Community | December 24, 2011 | 30 comments

Lee County Deputies Tied Suspect to a Chair, Gagged Him, and Pepper-Sprayed Him to Death

source: http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/23/lee-county-deputies-tied-suspect-to-a-ch

Image
Anonmaly
From Fox 13 in Tampa comes the horrifying story of Nick Christie, a 62-year-old Ohio man who was detained by the Lee County Sheriff's Office for being publicly intoxicated. While Christie's wife asked that he be taken to the hospital, Lee County cops decided instead to strip Christie naked, tie him to a chair, cover his face, and then pepper spray him repeatedly, until he died:

The District 21 Medical Examiner ruled his death was a homicide because he had been restrained and sprayed with pepper sprayed by law enforcement officers. But to this day, nobody has ever been charged with a crime, and the Lee County State Attorney cleared the sheriff's office of any wrong doing.

It's been more than two and a half years and his wife still can't accept what happened.

"I was shocked. This was something out of a horror movie," says Joyce Christie. She said her husband was depressed and was showing signs of erratic behavior a few days before leaving for Florida.

She called authorities and pleaded with them to take her husband to a hospital and be given his medications. Instead, he was taken to jail for disorderly intoxication.

Her lawsuit alleges he was pepper sprayed 10 times over a 48-hour period, at times while in a restraint chair.

Monshay Gibbs was a deputy trainee at the jail at the time. In a video deposition, she testified that she thought the way Nick Christie was treated was excessive.

"He had a spit mask on and was naked," she said on the video while under oath. Gibbs testified that Christie pleaded with guards to take off the spit mask because he couldn't breathe.

Link via Radley Balko


http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/23/lee-county-deputies-tied-suspect-to-a-ch
  1. groups:
    Community,   Law and Justice,   Orwellian Nightmare,   Crooked Cops
  2. tags:
    Law Enforcement?
  3.     
    |

30 comments // Lee County Deputies Tied Suspect to a Chair, Gagged Him, and Pepper-Sprayed Him to Death

  • Mark701
    • 0
      Mark701  

    • "But to this day, nobody has ever been charged with a crime, and the Lee County State Attorney cleared the sheriff's office of any wrong doing."

      Tell me how the behavior of the sheriffs office is any different than the treatment a prisoner would have received in the former Soviet Union or East Germany?

      At the very least all of the people who pepper sprayed him should have been charged and convicted of manslaughter and the person in charge of these yahoos, fired.

    • 5 months ago
  • MSII
    • 0
      MSII  

    • This is nothing short of obscene. Kind of thing I increasingly expect in the corporate-fascist-states-of-amerika.

    • 5 months ago
  • thinkingfree
  • youngdebater
    • +1
      youngdebater  

    • What is with policemen these days?! On another article on this website an off duty cop shot and killed a man after the man said you suck at darts. And now this! And can they stop pepper spraying people on OWS?! Do they just walk up to a guy on the street and ask em if he wants to be a cop? Just because you have a blue uniform, badge, gun,and pepperspray don't mean you can harm innocent people!!!

    • 5 months ago
  • circlesquared
  • jubal
  • jubal
  • warman1138
  • CalgarC
  • LivingPong
    • +3
      LivingPong  

    • Then the police went home and had sex with their moth...

      I was thinking mothballs by the way... You may be thinking something else

      You guys have a lot of Pigs in America, over here it's not so bad, they get rid of the dope peddling, under age sex predator cops pretty darn quick. We don't stand for that kind of abuse in our community.

    • 5 months ago
  • COMMONSENSEFORCOMMONGOOD_COM
  • MotherForTruth
  • timelord999
  • CalgarC
  • moveondave
    • +5
      moveondave  

    • I regret that this man was killed by the police. These types of incidents are the result of years of of abuse and killings of black people. Usually the black people who are killed by the police don't even get a mention. The police have gotten away with it so consistently that they no longer limit their abusive excesses to black people.

      It was wrong when it happened to black Americans, it is wrong now. The answer is to make the police accountable for these atrocities no matter who the victim is. Then, and only then, will these incidents cease to be occur.

      Just for the record, no one in the black community is surprised when the police are cleared of killing a black person when it is patently obvious that it was murder.

      However, there is an air of irritation in the black community when some is surprised that the police could get away with murder when the victim is white. Probably because we have seen them get away with it for decades when the victim was black. And all the while the white populace seemed to think the prospect that the police were actually guilty was unconscionable.

      I don't mean to seem callous, but this is a case of the chickens coming home to roost.

    • 5 months ago
  • Gravity_Man
  • hammywill
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • Gravity_Man
    • +1
      Gravity_Man  

    • So the Medical Examiner had to take a picture eh? Well, the man was DEPRIVED OF OXYGEN the way his nostrils were covered. The look on his face was of a man fighting to breathe.

      It wasn't "just" the pepper spray.

      No doubt since it was in HOT FLORIDA the O2 molecules were farther apart. I've been there. His heart became overworked then he died the death of a dog left in a hot car with the windows rolled up.

      Florida moisture (humidity) makes it harder to breathe also.

      It's a tough row to hoe.

    • 5 months ago
  • AmericanStandard
    • -10
      AmericanStandard  

    • This is why I love Current. The supporters are all "Look at the atrocities that our government commits! Someone should do something" Enter: Ron Paul "The government has too many powers and is taking our liberties!" Current: "Ron Paul is crazy, he wants minimize the power and size of the government." I just don't see how the solution to government corruption is more government with wider powers.

    • 5 months ago
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • LivingPong
  • CalgarC
  • VFORVENDETTA
  • MotherForTruth
  • gump
  • gump
    • 0
      gump  
    • MotherForTruth:

      Sadly it is too often the case. But that doesnot mean he is on the side of humanity when it comes to doing anything to make the world better . At that point he crawls back under the cover of ancient biggotry . Hardly a real man for real people.

    • 5 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
    • 0
      MotherForTruth  
    • gump:

      I am not looking for a hero who will save America, and I am not naive to believe Ron Paul is that hero. I do believe we need someone who will make steps towards protection of civil liberties and less abuse by government.

    • 5 months ago
  • MotherForTruth
  • gump
more from Community:
from the community

top videos