Family of Alexander Rios asks judge to change cause of death to homicide

The family of Alexander Rios, 29, of Wakeman, who died after being forcibly subdued in the Richland County Jail more than three years ago, has filed a complaint in Richland County Common Pleas Court asking a judge to change the manner and cause of death as determined by the coroner.

The attorneys for Don Mould, the stepfather of Rios, filed a complaint Monday against Richland County Coroner Daniel Burwell M.D. to correct what the attorneys say are Burwell's erroneous opinions concerning Rios' death.

The coroner filed his report on or about Nov. 27, 2019 and the family wants Rios' cause of death changed from "accidental" to "homicide," and from "excited delirium" to "positional asphyxia as a result from restraint of another."

Attorneys for Ratliff Law Office said in the complaint that Burwell's previous opinions are both contrary to law and the evidence surrounding Rios' death.

The complaint for declaratory judgment and request for evidentiary hearing includes five expert reports including review of the video footage of his death at the jail which the plaintiff believes will show a need for the death certificate to be changed.

History surrounding Rios' death

The Richland County Sheriff's Office a year ago reached a wrongful death settlement with Rios' family for $4 million.

The jail video obtained by the News Journal in 2021 through a public records request shows Rios running out of a cell before being subdued by the five corrections officers on Sept. 19, 2019. They can be seen in the video holding Rios down, stepping and kneeling on his back while another officer punches the inmate in the head and presses his head into the concrete floor as they tried to handcuff him.

One officer placed one foot on Rios’ back and lifted his other foot off the ground, putting his full weight on the inmate for several seconds.

Rios could be heard gasping.

About two minutes after he ran out of the cell, Rios became unresponsive.

A criminal justice expert who reviewed the video for the News Journal in 2021 questioned the tactics used by corrections officers.

Dr. Philip Stinson, a professor of criminal justice at Bowling Green State University, called the officers' efforts to subdue Rios "sloppy" and said they "demonstrated a gross disregard for the value of human life."

Rios was taken to OhioHealth Mansfield and never regained consciousness. He was removed from a ventilator and died on Sept. 27, 2019.

Family asks Ohio Attorney General to reopen the investigation

Mould, who is married to Rios' biological mother Toni Mould, Tuesday said he has asked the Office of the Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to reopen this investigation as it is now a criminal case.

Mould provided the News Journal with a letter written on his behalf to Zahid H. Siddigi, the chief Counsel of the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Identification and Investigation, dated July 21.

"The other parties involved (see attached video) should be charged as accessories to this death for their failure to make an effort to stop the incident. They had the capacity and choice. These officers are hired to protect and serve as employees of the Richland County Sheriff's Office," the letter said.

Mould told the attorney for the Ohio Attorney General's Office that his attorneys are filing a motion to change cause of death on the death certificate to homicide.

"I believe this will point out that all parties involved in this incident should be indicted. Mr. Cooper is not the only one responsible for causing the death of Alexander Rios and total violation of his civil rights," Mould's letter said.

Former corrections officer Mark D. Cooper of Shiloh was indicted in December 2022 in connection with the death of Rios. He is charged with a first-degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter, a third-degree felony count of involuntary manslaughter and a third-degree felony count of reckless homicide, the News Journal reported earlier.

Cooper is scheduled for a bench trial in August in Richland County Common Pleas Courts, according to court records.

Court filing cites 5 experts who say Rios' death was not caused by 'excited delirium'

Experts cited in the court complaint include Edwin C. Voorhies Jr., retired deputy director and senior policy adviser for the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections, who among his many numerous qualifications has 25 years of experience conducting and reviewing use of force investigations at ODRC facilities.

Voorhies' expert report detailed "the application of force or weight to the head or neck is always considered deadly force... Officer Cooper's boot on the back and then ultimately on the neck of Alex Rios is simply the most objectionable misuse of deadly force this writer has witnessed in a correctional setting."

Voorhies said in discussing the finding of "excited delirium" as the cause of death that Coroner Burwell "must have refrained from watching the video.

"Alex was not sweating profusely or out of control prior to the use of force. This writer is an instructor for excited delirium and while Alex was not behaving properly (sic) If anything, his symptoms were mildly indicative of an agitated state, but the video does not show the 'out of control' or 'superhuman strength' reported by the officers involved in the restraint. There is ample evidence to show that the force or weight being applied to the neck of Alex Rios was sufficient to cause grave injury and death to any individual."

Another expert cited in the filing, Frank P. Miller III, M.D., is a board-certified forensic pathologist in Cleveland and Lorain county coroner. Miller said in his report that, in his opinion, "both the cause and manner of death are incorrect. While the death is a sudden collapse involving an excited state, the collapse is during a physical altercation with law enforcement, not following the altercation as state in (sic) autopsy diagnosis. (sic) This is death due to the actions of another person(s); this death involves restraint by others and is a homicide."

Miller said, "This is not the case of 'excited delirium,' a diagnosis used loosely by a small group of physicians to describe sudden death of agitated or psychotic patients who succumb to an unclear cardiac event. The collapse during a prone restraint event precludes the use of excited delirium as a cause of death."

Miller said in his expert report that the manner of death was best classified as "homicide."

'... the wild dog-pack behavior by the officers continued'

Paul M. Matus M.D., an emergency medicine physician in Oberlin, another expert cited in the complaint, said Rios did not display any evidence of behavior consistent with delirium or agitation.

"... even after Mr. Rios was totally subdued, the wild dog-pack behavior by the officers continued. They were unmistakably eager to deliver unnecessary blows, repeated tase shocks and crushing pressure to Mr. Rios' head, neck, upper posterior chest and back."

Matus said the catch-all term of excited delirium is not supported by any scientific facts or data, adding that neither the American Medical Association nor the American Psychiatric Association recognize the validity of the diagnosis. Matus said the cause of death for Rios was "brain death due to anoxic encephalopathy due to position and mechanical asphyxia" and the manner of death is "homicide."

Mark Davis, M.D., former Marion County coroner, said in his expert opinion that the use of excited delirium as a cause of death for those individuals within police custody is now a debunked theory and term. He said Rios did not die from excited delirium but from positional asphyxia secondary to the restraint method used by the corrections officers.

The expert report of Philip M. Stinson, J.D., Ph.D, who had been interviewed by the News Journal in 2021, said in his report in the complaint filed Monday that in his expert opinion, the actions of correctional officers can be described as "street justice because they wanted to inflict pain and hurt Rios to make an example out of him for any like-minded inmates and to discourage Rios from causing such havoc in the jail booking area again."

The report further concluded that at no time were the corrections officers legally justified in using deadly force against Rios in applying their full weight downward onto a person's upper back simultaneously with blows to the head.

Stinson concluded in his report that the "actions, inactions, and/or failure to intervene directly led to Rios' death by "mechanical asphyxiation as a result of compressive, prone restraint."

Regarding excited delirium, Stinson said in his report, "Excited delirium is not a valid independent medical or psychiatric diagnosis. There is no clear or consistent definition, established etiology, or known underlying pathophysiology (da Silva Bhatia et al., 2022). He said the manner of Rios' death was homicide and it should be indicated on the death certificate. He said the cause of death on the death certificate should be changed to indicate "brain death due to mechanical asphyxiation as a result of compressive prone restrain by others."

Special prosecutor was appointed

S. Forrest Thompson, a Medina County prosecutor appointed by then-Richland County Prosecutor Gary Bishop to investigate the case, told media after Cooper's arraignment that he could not comment on any details as to whether any other indictments are possible.

"At this point I feel that anything that I would say would have a potential of harming a potential jury pool or demeaning the importance of the case or diffusing the issues of the case. The facts are self-evident and I think anybody who is watching the video or who knows the facts of this case — and I know the media has done this on numerous occasions. I am confident you can answer that question for yourself (about why Mr. Cooper (was charged)," Thompson said.

Richland County Prosecutor Jodie Schumacher could not be reached for comment for this article.

'He's turning blue': 'He's turning blue.' Family demands answers in Richland jail death after video surfaces

CBS to film documentary about Rios death

Marion attorney J.C. Ratliff said a film crew from CBS is coming Aug. 26 to Mansfield to film a TV documentary on the death of Rios for the network's new "Justice in America" TV show.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @lwhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Alexander Rios' family asks judge to change cause of death to homicide