Mother of Irvo Otieno 'happy' with indictments of deputies, hospital staff charged in his death
RICHMOND – Calling the 10 people charged in the death of her son “monsters” and “criminals,” Irvo Otieno’s mother said she was happy to see them all indicted, but added those indictments are the first step in getting justice for her family.
“Those nine men, those nine cowards, and one woman, those 10 monsters, those 10 animals,” Caroline Ouko said Tuesday night at a church in south Richmond, “I was happy to hear that they were indicted. And that is just the beginning step. I hope that with my team beside me, with my friends behind me, with my community behind me, with mothers and fathers who are fearful for what might happen to their children after seeing what happened to Irvo, with young people who are going through metal distress and the world behind me, we will achieve justice for Irvo Otieno.”
Ouko, her family and attorneys spoke at a news conference Tuesday night in the First Baptist Church of South Richmond, which they announced will be the setting for Otieno’s memorial service. The date and time are expected to be announced sometime Wednesday, and there is a possibility that civil-rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton will be in attendance for it.
Wednesday, a Dinwiddie grand jury indicted seven Henrico County sheriff's deputies and three Central State Hospital security guards all on charges of second-degree murder in the death of Otieno, a 28-year-old Henrico resident who came to the U.S. with his family from Kenya when he was a child.
Otieno was in the throes of a mental crisis, according to his family, when he died March 6 in an admissions area at Central State Hospital after being restrained under Henrico County deputies and CSH security staff for more than 11 minutes. Video from the room showed a lethargic Otieno, shirtless and barefoot, being dragged into the room and subdued against a table and chair before getting pinned to the floor.
Ouko said just because the suspects have been indicted does not mean “you’ve been absolved” of any wrongdoing. She also issued this warning to anyone else who may have been involved but not yet implicated.
“If you’re hiding … we will find you,” Ouko said.
Are Blacks and whites treated the same during mental health crises?
The underlying theme Tuesday night was a perceived discrepancy between Blacks and Whites when it comes to treatment of mental-health issues. Otieno, his family said, had struggled with issues for a long time, and at the time he was taken into custody by Henrico Police three days before he died, he was in the middle of a mental crisis.
Otieno was supposedly a person of interest in a neighborhood burglary when he was removed from his Henrico County home March 3. Ouko said she followed authorities to Henrico Doctors Hospital and waited to see her son, but the authorities “whisked him out the back door” before she could see him.
“If I could only have seen him,” she said through tears, “things might have been different.”
Ben Crump, the family’s co-counsel and a nationally known civil-rights attorney, said historically, Black people under mental duress are seen as criminals while white people under mental duress are seen as patients in need of help.
“Irvo needed a helping hand,” Crump said. “What he got was an overdose of excessive force.”
The suspects indicted Wednesday on charges of second-degree murder are deputies Jermaine Lavar Branch, 45; Bradley Thomas Disse, 43; Randy Joseph Boyer, 57; Dwayne Alan Bramble, 37; Tabitha Rene Levere, 50; Brandon Edward Rodgers, 48; and Kalyell Dajour Sanders, 30; and hospital employees Darian M. Blackwell, 23, of Petersburg, Wavie L. Jones, 34, of Chesterfield, and Sadarius D. Williams, 27, of North Dinwiddie. At least four of the deputies and one of the CSH staffers have been granted bond, and bond hearings are upcoming for the remaining suspects.
Dinwiddie board chair: Our deputies were not involved
Meanwhile, in the first public acknowledgement of the March 6 events at Central State Hospital that triggered the 28-year-old Kenya native’s death, the chair of the Dinwiddie Board of Supervisors reiterated that outside of the Dinwiddie emergency medical crew called to the scene, no one in Dinwiddie County public service was involved.
“While this tragedy occurred at a State-operated facility on Dinwiddie soil, I want to stress that the Dinwiddie County Sheriff’s Office was not involved, nor present at the scene,” Mark Moore said in a statement released by Dinwiddie County. “I would like to express appreciation to Dinwiddie County Fire & EMS for their valiant efforts to revive Mr. Otieno upon arriving on scene. We commend our commonwealth’s attorney, Ann Cabell Baskervill, for her swift pursuit of accountability and justice. We pray that God will grant the family of Mr. Otieno, and everyone who has been impacted by this tragedy, peace, strength, and understanding in the days ahead.”
County spokesperson Marie Grant, who issued the statement, said in an email to The Progress-Index that the comment was issued because of “instances of confusion” due to the fact that CSH is located in Dinwiddie and that Baskervill, the county’s top prosecutor, is leading the case.
“In his statement, Dr. Moore wanted to reiterate that the deputies involved are not Dinwiddie County deputies,” Grant wrote.
Moore went on to say, “We are appalled by what appears to be the gross mistreatment of an individual in the midst of a mental health crisis. Tragedies such as this bring vital attention to the need to balance an adequate public safety response with compassionate care and treatment of individuals experiencing a mental health emergency.”
He also said in the statement that the Dinwiddie Ministers Emergency Response Team [MERT] has agreed to offer emotional and/or spiritual support to Dinwiddians who have been affected by the incident and the intense media coverage of it. He shared the email mert@dinwiddieva.us, as well as contact information for District 19 Community Services Board, with citizens who think they need help.
“We understand that the past few weeks have been difficult and traumatic for many in our community and beyond,” he said.
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 Twitter at @BAtkinson_PI.
This article originally appeared on The Progress-Index: Irvo Otieno's family reacts to deputy, hospital indictments
