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How Seattle Police dealt with officer who slammed mentally ill woman to ground on First Hill

Mike O’Dell and Sara Goff contributed to this report

On the morning of December 28, 2014, at about 4 AM, Seattle police officer Daniel Erickson responded to a call from Swedish hospital on First Hill. It was still dark outside, the air, chilly.

Mental health patient Wendlyn Phillips, 57 years old at the time, was reported to have kicked at the medical staff and was now lying in the driveway.

Erickson would need to draw on his 40 hours of federally-mandated crisis intervention training — training specially designed to help him handle erratic individuals who might be suffering from addiction or mental illness without hurting them.

But Phillips was hurt in the encounter, her face bruised and bloodied. She was accused of assaulting the officer and charged.

Documents obtained through public records requests show how the investigation of what happened two years ago on First Hill was handled using new SPD systems. They offer a window into Department of Justice-driven reforms: The use of the Force Investigation Team (FIT) and Force Review Board (FRB) — two teams of officers and commanders who operate behind closed doors — to review controversial incidents like this one and hold officers accountable.

Erickson arrived on the scene in his patrol SUV. The video comes from his dashcam and the hospital’s surveillance camera. It contains disturbing scenes.

Phillips suffered a bloody bruise to her face and a broken thumb, photos from the scene and medical records show. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

“I wasn’t able to see that she made physical contact with the officer,” said Daniel Malone, the executive director of the Downtown Emergency Services Center, a nonprofit serving clients with mental illness, who viewed the video. “It seemed unnecessary.”

“That’s not what I would expect to see based on having seen police interact with [many] people behaving in very similar ways,” he said. “Taking somebody down who is angry and gesturing in their face with their hands is not at all typical, in my observation.”

The videos show that in ten seconds, Phillips waves her bag in Erickson’s face and he takes her down into the street, her face slamming into the pavement. Erickson does not appear to tell her not to swing her bag until he has grabbed her.

The case was given to Detective Don Witmer, an officer with nearly 20 years of experience, to investigate for the Force Investigation Team. The FIT is a group of six officers whose task, under the new accountability system, is to “thoroughly investigate the most serious uses of force with veteran detectives,” including fatal shootings.

In March of 2015, Phillips called from a mental health center in Tacoma and left a voicemail for Witmer: “A while back… I was in Seattle, I was laying on the ground crying,” she said. “The police were called… He hit me so hard, I was bruised and my face was bleeding.”

Part way through the voicemail, Phillips cries. “Anyway, I don’t know what to do about this. I have really high respect for police officers and stuff.”

Witmer wrote in his log, “It was difficult to understand what she was requesting if anything,” and he did not return her call. He did not refer her to the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), the quasi-independent civilian-led arm of the SPD which investigates complaints from civilians.

In statements and interviews immediately after the incident, Erickson and his partner Olson James said Phillips “fell” off the curb as the officer attempted to “escort” her to his patrol vehicle. “Once on the ground with Phillips, I affected an arrest for the attempted assault on myself,” Erickson wrote in his report on the incident.

After many hours of interviewing the involved officers and witnesses, Witmer agreed. He wrote in his report that Phillips “fell forward” and caused her own injury:

As Officer Erickson pulled subject Phillips’ right arm toward him for control, Phillips fell forward causing Officer Erickson to take her straight to the ground. Subject Phillips’ sustained a facial injury to her chin that began to bleed.

An EMT who responded to the scene to treat Phillips said in her interview she was told the woman “essentially threw herself” onto the ground.

FIT’s Lieutenant Stephen Hirjak concurred and said the use of force did not violate SPD policy:

Given the attempt to use de minimis force and the potential crime at the outset of this incident, the force appears to be reasonable and necessary, with an unintended outcome (fall to the ground).

Once FIT completed its work, the Force Review Board took up the case for an additional round of analysis. The case would be “rigorously dissected and evaluated” to determine if policies were violated and to learn lessons. The board includes SPD sergeants, lieutenants, trainers, along with representatives of the federal monitor and Department of Justice. Judge James Robart has called the body “a critical element” of federal reforms, “essential to the [Department’s] self-regulation.”

The board met at Seattle police headquarters on March 4, 2015. Captain Mike Teeter presented the case, arguing that Erickson should have waited for his partner before getting so close to Phillips. He said Erickson did not take reasonable efforts to de-escalate and violated the department’s de-escalation policy, noting that the officer could have simply stepped back from Phillips.

But, he argued, Erickson’s use of force was “necessary, reasonable, and proportionate.”

Teeter suggested Erickson register for advanced crisis intervention training. It would be up to Captain Pierre Davis, his supervisor, to follow up on that.

Then-Assistant Chief Tag Gleason signed off on the final FRB report one week later, calling Erickson’s conduct “professional, polite, and calm.” He said Phillips fell to the ground “during the attempt to escort her to the vehicle.”

He agreed with Teeter that Erickson could have stepped back. “While this was identified as a technical violation of the de-escalation policy the board believes that an appropriate remedy is for the chain of command to discuss this with the officer,” Gleason said.

The SPD did not respond to questions about the difference between a “technical violation” and an ordinary violation of its policies.

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Attempts by CHS to reach Phillips by contacting medical centers who reportedly treated her were unsuccessful. She sought a protection order against a Tacoma man last April, alleging abuse, but failed to attend a hearing on the matter.

Almost one year after the incident, on November 6, 2015, the City Attorney charged Phillips with “intentional” assault of Erickson, court records show. A month later, a warrant was issued for her arrest. There are no further records in the case.

Officer Erickson joined the SPD in 2013, with federally-mandated reforms already coming down the pike. The Seattle Police Foundation named him and his partner East Precinct officers of the year in 2015, praising Erickson for talking down a suicidal woman and for his “‘no nonsense’ approach to the habitual offenders in the Cal Anderson Park area.”

Erickson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment sent to his work address.

The SPD sent this statement about the investigation:

This incident was reviewed in accordance with policies and procedures established in partnership with the Department of Justice and the Monitoring Team. The Force Investigation Team conducted an independent investigation into the force used during this incident and the Force Review Board, which includes members of the Monitoring Team, scrutinized the Force Investigation Team’s report. Following the Department’s investigation, the incident was referred to the officer’s chain of command for additional training.

Federal monitor Merrick Bobb and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

In June of 2015, Bobb said he was troubled by the FRB’s “reluctance” to find officers violated use of force policies and its tendency to engage in “unrealistic and implausible interpretations of facts.” Later that year, he praised the board, saying it was in initial compliance with the terms of the federal consent decree.

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34 Comments
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Pete
Pete
7 years ago

I believe the cop did his job, however I don’t think she actually assaulted the officer. A sad story. She shouldn’t have been charged.

RWK
RWK
7 years ago

I question the motivation for this article. The incident was 2 years ago and the investigation was finalized a few months later. Why is it being reported now? Perhaps an effort to make the SPD look bad?

Habenot@hotmail.com
7 years ago

Looks like the Officer was just doing his job. I hope CHS isn’t turning away from reporting news. This article reads like it’s written with other motivations other than reporting. The woman was thrown to the ground, not beaten for it, not kicked, not thrown from a roof, not burned at the stake, not run over. Big news.

Shawn
7 years ago

I have to agree with Habenot, it does seem that committing violence against the public is part of the job description for many officers.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago

Habenot: Careful with the genuflecting–seems you bumped the shift key.

hillresident
hillresident
7 years ago

Anyone who is called out to interact with someone who is known to have mental illness should be well aware that many of these individuals are incredibly fearful. It is also very common for women with mental illness to have been previously assaulted and, as such, they are likely to want to scare (especially men) who might attempt to touch them. Because she didn’t actually assault him, it would have been in everyone’s best interest for him to refrain from touching her and, instead, talk to her calmly and show her that he posed no threat. Until we train officers to treat people with mental illness with kindness and compassion and understand that physical force is triggering for many of them, we will continue to see incidents like this where unnecessary force and injuries occur to both officers and civilians. It seems amazing to me that the “40 hours of mandated training” that officers go through doesn’t teach them this.

Del
Del
7 years ago
Reply to  hillresident

Agreed. The cop closes the distance between them himself, with his hands in his pockets apparently, then throws her on her face on the cement. Shitty, shitty police work.

Gloria
Gloria
7 years ago

Rather disappointing to see the “cop watch author” who got released from the Stranger is now writing for this site. Hope that with him as a new addition we don’t see a continuous onslaught of these “look at these bad seattle cops” stories. How about writing something positive, Mr. Herz? Or writing about something news worthy?

Andrew
Andrew
7 years ago
Reply to  Gloria

Yes, Ansel. Please ignore the news and only write about happy things. Brilliant, Gloria!

Cletus
Cletus
7 years ago
Reply to  Gloria

I have to agree with Gloria. Let’s not turn this into a second Stranger publication. The anti-cop stuff gets old real fast. There’s a lot of good stuff that happens around here that needs to get covered.

cdb
cdb
7 years ago

Watching that video it is pretty clear he threw her down. I don’t have the context or training to know if that was the correct move but I object to the SPD describing a clear take down as a “fall forward”. It is also really hard to believe that she assaulted him by waving her bags in his face.

Tyler
Tyler
7 years ago

Looks absolutely A-OK to me. Violent whacko attacking hospital employees and swinging at cop = you will be taken down.

Kudos to the cop.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler

Who needs judges and juries when you have cops like this on the street–am I right?

Tyler
Tyler
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler

Phil, nobody should ever be arrested or have their threatening behavior dealt with prior to a judge and jury being transported to the scene of the actively occurring incident. Good point.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler

Who’s disputing that an arrest was warranted? This isn’t about whether the woman should have been arrested; it’s about 1) a cop, arriving on scene prepared with the knowledge that he was there to deal with someone who had mental problems, throwing that person face-first into the street because she annoyed him, 2) the cop lying about his actions his report, and 3) the various oversight systems we put in place to catch this sort of thing repeatedly failing, thereby allowing this violent, lying, cop to continue abusing people on the public dime.

It appears that this guy’s supervisor, the FIT, and the FRB all covered for him.

JerSeattle
JerSeattle
7 years ago
Reply to  Tyler

It’s great that our mental institutions that no longer exist (that this woman would probably be placed for her and the public’s safety) now is the prison system. You can judge a society by how we treat the least amongst us. It must be nice to be blessed with a mentally healthy brain so you can sit back in your arm chair and call the shots on who is right or wrong in this situation. We need to really be more thoughtful in how we see the world and how we interact with it.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago

Cop throws mentally ill woman on her face in the road, then lies about it. As per usual, victim of police abuse is charged with assaulting police. Managers all the way up the chain and two review boards approve the false report and acting of the violent cop. And now the new legendary Cap Hill assholes show up to 1) defend the lying cop and those who let him off, and 2) complain about a reporter bringing this misconduct to the attention of the public. You people are sick.

Del
Del
7 years ago
Reply to  Phil Mocek

From a training standpoint this is all wrong as well. The officer knew he was responding to a report involving a mentally ill person, saw that she was agitated yet still closed the distance between them himself with his hands at or in his pockets, then threw her to the ground, then lied about it. The fact that SPD finds this ok and that neighbors seeing this video find this ok is truly disturbing.

Tyler
Tyler
7 years ago
Reply to  Phil Mocek

I’m pretty sure you guys should sign right up to be cops and show us how it’s done.

I’m waiting.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago
Reply to  Phil Mocek

Tyler, is that what you’d say if someone complained about, say, a high school teacher hitting on his students? That you’d like to see those people go work that job and show it how it’s done if they think what the offending public employee did was wrong?

JerSeattle
JerSeattle
7 years ago
Reply to  Phil Mocek

The police issue is deeper than just tactics in this specific situation. We “police” our population’s way too much in the US. The ramifications of this type of policing is that it places a strain on the communities that are heavily policed and the police officers themselves. We don’t have the right systems setup to really care for our populations. Rather we have a “one stop shop” with the police department. So everyone gets treated the same regardless of their specific circumstances. On the police side, I have a real respect for the work they do. I think they are amazing for the stress and risk they take every single day.

Phil Mocek
7 years ago
Reply to  JerSeattle

Let’s not lose focus, here. Multiple videos reveal that Officer Daniel Erickson of Seattle Police Department committed perjury when he lied in his police report about throwing a woman face-first into the pavement. His superiors covered for him. SPD’s Force Investigation team approved these actions. SPD’s Force Review Board approved these actions. He’s still on the payroll. He’s presumably not even on the Brady list.

mike
mike
7 years ago

Tyler,
I work in mental health and addiction. If i had done what he did I’d be fired no ifs, ands, or butts. She never tried to hit him. He never gave her space or waited for his back up. He slams her to the ground – as she hits the ground he says something like “dont swing your bags at me.” showing he was angry and that it was a take down. He then tells everyone that he was just leading her to his car… He claims he never attempted a “take down” like you said it was.. dont you understand. If it was a takedown and ok then why lie?

Nate Hopkins
Nate Hopkins
7 years ago

Thank you Ansel for reporting this event as disclosure became available. Many people don’t realize that these videos can be both difficult and take a long time to obtain, so thanks to Mike and Sara as well.

Inappropriate use of force towards people with mental health or substance issues is both an issue of training and oversight. Shame on this “Officer of the Year” and everyone up the chain who circled the wagons, perpetuating lies and blaming the victim of police violence. The officer made a bad judgement call in the moment, harming a person, which is bad enough. But for him to lie in his report is the real issue here. The fact that this lie was held up to scrutiny and passed mustard condemns the chain of command.

Kevin
Kevin
7 years ago

I don’t think that was “professional, polite, nor calm.” Kudos to SPD to being constantly unhelpful and shitty.

Jeffrey Green
Jeffrey Green
7 years ago

If you swing at at a police officer, you’re likely going down on the ground.

1312
1312
7 years ago
Reply to  Jeffrey Green

Curious where you see the “swing at officer.”

Phil Mocek
7 years ago
Reply to  Jeffrey Green

Jeffrey: Did you mean to say that one is likely “going down” in that situation because many police officers are hot-heads who are almost never held accountable for their actions–even with video evidence and multiple layers of review? We should just expect that someone suffering from a psychotic break and spinning her purse in the air, or a guy out for a walk who shakes his walking stick in frustration, is going to be thrown to the ground, right? Because cops are dangerous, and we should all walk on egg shells around them, lest we raise their anger and receive that expected abuse, right? Is this the world you want to live in?

Way to blame the victim.

Annoyed Taxpayer
Annoyed Taxpayer
6 years ago

Ahhhh. Phil Mocek with nothing better to do. I wonder how much of my tax dollars will support you in old age when you are too old to pick fights with TSA and lie about cops and your motives. At least I’ve never caught Ansel in a lie, unlike you.

Andrew
Andrew
6 years ago

I was surprised to get an email notification that this thread was updated. And clicking through was only rewarded with your dumb comment?

Looks like *you* have nothing to do, bud. Reviving this thread after 5 months in order to complain about how cops don’t beat enough people. Cool guy.

Amy
Amy
6 years ago

What’s really heart breaking is the SPD and city attorney didn’t feel it necessary to contact her family and when i asked her about how she got hurt she said the police but i didnt belive her because of her medical conditions.
Then I find this online didn’t even return my mom’s call then put a warrant out for her arrest.
Seriously this shows how well we are protected by the ones who are suppose to be our so called law.
Very very disappointing.
Told to file a law suite against the SPD
However I don’t believe in our epidemic of law suite.
So I am pleased to know that the officer had training on how to handle mentally ill civilians.
But disappointed that they just didn’t bother returning her call or calling her family.
And extremely disappointed in our officers knowing that they can just get away with lies.
Way to go to SPD and a big way to go to our Justice system.
Amy Matthees