Family of CSH patient killed by deputies reacts to withdrawn charges against five of them

RICHMOND – Dinwiddie commonwealth’s attorney Amanda Nicole Mann said Monday that a judge has agreed to her motions to drop second-degree murder charges against five of the Henrico County deputies in the March 6, 2023, death of a mental patient at Central State Hospital.

Meanwhile, 40 miles north of Dinwiddie County in a downtown Richmond conference room, the mother of that patient blasted Mann’s decision as “radical and reckless,” and restated her request that the U.S. Department of Justice take over prosecution of the matter.

“All of these indicted murderers of my son acted together,” Caroline Ouko told reporters at her family attorney’s office. “They all came in there and piled on him.”

Last Friday, Mann filed motions to “nolle prossequi,” or not prosecute, deputies Randy Joseph Boyer, Dwayne Alan Bramble, Jermaine Lavar Branch, Bradley Thomas Disse, and Tabitha Renee Levere in the death of Irvo Noel Otieno in a processing unit at CSH in Dinwiddie, just outside Petersburg. Otieno was killed when deputies and CSH security guards pinned him to the floor after they claimed he tried to escape.

Graphic surveillance video from the hospital showed that Otieno, a 28-year-old Henrico resident, was virtually incoherent and in shackles when he was brought to the hospital. In the video, Otieno appears to flinch and is suddenly pushed to the floor as deputies and CSH security officers piled atop him for about 11 minutes. By the time they all got up, Otieno had suffocated to death.

Ten people were originally indicted, but the county earlier dismissed charges against two hospital security guards whose roles in the death were far more limited than the other defendants.

In a statement, Mann said Dinwiddie Circuit Court Judge Joseph Teefey signed orders Sunday formally withdrawing the charges. She released copies of all five motions and Teffey’s orders and said the reasons for her decision “speak for themselves” in the motions.

The move leaves only three of the original 10 defendants in the case still facing charges – deputies Kaiyell Dajour Sanders, Brandon Edward Rodgers and former CSH security guard Wavie Levon Jones. Mann said those cases will go forward.

She also said in the statement that her office “has no further information to provide in the cases.”

Why not prosecuted?

Mann is the third commonwealth’s attorney in the last year to handle the Otieno case. Ann Cabell Baskervill, the original prosecutor who sought the indictments, resigned last June and is now studying international diplomacy in France. Jonathan Bourlier was named to fill Baskervill’s unexpired term, but he was defeated in last November's election by Mann.

Mann claimed in the motions that Bourlier’s scheduling of the eight trials to begin in June and run through the end of 2024 was the basis for filing what she did. Bramble’s trial was set to begin June 3, followed by Branch and Disse in August; Boyer and Jones in September; Rodgers and Levere in October; and Sanders the first week of December.

“The current elected commonwealth’s attorney does not find the order to be sound and competent prosecutorial decision-making,” she wrote in the motions. “The order in which the defendants are tried is of strategic importance to the commonwealth.”

The court, Mann wrote, denied her request to continue the cases and reset the order of the trials. The motion did not say which order Mann wanted.

A hearing is scheduled for May 21 in Dinwiddie Circuit Court to further discuss the case process.

At Monday’s news conference in Richmond, family co-counsel Mark Krudys said it was his understanding that Mann was not outright tossing the charges against the five deputies, but they would have to be reindicted and new court dates set.

“We understand that all of these cases are going to be brought back, and these individuals are going to be held to justice,” Krudys said.

Mann did not mention that in her statement.

‘Heavy Southern mud’

Ouko, Krudys and co-counsel Ben Crump – appearing via livestream – took turns talking about their reactions to the motions. The prosecutor had advised them in advance of Monday’s announcement of her decision

“This is her decision,” Krudys said. “We disagree with it.”

Krudys said he, Crump and the family were taking Mann’s reasons at face value. He added he did not know if a deal had been offered to any of the defendants for their testimonies against Sanders, Rodgers and/or Jones.

The decision seems to have reignited a longstanding argument about racial inequity in the justice system. Both Krudys and Crump mentioned that in their early remarks.

“You know, we’ve seen this in the past,” Krudys said. “For too long, African American men lost their lives or have been subject to brutal treatment and waited too long for justice.

“This appears to us to be just like a car stuck in slow, heavy Southern mud. This prosecution needs to start moving forward.”

Because of that, Krudys said they were renewing their call for the Justice Department to step in on the prosecution with federal civil-rights claims simultaneously with the local case.

Crump said he could not understand why charges against all defendants could not go forward, citing the video as proof that everyone was involved in Otieno’s death.

“It’s an open-and-shut case,” Crump said. Otieno’s family deserves to have their day in court, he added.

“Justice delayed won’t be justice denied,” Crump said.

Ouko said news of the motions was “such a blow” to her and her family.

“What is going on now should not be going on in my son’s case,” she said. “We should not have to wait for justice.”

She became emotional while asking for help from the feds in the case.

“Where are you, Department of Justice?” Ouko cried. She was immediately comforted by supporters.

Original prosecutor cited for tenacity

At the outset, original prosecutor Baskervill was criticized for using a legal but little-known process to arrest the deputies and CSH guards by going through the court for the warrants instead of a magistrate. She said she made that decision after viewing the 90-minute surveillance tape and thinking that the court-warrant route would be the fastest.

At the news conference Monday, the family attorneys noted they were working with their third prosecutor on the case. Krudys admitted they missed what he called Baskervill’s “intensity” in pursuing justice and her welcoming DOJ to have a role.

“She said to the family, ‘I cannot let another moment go by with these individuals continuing in their position,’” Krudys said. “And we support that view. We really liked Ms. Baskervill’s aggressiveness in connection with this.”

He added that he hoped Mann would live up to that level in her prosecution.

Reached at her home in Paris, Baskervill admitted that the case being an ocean away had not allowed her to keep up with it as much as she would like. However, she remained steadfast in her belief that juries need to hear the cases from everyone, not just a select few.

“I trust that jurors will have the opportunity to render verdicts at the earliest opportunity,” Baskervill said.

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Bill Atkinson (he/him/his) is an award-winning journalist who covers breaking news, government and politics. Reach him at batkinson@progress-index.com or on X (formerly known as Twitter) at @BAtkinson_PI.

This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Otieno family pleads for DOJ involvement after charges withdrawn in death