Chauvin Conviction Underscores Parallels In Death Of Angel Hernandez

Speaker 1: 00:00 It happened months apart and hundreds of miles apart right here in San Diego, there was an in custody, death, tragically, similar to that of George Floyd's on October 15th of 2000, 1924 year old angel Hernandez died while handcuffed and restrained by two MTS security workers. One of whom knelt on his neck for more than six minutes. Unlike in Floyd's case, there were no charges filed against the security officers involved here. David Hernandez, a crime reporter with the San Diego union Tribune has been covering this case and in his latest report takes a close look at why no charges were ever filed by district attorney summer. Stephan David, welcome. Thanks for having me. So there are a number of similarities between the deaths of angel Hernandez and George Floyd. Why were these cases handled so differently by prosecutor? Speaker 2: 00:52 I mean, one of the very interesting things from the start is that prosecutors handled the local case without a lot of outside scrutiny, unlike the death of George Floyd, which because of many reasons was in the spotlight. And so here in San Diego, essentially the public was kept in the dark about many of the details of the case. And prosecutors reviewed it for months and in the end decided not to file charges, but again, that all happened without the outside scrutiny. Speaker 1: 01:20 So why did the DA's office decide not to file charges? Speaker 2: 01:24 So it's really interesting cause they usually don't explain their reasoning behind the decision. But in this case, given the verdict of Derek Shawbin in Minneapolis and the revelation of many details in, in the local case, they did explain a bit and the district attorney's office essentially characterize the case as complex in that they pointed to several different aspects that complicate the case. For example, one issue they raised is that medical experts, they interviewed said that the knee to the neck of angel Sepata Hernandez, wasn't a main factor in his death that there were many factors that contributed to his death and not, not one single factor contributed to his death. Speaker 1: 02:11 And that's right. The cause of death was similar in both Floyd's death and Hernandez, death, cardiopulmonary arrest. You have to pathology who conducted Hernandez. His autopsy concluded. He died from a host of health factors. One of them went as far as to say, Hernandez would have died without a knee in his neck. That's something the forensic medicine expert who testified in Chauvin's trial, flatly disagreed with after assessing Hernandez, his death. What can you tell me about that? Speaker 2: 02:39 Yeah, so it was really interesting because the same expert testified in a, that the trial of Derek Shaaban and the same expert was hired by the family of angel it's about the Hernandez. And like you said, he essentially disagreed with the findings by the medical examiners office in San Diego saying that being restrained and having pressure on his neck and his back definitely contributed to Angel's about that Hernandez death. Speaker 1: 03:06 So based on the pathologist, uh, examination, are we to understand that Hernandez would have died in that moment, whether there was a knee in his neck or not Speaker 2: 03:16 That's right. Essentially, uh, prosecutors asked the pathologist pretty directly if, uh, angels about the Hernandez would have died regardless of the knee that was pressed on his neck. And the pathologist said, yes, Speaker 1: 03:30 People have attributed the successful conviction of Derek Shovan to the fact that video evidence of the incident was widely distributed shortly after it happened, uh, security footage of angel Hernandez, his death was kept from the public for some time. Why was that? Speaker 2: 03:45 There are several reasons to that. One of them being that NPS officers and their personnel aren't law enforcement officers. So they don't, they're not subjected to state transparency laws like say police officers. So in this case, there was no law that mandated the release of this video. And another interesting point is that the family didn't want it to be widely distributed while they mediated and resolve the case. Essentially, a claim that they had filed Speaker 1: 04:16 MTS initially kept silent about a settlement that was reached with the Hernandez family, but they recently released a statement following the conviction of Derek Shelvin. Can you tell us about that? Speaker 2: 04:27 So MTS essentially announced a settlement with the Hernandez of Angeles about the Hernandez, and also pointed to a host of reforms that they had been developing for months after this death, in terms of changes to policies and training for their MTS officers. Speaker 1: 04:48 You know, while there were no charges bought by the DA's office supervisor, Nathan Fletcher, as chair of the MTS board took action after viewing the video footage of angel Hernandez, his death, the family's attorney was initially skeptical of the intent. Tell us about that. Speaker 2: 05:03 Yeah. So the attorney said he had, this had never happened where he essentially is hired by a family who a seeking justice in this case, in the form of a claim. And he's never had someone contact him from the start and he was skeptical for that reason, but he said he quickly understood that a supervisor, Nathan Fletcher was interested in making meaningful reforms. And we got a sense of that a little bit during a news conference last week when he flat out said that this death shouldn't have happened, that this was a seminal moment for the agency and really forced them to look inward. So he's been pretty outspoken about that from at least the moment that that agency, the agency being MTS announced the settlement and the reforms they made. Speaker 1: 05:50 Speaking of those reforms, that is one way that the death of angel Hernandez does seem to break from murder of George fluid and the tangible efforts toward reform that MTS has made following the incident. So what reforms have been made so far and what more is MTS promising? Speaker 2: 06:09 Yeah, so there's actually several changes. A good chunk of it focuses on the MTS is use of force policy. It's a lot more robust. Now it bands, uh, choke holds carotid restraints and knee pressure to a person's neck or head. And among other changes, they're promising to also ban MTS officers from putting people in PR in a prone position, um, which was the case again in the death of angels about the Hernandez. And, uh, the family was happy to see all of those changes made and they essentially said that they really hope MTS sticks to their word and follows through with the changes that they're promising to still make. Speaker 1: 06:52 I've been speaking with David Hernandez, crime reporter at the San Diego union Tribune. David, thank you very much for joining us. Speaker 2: 06:59 Thanks for having me.