Opinion ID: 2831232
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deputy Viruette’s Use of Force

Text: In spite of Viruette’s commands for Barnes to get on the ground, Barnes remained seated and repeatedly said: “This is my house,” and “I’m from California.” Unsatisfied with Barnes’s decision to sit in a chair rather than comply with Viruette’s order to get down onto the floor, Deputy Viruette deployed his Taser while Barnes was seated. Barnes still did not comply; instead, in response to the Taser shots, Barnes “constantly holler[ed,] again, that he was from California.” A psychiatrist testified that those suffering from paranoid schizophrenia are prone to repeating themselves, clinically known as “perseveration,” often out of the belief that “they’re not being heard or understood.” Viruette continued “giving verbal task directions.” After a second shot with the Taser, Barnes got up from the chair “and shift[ed] over to the kitchen area.” As Barnes moved toward the kitchen, he began “flinging his arms wildly in an attempt to keep [Deputy Viruette] from coming to him.” Barnes repeatedly yelled, “I’m from California.” At this point, Viruette decided to try to gain Barnes’s compliance using a “drive stun” technique with his Taser. The drive stun technique involves placing the end of the Taser directly on the person, without the cartridge containing the metal probes (which had already been deployed twice). Each application of the drive stun technique delivers a jolt of electricity for about 6 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 7 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388 five seconds. Viruette “deployed a drive stun three times,” which he says had no effect. Barnes started swinging his arms, and he swung and knocked the Taser out of Viruette’s hand and onto the ground, damaging the Taser. Viruette noticed the indicator light on the Taser “that lets you know that the Taser is still functional” was off. At some point in this altercation, Barnes struck Viruette on the shoulder—though, Viruette’s shoulder did not later require medical attention. Deputy Viruette then radioed again “asking for an assist.” With his Taser damaged, Viruette believed the “only other tools . . . to gain compliance from Mr. Barnes” were his “OC Spray” (also commonly referred to as mace), his hands, and his service weapon. Viruette “decided because of the close proximity and close quarter combat positions that [they] were in, the OC spray . . . was not going to be the tool of . . . choice.” So Viruette drew his firearm “and maintained it in the low ready position” while he delivered snap kicks to Barnes and ordered Barnes to get on the ground. Barnes still refused to go to the ground. 2. Deputies Celestial, Sims, and Ellington Arrive at the Scene Deputy Sims testified that, when he arrived at the residence, he immediately “heard two male voices yelling.” 2 Sims and Celestial entered the residence, and Deputy Viruette told them that he needed help and “can’t get [Barnes] handcuffed.” Sims noticed that Viruette appeared “winded,” so he and Deputy Celestial stepped between Viruette and Barnes. 2 There is conflict in the testimony about whether Deputy Celestial and Deputy Sims arrived on the scene before or after Barnes stood up from the chair and entered the kitchen: Deputy Viruette testified that backup arrived after Barnes and he entered the kitchen; and Deputy Celestial testified that, when he arrived, Viruette and Barnes were struggling in the kitchen. Whereas, Sergeant Sims testified: “[Barnes] was sitting when I first got there and then he stood up.” 7 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 8 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388 Deputy Celestial swung a hickory baton and struck Barnes five to seven times in the thigh area, then twice on his right arm, and then once in the back. After Celestial repeatedly struck Barnes with his baton, Deputy Sims kicked him in the stomach while, according to Sims, Barnes was still standing up. 3 According to the deputies’ testimony, after withstanding multiple Taser shots, baton strikes, and a kick in the stomach, Barnes remained standing and refused to go to the ground: “He just . . . [took] a step back and that’s it.” Barnes was not saying anything, he just continued staring. Finally, Deputy Sims tackled Barnes by grabbing him around his neck and driving him to the ground with Sims’ body weight in the living room area. Deputy Sims ended up on top of Barnes’s back after the tackle and then moved to subdue his legs, and Deputy Viruette managed to get a handcuff on Barnes’s left wrist. In an effort to get handcuffs on Barnes’s right arm, which was under Barnes’s body at the time, Deputy Celestial punched Barnes’s brachial nerve (where the neck meets the shoulder) with a closed fist (called a “brachial stun”) five to eight times. At this point, Deputy Ellington, arrived on the scene. With Barnes facedown, Deputy Sims on Barnes’s legs, and deputies Viruette and Celestial on either side, Deputy Ellington reached over Sims’s shoulder and applied his Taser using a drive-stun technique first to Barnes’s right arm and then to Barnes’s brachial nerve. Deputy Sims, who was on Barnes’s legs, testified that he himself weighed 225 pounds at that time. Celestial and Viruette were on either side of the 160pound Barnes controlling his arms. Deputy Celestial weighed about 150 pounds, and Deputy Viruette weighed about 160 pounds. Deputy Ellington, who applied the Taser shot, weighed about 260 pounds. 3 Sergeant Sims testified: “I [did] a forward thrust kick.” 8 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 9 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388 According to Deputy Sims, Barnes reacted to the Taser shot to his brachial nerve by “defecat[ing] on himself,” and then, according to the deputies, Barnes “completely pushe[d] up and thr[ew] all three of us off.” Barnes was standing with stainless steel handcuffs around only one wrist, and Deputy Sims testified that the loose handcuff could be used as a weapon. Around this time, deputies Evans and Carter arrived on the scene. At least one Taser was then deployed when Barnes stood up. Deputies Evans and Ellington shot their Tasers conventionally, striking Barnes with the Taser probes. Deputy Hulsey then struck Barnes twice with a hickory stick. Barnes then “became rigid and fell” onto a glass table that broke into many pieces, and Barnes fell on the glass shards. Viruette left the room to go to the hospital for treatment of a hand injury (strained ligaments in his left hand). After Barnes fell to the ground, Deputy Celestial also left the room. Around this time, Deputy Sims also testified that he left the house because he had Barnes’s feces on him. While on the ground, Barnes started low crawling toward the kitchen. 4 Deputy Hulsey then rushed Barnes and struck him around his legs and ankles with the hickory stick four times. A Taser was then deployed multiple times— it is unclear by whom—and Barnes finally went limp in the kitchen. 5 Deputy Hulsey observed “something white around [Barnes’s] lips.” 4 According to Deputy Carter, Barnes stood up and grabbed one of the brass legs of the table, and he momentarily raised it as a weapon. Deputy Carter testified that he then pulled out his gun, pointed it at Barnes, and commanded Barnes to drop the table leg—which he did. However, this testimony is contradicted by Deputy Hulsey’s trial and deposition testimony. 5 Deputy Evans testified hearing multiple Taser shots. There is some testimony that Barnes removed the Taser probes from his chest and pulled a Taser away from an officer. But that testimony is vague and contradicted. 9 Case: 13-20388 Document: 00513171159 Page: 10 Date Filed: 08/26/2015 No. 13-20388 Deputy Carter then placed handcuffs on Barnes. At some point while Barnes was handcuffed and limp on the floor in the kitchen, Deputy Carter delivered “side strikes” to Barnes’s left side. 6 Although Deputy Sims testified that he was out of the room during the exchange with Barnes on the kitchen floor, Sims admitted at trial that he made a call to emergency medical services on the radio in which he stated that “the male appeared to be unresponsive as he laid on the floor.” The Harris County Sheriff’s Department keeps a record of the downloaded information from the Taser guns. Each officer is assigned a specific Taser, but the “death in custody” incident report for Barnes includes the names of three officers (deputies Viruette, Sims, and Celestial) and four Tasers. Taser log records indicate that the Taser assigned to Deputy Evans was cycled two times during the incident, the Taser assigned to Deputy Ellington was cycled twenty-four times, and the Taser assigned to Deputy Viruette was cycled seven times. The fourth Taser was deployed twice, but it is unclear who was responsible. In total, the log registered thirty-five Taser cycles delivering electricity bursts of between three and eleven seconds.