APD And City Push Back On The Decision, Citing Multiple Previous Investigations That Cleared Officers; DA Pamela Price’s Office Reviewed Past Evidence As Basis To Charge, One Day Prior To Statute Of Limitations Expiration Date
By Larry Freeman
One day before the third anniversary of Mario Gonzalez’s in-custody death, and on the eve of the expiration of a statute of limitations to charge the officers, The Public Accountability Unit (PAU) of Alameda County D.A’s Office and DA Pamela Price announced that it was charging each in the trio with involuntary manslaughter of Mario Gonzalez in a parklet across from the Otis Drive Walgreen’s, in April of 2021.
The in-custody death, the key basis for the charge, involved three APD officers who interfaced with Gonzales for about nine minutes until one reached out to hold his right wrist and help him off a short tree round he was standing on. Another holds on to his left wrist and, with his right hand, touches Gonzalez’s left shoulder as he steps down. They let him know they want him to put his hands behind his back and an gradually escalating struggle to restrain him begins until he either stumbles and/or is wrested to the ground face down, the essential position his body will be in until his life comes to a tragic end while in custody.
Officers Eric McKinley, James Fisher, and Cameron Leahy are accused of violating of California Penal Code section 192(b) which specifies the crime of involuntary manslaughter. It is a type of homicide that involves, in part, the commission of a lawful act which might produce death, in an unlawful manner, or without due caution and circumspection.”
The D.A. Office’s Press Release mentioned that prosecutors conducted “an extensive review of the in-custody death” of Gonzalez, but provided no details as to what this new look into his demise revealed compared to an earlier investigation into the matter and subsequent decision not to charge the officers under then District Attorney Nancy O’Malley. It also made no mention of several other, prior investigations into the matter that did not result in criminal charges being levied.
The first investigation, begun in 2021 by the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau, concluded in 2022 , based on their autopsy and toxicology tests, that Gonzalez died as the result of the “toxic effects of methamphetamine … and other significant conditions contributing to death” including the “physiological stress of altercation and restraint; Morbid obesity; (and) alcoholism.”
Lawyers for the Gonzalez family, Haddad and Sherwin, in a wrongful death Civil against the City Of Alameda later produced an independent toxicology report that bolstered their view that Gonzalez’s death was the result of the use of unnecessary force in restraining the suspect.
That suit was settled between the parties and details as to why or what the conflicting interpretations of the evidence were remain private as part of the legal terms of the deal. The City Of Alameda agreed to pay $11 million to the Gonzalez family without admitting any wrongdoing.
In a separate matter, lawyers for Gonzalez alleged, in part, in a letter asking for a Civil Rights Violation investigation by The U.S. Attorney General’s Office, that officers “violated generally accepted police standards …(and that ) Mario was lifting the officer’s entire body weight while the officer was on top of him. You can see on the video the officer’s soles of his feet being fully visible, and sometimes his feet completely off the ground, which means all of his body weight was on Mario…while pinned face down the ground.”
The terrible event began afterAPD got a call for his “behaving oddly,” appearing intoxicated, peering over resident’s fences and for possible possession of a number of allegedly shoplifted bottles of alcohol.
APD body cam footage confirms that officers pinned him face down for just over three minutes with one placing his knee in Gonzalez’s mid back near his right scapula to try and keep him on the ground.
Prior to that, the recording shows officers asking him several times to “please stop resisting us,” and to “put your hand behind your back,” presumably to handcuff him.
Eventually, Gonzalez ends up on the ground, face down, as officers continue to struggle to get him to put his hands behind his back as he wriggles and pushes upwards, consistent with what the Gonzalez families’ attorneys described.
Just under thirty four minutes or so after initial contact, officers say “Mario, please stop fighting us,” and Gonzalez issues a whimpering sound while breathing heavily. An officer tells another “We have no weight on his chest”, a grunt is heard, and the officer says, “No, no, no weight.”
They roll him over, his face facing partially upward and the officers realize things have gone terribly wrong. One asks, “have you got a pulse?” before saying “he’s still got his head up,” just before Gonzalez seems to begin to lapse into unconsciousness and officers begin chest compressions for several minutes, until AFD paramedics arrive to continue to try and resuscitate him to no avail.
The D.A.’s Press Release in the new matter concludes by noting that, “ In 2021, the Alameda County District Attorney’s Office opened an investigation into potential police misconduct by the three officers. That investigation, ending in 2022, cleared the officers of any criminal liability for his death. In 2023, the ACDAO Public Accountability Unit reopened and re-examined the case. A second autopsy attributed Mr. Gonzalez’s death to “a result of Restraint Asphyxiation.”
The D.A.’s Press Release provided neither any hint nor detail as to what particular evidence in APD’s handling of their encounter with Gonzalez factored into the decision to charge the officers, no mention of reasons for this reversal of course from numerous other investigations into the incident, nor any indication from current Alameda County District Attorney, Pamela Price, as to the reasons or timing for the announcement.
The decision to charge the officers was announced two days after The Alameda County Registrar Of Voters certified signatures to validate a recall petition of Price and allow the matter to be placed on the ballot.
Price stated in a press conference on April 18th of this year that “Accountability is at the heart of the Criminal Justice System, not just a case like this. We try to rebuild a system that has not always been fair to folks. This is not a great day for The City Of Alameda, The County Of Alameda or The Gonzalez family,” she said, in part.
She added that “I can’t comment on (reasons underlying the decision nor the evidence as, “the matter is pending before the court. So the details as to how the PAU came to this decision, particularly ” as to why the unit she created concluded that felony charges were warranted were not disclosed at this time.
ANN is awaiting a response from an Alameda County District Attorney’s Office spokesperson on that and other related matters.
“It is a decision that I made. It is a technical matter, and I’m not able to speak on it at this time,” Price asserted at the time of her Press Conference.
By contrast, on May 23, 2023, The Alameda County D.A’s office under Price issued a Press Release rife with evidentiary details related to the charging of three other law enforcement officers by the PAU.
For example it specified allegations of “doctoring the logbooks to make it appear as though they followed the procedure for direct visual observation. Video evidence shows that they repeatedly failed to check on Ms. Martin for extended periods, sometimes as long as one hour and 47 minutes, contrary to their certifications.”
A Press Release issued just after 3:00 pm on Friday, April 19th by The City Of Alameda and signed by APD Chief Nishant Joshi pushed back on the D.A.’s decision to charge the officers.
It noted the prior D.A.’s conclusion to not pursue criminal proceedings, on grounds that that “the evidence does not justify criminal charges and found no criminal liability in the death of Mr. Gonzalez.”
The Alameda Press Release sought to bolster that decision by citing a number of other inquiries into the matter that view the matter differently than did Price or her ADU.
“Recommendations from the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office, the lead investigative agency in this matter, and the Alameda County Coroner’s Bureau Investigator’s report and Autopsy report. Alameda County Sheriff Yesenia Sanchez stands behind the investigation conducted by her investigators. The City of Alameda’s independent investigation, conducted by former San Francisco City Attorney and County Supervisor Louise Renne, came to the same conclusion that no criminal or policy misconduct occurred,” it said.
Joshi added that, “I conducted a fourth independent review of all previous investigations and concurred that Alameda police officers did not engage in any misconduct and I stand by that decision today. All officers were returned to full duty.”
As of now, Officer Fisher works for The Alameda County Sheriff’s office, for reasons not specified, and both Officers Leahy and McKinley are again placed on leave following the new allegations.
Joshi added that, “we will cooperate fully in this and all matters.”
Within a half an hour after the City Press Release, Vice Mayor Daysog weighed in from his personal email saying in part that, “I am confident that Officers Leahy, McKinley, and Fisher are innocent of the charges brought against them by the Office of the District Attorney. “ He did not respond to an interview request to make further comment.
YOU CAN VIEW THE ENTIRE VIDEO OF APD BODYCAM FOOTAGE AND HEAR THE CALL FOR SERVICE THAT INITIATED POLICE CONTACT HERE: