Bloody photo of Kelly Thomas
elicits gasps as hearing begins
“It’s becoming a disturbingly familiar scene in America -
mentally unstable cops”
A preliminary
hearing for the Fullerton police officers accused in the fatal beating of Kelly
Thomas got off a dramatic start as prosecutors showed a bloody image of Thomas'
face that elicited gasps from the audience.
The image was
taken by Fullerton police forensic specialist Dawn Scruggs. She took it just
hours after the beating, while Thomas was at UC Irvine Medical Center.
Ron Thomas,
Kelly Thomas' father, visibly winced as the image displayed on a massive
monitor. "It is the right side of Mr. Thomas' face," Scruggs
testified.
Prosecutors
also showed a Taser allegedly used by Cpl. Jay Cicinelli in the beating of
Thomas on a video screen visibly covered in blood.
Scruggs, a
nine-year specialist for the Fullerton Police Department, confirmed that the
Taser was the one used on Thomas. Scruggs also described a pool of blood where
Thomas fell.
Scruggs
described the officers' minor cuts but on cross examination acknowledged that
Officer Manuel Ramos told her he had been in the fight of his life. "He
was tired, exhausted and in pain," Scruggs said.
She said
officers Cicinelli and Scott Wolfe told her Thomas "would not stop
fighting."
A second
witness, Fullerton Fire Capt. Ron Stancyk, said when he arrived he saw that the
bloody Thomas was barely breathing. His skin was ashen and when they began to
move him he stopped breathing.
Stancyk said en
route to the hospital they began pumping air into his lungs with an air bag,
but Thomas' heart stopped..
"Once his
heart stops we began CPR" Stancyk said.
Orange County
Dist. Atty. Tony Rackauckas called the officers' actions "gratuitous and
unnecessary" and noted that the investigation showed that Thomas offered
no response to those blows, indicating he was "down and seriously
injured."
Both Ramos and
Cicinelli have pleaded not guilty and are free on bail while on leave from the
Fullerton Police Department. Ramos' attorney, John D. Barnett, said the officer
was doing his job under difficult conditions with a noncompliant suspect with a
history of violence.
Barnett said
Thomas' criminal record, which included a 1995 conviction for assault with a
deadly weapon when he hit his grandfather with a fire poker, reveals he had a
violent side.
Cicinelli's
attorney, Michael Schwartz, also disputed points in the district attorney's
account, including the number of times his client allegedly hit Thomas with the
front end of his Taser and the threatening taunt Ramos allegedly used when he
confronted Thomas.
Schwartz said
his client, a former LAPD officer, struck Thomas only when the homeless man
grabbed the hand holding the Taser at least twice.
Had enough? Write to the Speaker of the House, U.S. House of Representatives, Washington, DC 20515 and demand federal
hearings into the police problem in America.
Demand mandatory body cameras for cops, one strike rule on abuse, and a
permanent DOJ office on Police
Misconduct.