Detention deputies cleared in 2021 death of inmate
Six Broward Sheriff ’s detention deputies who fought with a jail inmate having an apparent mental breakdown days before he died won’t face criminal charges or discipline from their employer.
The Sheriff ’s Office announced Thursday that its Internal Affairs Division and Homicide Unit investigations of what transpired that day, and whether the deputies broke any department policies during the struggle, found the deputies used an appropriate amount of force and that they should not face any discipline.
Exactly how and why Kevin Desir died on Jan. 27, 2021, is still uncertain.
The Broward Medical Examiner’s Office finished its own investigation, and Desir’s autopsy failed to show any signs he died because of the deputy’s actions during the altercation, records say. And the State Attorney’s Office said in a close-out memo explaining why the deputies will not face any charges that the punches and stuns from a Taser that Desir received were justified “for his own safety.”
“Even though the internal and independent investigations conducted by BSO, the Medical Examiner’s Office and State Attorney’s Office determined no employee caused Kevin Desir’s death or violated any policy, it doesn’t negate the great loss felt by his family and friends,” Sheriff Gregory Tony said in a news release.
Details of struggle emerge
The altercation between Desir and six deputies started shortly after 10 p.m. on Jan. 17, 2021, inside his cell. Jail surveillance video showed Desir, 43, placed his hands through the cell door to be handcuffed so they could take him out when he started to resist, says the close-out memo from the State Attorney’s Office dated Feb. 2, 2022.
The Sheriff’s Office Internal Affairs investigation report says deputies saw Desir’s blood smeared on the window of his cell and wall were unsure where it was coming from. He wasn’t speaking in coherent sentences, the investigation report says.
Sgt. Ryan Daniel tried to calm him by offering food, but he refused, and would not allow himself to be handcuffed, the report says. Deputy Angela McNeal, Deputy Kimberly Green and Deputy Christopher Williams came as back up and saw that Desir had cut himself and seemed to be having a mental episode.
He eventually allowed himself to be handcuffed through the flap in the door where inmates get food, the report says. They moved him outside of his cell seconds later where the struggled continued with the six deputies.
As Desir resisted, Deputy Jeremiah Howard punched him once, and Desir bit the deputy’s wrist, breaking the skin, the memo says. Howard punched Desir a total of nine times.
Daniel stunned Desir in the shoulder with a Taser, but Desir still resisted. The Internal Affairs report says Daniel used his Taser four times for a total of 33 seconds.
Howard was seen in the video placing his hands “under Desir’s chin, in the neck area,” while the others attempted to strap him into a chair grabbed by Deputy Devon Parker, according to the memo. The video showed Howard “using his body weight to leverage Desir back into the chair.”
Deputies sprayed him with pepper spray and were unsuccessful in strapping him to the chair. He was pepper-sprayed a second time, the memo says, and shortly after was sitting in the chair limp, after the seven-minute fight.
Williams checked for a pulse. They moved Desir to the floor to do CPR. A defibrillator’s reading said not to use the device “due to a faint heartbeat” detected, the memo says.
The surveillance video of the altercation has not been released to the public.
Desir’s relatives declined to speak to a reporter Thursday.
’An uncertain cause’
Desir was arrested Jan. 13 on criminal mischief and marijuana possession charges.
Desir had flooded his cell and used a small piece of metal to cut himself while in the jail. The memo says in the days leading up to Jan. 17, he had refused to eat and take medications.
Mental health professionals had observed him multiple times in the days prior to and on Jan. 17, the Internal Affairs report says. When he was booked into jail, Desir told authorities he had a history of mental illness.
He was housed at the North Broward Bureau, a “special needs detention facility” that manages mentally ill and special needs inmates, according to the Sheriff ’s Office website on the jail. Desir had a history of bipolar disorder and “sudden agitated behavior,” the memo says, and was not responding to people the day earlier.
Firefighters took Desir to Broward Health Medical Center where officials determined he had a cardiac episode “from an uncertain cause” after deputies pepper-sprayed him, the memo says.
“It is clear from the medical records that Desir suffered from a heart attack but the autopsy did not show that the cardiac episode was the cause of death,” the memo says.
While hospitalized, Desir suffered seizures and was intubated. Three days after the fight, his prognosis was “extremely poor,” the memo says. Medical records said a heart attack was likely caused by a “prolonged seizure.”
Desir was brain dead on Jan. 26, the Internal Affairs report says. He was removed from life support the next day.
Desir’s autopsy listed both cause and manner of death as undetermined, the memo says. Sheriff ’s Office and Medical Examiner’s officials met to discuss why.
The autopsy found an intact bone in Desir’s neck; it meant he wasn’t strangled, the memo says. His brain was normal and had no swelling, which meant he wasn’t “physically prevented from breathing.”
The seizures Desir suffered while hospitalized could have contributed to his death, but the Medical Examiner’s Office could not be certain of that or certain of what caused those seizures. They also determined he did not have a fatal heart attack, the memo says.
Investigators did not receive a blood sample from the hospital in order to do a full toxicology report, the memo says, because the hospital purges those samples after a few days. That sample could have helped the medical examiner determine “a more definitive cause of death from a preexisting medical condition.”
The potential charges
The potential charges the State Attorney’s Office considered in Desir’s death were second-degree murder, manslaughter and aggravated manslaughter of a disabled adult.
The memo says the state considered two scenarios where the deputies could have caused Desir’s death: he was choked to death or he died of a heart attack because of the fight or the Taser stuns. Based on the autopsy’s findings, both of those were ruled out.
“There is nothing in the medical records or autopsy report that can definitively state what caused Desir to lose consciousness,” the memo says.
And the investigation found that because Desir’s cell was flooded and he was cutting himself, the deputies’ actions were “entirely appropriate” to take him out of the cell, the memo says.
The Internal Affairs report says though there was no excessive force, all six deputies had to take training on use of force subject control and using the restraint chair and Taser after the Use of Force Review Board pointed out issues during the incident: Desir was handcuffed in the front of his body, his cell door was opened while his hands were inside the flap, they were ineffective in controlling Desir and Daniels used his Taser ineffectively.
Marq Mitchell, CEO and founder of the advocacy organization Chainless Change and lead facilitator of the Decarcerate Broward Coalition, said he has worked with Desir’s family since they reached out to the organization for support after his death. He has done community organizing since.
Mitchell said he read the close-out memo and questioned why the deputy who punched Desir nine times was found to have used reasonable force. He believes the struggle was an example of the jail mishandling inmates who have mental health conditions.
“There should have been a completely different level of care,” he said.
Mitchell will appeal to the county commission at Tuesday’s meeting to ask that they pass a resolution “that acknowledges that release of the video and records be declared a matter of great public importance,” the delegation request in the agenda says.