Rochester Officer Faces Discipline in Daniel Prude’s Death

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/09/24/nyregion/daniel-prude-rochester-officer-charged.html

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Police officials in Rochester, N.Y., said on Thursday that they had filed departmental charges against an officer who participated in the arrest of Daniel Prude, a Black man who died last March after the police pinned him face down on the ground and put a mesh hood over his head.

The charges against the officer, Mark Vaughn, are the first of any kind in the death of Mr. Prude. Officer Vaughn was one of seven officers who were suspended last year over their roles in Mr. Prude’s death. In February, a grand jury declined to indict any of the officers despite a finding by Letitia James, New York’s attorney general, that there was enough evidence to seek criminal charges in the case.

Mr. Prude’s death, and the subsequent release of police body-camera footage that showed him being pinned to the ground, further fueled public outrage about racism and police brutality amid the nationwide protests that erupted over the police killing of George Floyd in May 2020.

Officer Vaughn and three other officers first encountered Mr. Prude, 41, in Rochester on March 23, 2020, when they answered a 911 call from his brother, Joe. Daniel Prude had been behaving erratically, and had run from his brother’s home shirtless and without shoes into the snowy street. Worried for his safety, Joe Prude had called the police.

The responding officers found Daniel Prude naked and claiming that he had the coronavirus. They confronted Mr. Prude, restrained him and, employing a common but contentious policing practice, placed a hood over his head after he began to spit at them.

Several of the officers, including Officer Vaughn, pinned Mr. Prude to the ground for about two minutes, according to police records. He lost consciousness and had to be resuscitated. He died a week later after being placed on life support.

In the body-camera footage, which Mr. Prude’s family obtained under a public records request and released publicly several months after the incident, Officer Vaughn can be seen pressing Mr. Prude’s head to the pavement.

“Get your feet off me!” Mr. Prude yells in the video, apparently believing he is being stepped on.

Officer Vaughn stayed where he was, leaning on Mr. Prude’s head, for at least 68 seconds, according to an analysis of the video footage by The New York Times.

In testimony before the grand jury, Geoffrey Alpert, an expert witness called to testify by lawyers with Ms. James’s office, said that restraining Mr. Prude with pressure to his head, a practice known as segmenting among law enforcement officials, did not deviate from permissible police practice.

Details about the specific departmental charges that Officer Vaughn faced were not available on Friday. The Rochester Police Locust Club, the union that represents the city’s police officers, and James Nobles, a lawyer who represented Officer Vaughn in the attorney general’s investigation, did not respond to requests for comment.

Mr. Prude’s family has filed a lawsuit against the officers and the city, alleging wrongful death. Elliot Shields, a lawyer who represents Joe Prude, said it was “an outrage” that only one officer was facing potential discipline.

“The city of Rochester has yet to hold officers accountable when they violate people’s constitutional rights,” Mr. Shields said. “Every single officer at the scene had a duty to intervene to prevent the unlawful use of force against Mr. Prude.”

Mary Lupien, a member of Rochester’s City Council, said officials had “missed many opportunities to hold these officers accountable.”

“This seems to be our only chance,” she said.

Ms. Lupien added that she was concerned about how long it might take to fire even one officer, even though such a move was the only way to find some measure of justice for the community and Mr. Prude’s family.

“I think we’re looking at a very long process,” she said.