Autopsy Blames Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Officers In Death Of Latino Military Veteran

Source: Talking Points Memo


A powerful Arizona lawyer called for a criminal investigation into some of Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s officers on Thursday after a long-awaited autopsy determined they were partly to blame for the death of Latino military veteran in December.

Attorney Michael Manning told TPM he planned to ask for an outside agency to examine the case of Ernest “Marty” Atencio, who lost consciousness and later died following a fight with law enforcement officers inside one of the sheriff’s jails in Phoenix.

Manning said the results of an autopsy released this week, six months after the death, proved what surveillance footage from the jail had already led him to believe: that Atencio would still be alive if sheriff’s detention officers and Phoenix cops hadn’t ganged up on him, pinned him down and given him electric shocks with a stun gun.

“When you look at the report, coupled with the video of Marty’s torture and death, plus interviews with witnesses, it confirms that this was a fairly gratuitous manslaughter of Marty Atencio,” Manning said. “They took it to the lethal level and really killed him in an absolute jailer riot.”

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