from: ABC 10 News
by: Alex Muegge
During a use-of-force incident in April 2024, a New Folsom Prison inmate died after experiencing sudden cardiac arrest in prone position: face down with his stomach on the ground.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office investigation into the incident continues over a year later, and an attorney with around 30 years of experience in police misconduct proceedings and investigations, Stewart Katz, said this is par for the course.
“I suspect that they are simply sitting on what is a long completed investigation and delaying making a charging decision so as to lessen any media coverage, public or political reaction and to increase the likelihood of potential civil litigation and criminal charges with statutes of limitations running,” Katz wrote Wednesday in an email to ABC10. “If they were seriously considering any charges they would probably speak with a correctional expert and potentially another forensic pathologist.”
Katz said the DA’s office in their review needs a coroner’s report including an autopsy with toxicology, any video of the incident, copies of California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) policies and training materials, and interviews with those involved and bystanders, staff and inmates alike.
What happened during the use-of-force incident?
Christopher Leong, 35, experienced cardiac arrest after attacking prison staff.
At 6:55 p.m. April 12, 2024, he charged and hit staff members; officers tried to put him in physical restraints, but he continued to lash out and spit at them, according to a CDCR news release. Ten staff members reported minor injuries after the attack, and law enforcement said they eventually used physical force to pin Leong to the ground.
Leong then lost consciousness and stopped breathing, the CDCR said. Medical aid was reportedly immediately provided.
Folsom Fire Department paramedics received a call at 7:22 p.m. for an overdose at the prison and arrived at 7:28 p.m., city officials said last year. Dispatch information reportedly did not contain any use-of-force mention.
Paramedics pronounced Leong dead at 7:50 p.m., according to the CDCR.
His cause of death was sudden cardiac arrest while restrained and subdued in prone position with MDMB-4en-PINACA — a cannabinoid — listed as another significant condition; the manner of Leong’s death was homicide, the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office said.
Will anyone be charged in Leong’s death?
In general, it is very difficult to get a criminal conviction involving law enforcement in someone’s death whether charges are filed or not, Katz said.
“An administrative action is much more likely,” he said.
Discipline, like firings, while subject to judicial review does not go through the courts, according to Katz.
The CDCR said last year the prison’s investigative services unit, the CDCR’s deadly force investigation team and the DA’s office were looking into Leong’s death and that officials have limited movement on the yard where the incident occurred to facilitate the investigation.
When an officer shoots an individual in Sacramento County causing injury or death or uses force resulting in the death of a person in custody or under other control of law enforcement, it’s the DA’s office who reviews if the officer should be charged with a criminal offense.
Findings are then released in public reports available HERE.
Leong was admitted to the California prison system from Sacramento County on June 7, 2011, after he was sentenced to life with the possibility of parole for firearm discharge and second-degree attempted murder while carrying out gang-affiliated violent crime, according to the CDCR.
link to article: Sacramento DA still looking into California inmate’s 2024 death. Here could be w | abc10.com
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