The sister of a man who died of asphyxiation after wrapping a seat belt around his neck in the back of a Eugene police car has filed a $9 million wrongful death suit against the city and Eugene police.
The federal civil rights suit alleges police failed to recognize Michael Amador Sanchez, 34, was suffering from a mental health crisis, failed to properly secure him in the back of the patrol car to ensure his safe transport to a hospital, failed to monitor his conduct in the rear seat and failed to summon an ambulance to properly care for him.
The suit, filed Friday by Isabel M. Mihalich in Eugene, seeks $6 million in noneconomic damages and $3 million in economic damages, as well as unspecified punitive damages.
Sanchez had a diagnosis of bipolar disease with psychotic features and several run-ins with police in the days before his Jan. 30, 2019, arrest, according to the suit.
Attorney Robert A. Miller, who represents Mihalich, said the video evidence from the police transport of Sanchez to the hospital supports the allegations.
Eugene police declined comment on the suit.
After Sanchez was found unresponsive in the patrol car and hospitalized, Eugene Police Chief Chris Skinner released a statement, calling it a “tragic circumstance for Mr. Sanchez and for his family.”
“We and our transporting officers are shocked and deeply saddened. You never expect quick, seemingly routine transport to turn out this way. The vehicle’s travel was smooth without crashes or abrupt stops. We will continue to look into how this occurred and remain concerned for Mr. Sanchez’s wellbeing and for his family.”
Sanchez never regained consciousness and died 241 days later, on Sept. 18, 2019, according to the suit.
A seat belt wasn’t put on Sanchez because he kept kicking at officers and thrashing around during his arrest, according to Melinda McLaughlin, Eugene police spokeswoman. Eugene police policy allows officers to not put a seat belt on people who are arrested if doing so threatens the safety of officers or the person in custody.
Eugene police arrested Sanchez on an accusation that he set a fire in a wheelbarrow outside a business.
Police said officers took Sanchez into custody at 5:38 a.m. on a reckless burning allegation after fire officials reported about 2-foot tall flames coming from a wheelbarrow about 10 feet from Coastal Farm and Home Supply’s Building in Eugene.
He was detained on a Highway 99 overpass after a foot chase. He was handcuffed after he was taken to the ground and then repeated, “no, no, no,” became limp and began to hit his head on the ground as police tried to get him to his feet and take him to the police car, the suit says.
He had blood on his hands and face and his jacket was singed, police said. They took him to the hospital for medical care before planning to take him to the Lane County Jail, police said.
He was left unbuckled in the back seat of the patrol car but his hands were cuffed and his feet were bound with flexible restraints to keep him from slamming his head against the center foot divider in the back seat, according to the suit.
Once in the back seat, he started to wedge himself in the floorboard of the car, lying on his side, with his legs on the seat and head on the floor, the suit says.
With his hands and feet bound, Sanchez thrashed around in the back as Officer Carlos M. Jones drove him to PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center University District Hospital.
“As I transported Sanchez to the hospital, he continued his violent behavior. Several times his legs were up in the air and I became concerned he would try to break the partition separating the rear passenger area from the front of the vehicle,” Jones’ police report said, according to the suit.
After some minutes, the officer noticed Sanchez became quiet and wasn’t responding to his attempts to communicate with him. Jones wrote in his report that he looked over his shoulder to check on Sanchez, but that his view was obstructed, the suit says. Another time, he tried to check on Sanchez through the in-car video system, but the placement of the camera didn’t allow him to see Sanchez, according to his reports.
“At no point in time did Jones pull his vehicle over and attempt to better secure Mr. Sanchez or check on his well-being,” the suit alleges.
When Jones arrived at the hospital, the suit says, he went inside to speak with a nurse and didn’t check on Sanchez. It wasn’t until another officer who was following in a different car had arrived and checked on Sanchez in the back of Jones’ patrol car that Sanchez was found unresponsive, according to the suit.
A nurse who emerged from the hospital found a seat belt was wrapped around his neck twice, the suit says.
Sanchez had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. Emergency medical personnel were able to restart his heart, but he never regained consciousness, according to the suit.
According to a statement from Eugene police, Sanchez was able to remove the flexible restraints around his feet, came to rest at some point in the foot well of the car with a shirt up around his head and was “able to place a seat belt around his neck” even while handcuffed.
Passenger seat belts in a patrol car are different than in personal vehicles. “They come out from the middle of the seat and the buckles are opposite from where they would normally be,” Eugene police said in a statement last year. “There is no retracting mechanism. The belt, when not in use, is attached to the prison compartment barrier by a magnet.”
-- Maxine Bernstein
Email mbernstein@oregonian.com; 503-221-8212
Follow on Twitter @maxoregonian