to Union City police records, Higgins, 37, called 911 from the parking lot of Pocket's Market, a convenience store. He told the police that someone was following him, trying to kill him and steal his money. According to the complaint, one of the officers "suggested to Mr. Higgins that he probably had to go to the hospital", depending on his behavior. Counsel for the accused have denied this allegation. He agreed to leave.
But the officers quickly returned, after another call to 911, to find it hidden in a cooler at the back of the convenience store. They arrested Higgins for trespassing.
Based on his erratic behavior, the complaint alleges that the police should have realized that Higgins was suffering from a medical or mental health crisis and took him to a hospital or mental health facility. According to records, Higgins' distant wife told investigators that "he had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia but had refused to take the medication prescribed for him." Budge said he couldn't comment on Higgins' mental health because he hadn't seen the underlying medical records yet.
Union City police chief Perry Barfield said his department's policy was "If someone has a medical condition that warrants going to the hospital, then they should be transported first , but there is nothing in place regarding mental health issues. "
Instead, the officers took him to Obion County Jail. A prison surveillance video shows Higgins, handcuffed, running around the police car. Taken inside, he briefly caught the hair of a policewoman, before being taken to the ground by Orsborne, then held to the ground by agent Waylon Spaulding.
In a handwritten statement, Spaulding stated that Higgins had tried to spit on him, so "I ... put my hand under inmate Higgins' chin to keep him from spitting at other officers."
As Spaulding grabbed Higgins' throat and face, two other jailers put chains on his feet and legs. Although the video is unclear, the arresting police officer, Orsborne, told investigators that he set foot on Higgins' leg and then stood on the chains of the chains. the leg to help hold it back.
The video shows Spaulding holding the handle on the neck of Higgins and Orsborne standing above him for several minutes. Higgins' body becomes limp, but Spaulding maintains the pressure for another two minutes, according to the lawsuit. By the time he removes his hands, it's been almost six minutes in total.
Around 1 h 55, the jailers drag the soft form of Higgins on a compression chair, the video shows. They roll him into detention cell 15. A few minutes later, they check him. Spaulding, in his handwritten statement, said that Higgins was not breathing, so they called emergency medical services. EMS records show that they received a call at 2:06 a.m.
At 2:15 a.m., an EMS team arrived. Higgins had no pulse and was not breathing, according to the EMS report, which described his "main symptom" as "obvious death". The team performed CPR. He was pronounced dead at a local hospital at 2.52 a.m.
In his autopsy report, pathologist Marco Ross noted a small hemorrhage on a muscle on the left side of Higgins' neck. "He said this finding did not mean that Higgins was strangled or strangled. The injury is common and not fatal," said an investigator's report. Ross concluded that "Higgins' death was caused by excited delirium due to methamphetamine toxicity", and called it "an accident".
Budge said that an independent medical examiner was examining the findings as part of the prosecution, "and that all the facts will be released."
Higgins' autopsy showed 620 nanograms per milliliter of methamphetamine in his blood. A footnote in the autopsy report stated that "blood levels of 200 to 600 ng / ml have been reported in drug users who have exhibited violent and irrational behavior".
Tommy Thomas, the district attorney general, told CNN that as soon as he learned of the death, he called the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation to conduct an independent investigation. But based on the results of the autopsy "and other investigative work by the TBI, I have determined that there is no criminal responsibility here," he said.
Thomas also testified that he told Higgins' family "that there was a much lower standard in a civil liability case. Then I recommended that they consult a lawyer and perhaps take civil action. And that's what the family did. "
Thomas added that he referred all deaths in custody to a grand jury, as he did, in principle. But, "in this case, I did not believe beyond a reasonable doubt that any of these officers was guilty of a crime". As a general rule, grand juries issue indictments when there are probable grounds to believe that a crime has been committed; the reasonable doubt standard is used by trial jurors who decide whether or not to convict.
For Budge, the key problem is that Higgins did not need to die.
"I think there are several times when Mr. Higgins' life could have been saved," he said.
He asked why Higgins should be arrested in the first place, rather than being fired for medical or mental health care. He asked why, once Higgins arrived at the prison, Spaulding apparently maintained pressure on Higgins' neck for so long.
The prison force use policy states that "applied force will only be what is reasonable and necessary to control a given situation".
"Officers have a way of dealing with people who spit. There was a sputum mask available to them. Apparently they never wore it," said Budge. "And that certainly doesn't explain why an officer would keep his hands around someone's neck or throat for two more minutes after the person stops moving."
Then, he added, "the fact that the doctor was not called immediately after becoming limp and did not answer raises big questions".
There are also questions about the conclusion that Higgins died of "excited delirium".
According to the National Institutes of Health, excited delirium "is not a currently recognized medical or psychiatric diagnosis", neither in the diagnostic manual of the American Psychiatric Association nor in the international classification of diseases of the World Organization health.
A medical examiner, who spoke on condition that he was not appointed because he was not involved in the Higgins case, said that coroners sometimes called the term "excited delirium" when there were several factors and that they didn't really know exactly what had caused the death. . He said, "many people no longer use this term" and often it is more useful to simply list all of the contributing factors individually.
Budge also questioned the finding of "excited delirium".
"Ultimately, the end goal is to find the truth and get justice for Sterling Higgins," he said, and "this change is made to keep people's lives safe because no one, no one should be able to die in prison when death is preventable. "
In a statement, Jennifer Jenkins, administrator of the Higgins estate, said, "Sterling Higgins was a good man who deserved fair and humane treatment. He left behind two young children who will grow up to be fatherless. treated like her life doesn't matter. We want the truth to be known. We want accounts. We want justice or Sterling Higgins. "
CNN's Curt Devine, Yahya Abou-Ghazala and Collette Richards contributed to this report
