Another deputy suspended over use of force
For the third time this year, a Denver Sheriff Department deputy has been suspended for using excessive force against an inmate who was sticking his hands or arms through an open door flap.
The incidents prompted the sheriff’s department to create a policy that forbids deputies from attempting to close door flaps while an inmate’s limbs are placed in the opening.
Deputy Michael Steggs, who became a deputy in 2008, was suspended without pay for 10 days this month after he kicked the flap on a cell door while a mentally ill inmate’s left arm was in it, according to a copy of his discipline letter obtained by The Denver Post through an open records request.
Steggs is the fourth deputy suspended after three incidents reported this year regarding deputies’ handling of an inmate who refused to withdraw his arms or hands into a cell. A deputy was fired in 2016 after he smashed an inmate’s fingers in a door flap.
Steggs was working at the Downtown Detention Center on July 17, 2016, as deputies served meals to inmates housed in a special management unit. Inmates in that unit are housed in individual cells, and meals, books and other items are distributed through narrow openings in the cell doors that can be locked shut or left open. Many men in the special management unit suffer from severe mental illnesses.
The inmate, who was not named in the discipline letter, had been told he would have to wait to find out if there was extra food after he reported finding a hair in his meal. The inmate threw a cup of liquid on Deputy Thao Nguyen, who had been serving meals, according to the letter.
Nguyen, who previously was punished for using excessive force in a door flap incident, told investigators that “getting assaulted by this unknown liquid was getting his adrenaline going and he was getting ‘tunnel vision,'” the discipline letter said.
Nguyen was unable to shut the door flap and stepped away from the door while the inmate continued to leave his arm in the opening.
About a minute after the inmate threw the liquid, Steggs arrived. Within 29 seconds after arriving at the cell, Steggs delivered a “swift and forceful” kick at the door flap, the discipline letter said.
Steggs told investigators that he feared the inmate would throw something else at the deputies and that he needed to get the flap closed. However, Steggs and Nguyen continued to stand outside the open door flap for another 3 minutes and 24 seconds after the kick, the letter said.
“The justification given by Deputy Steggs that he needed to close the door flap for fear of inmate BS throwing something else out at the deputies is not supported by the video footage,” the letter said. “His attempt at closing the flap would also not have been accomplished by kicking the flap.”
On Aug. 31, Chief Deputy Paul Oliva signed a directive for deputies on handling door flap situations. The directive will become official policy, said Daelene Mix, spokeswoman for the Denver Department of Public Safety.
The directive instructs deputies to call a supervisor when an inmate refuses to move his arms or hands from an open flap. Together, they should form a plan to resolve the situation and file a report to document the incident, Oliva’s memo said.
Last month, two deputies were suspended — for 60 days and 18 days — after they used nunchaku, a martial arts weapon, to beat and squeeze the arms of an inmate who refused to withdraw his arms from an open slot in a cell door.
Nguyen was suspended for 10 days earlier this year for using his Taser to zap an inmate’s fingers.
In 2016, Deputy Steven Roybal was fired after he kicked a door flap and smashed an inmate’s fingers. Roybal also failed to report the incident to his sergeant.