Deputies cleared in Jereniah Chass's shooting death

Deputies cleared in shooting death
By MARY CALLAHAN
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
http://www1. pressdemocrat. com/article/ 20080306/ NEWS/78047849/ 1033/NEWS01

Sonoma County District Attorney Stephan Passalacqua has cleared two sheriff's deputies in last year's shooting death of a 16-year-old Sebastopol boy suffering a mental health crisis.

In a statement Thursday, nearly a year after the March 12 shooting of Jeremiah Chass, Passalacqua said: "This was a tragedy for all parties involved, the Chass family for the loss of their son, the two sheriff's deputies involved in this incident and the members of our community who are frustrated with the lack of mental health services."

But he said the totality of the facts surrounding the shooting during a struggle inside the Chass family van, where Chass at one point threatened his younger brother and later battered the deputies, indicated the deputies "acted lawfully and no criminal charges are warranted against them."

Chass' parents, Yvette and Mark Chass, were not immediately available for comment Thursday.

Their attorney, Patrick Emery, said the ruling was not unexpected.

Emery also said the decision was clearly tailored to the precise laws governing police use of force and whether criminal liability could be proved beyond a reasonable doubt not "whether what they did was good or bad."

He said the decision has no bearing on the family's civil rights lawsuit pending in federal court.

"The burden of proof and the type of analysis is completely different," Emery said, "and to that extent Mr. Passalacqua' s decision not to prosecute doesn't have any relevance to the civil case."

Passalacqua, in his statement, said it was not the role of his office "to evaluate law enforcements' tactical policies."

"Rather, the district attorney's duty in each case is to determine
whether or not the deputies acted lawfully in using deadly force," he said.

Chass, an Analy High School student, was killed as his family attempted to get mental health assistance for him after a two-month decline that had become acute.

Resisting attempts to take him to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital that morning, the teen had become aggressive and delusional, the district attorney's account states.

When his father, Mark Chass, called the Sebastopol Fire Department for help, he described his son as "psychotic" and "violent," the district attorney's statement said.

Chass also displayed an opened Leatherman-style stool, prompting Mark Chass to tell his wife to take their 6-year-old son out to the van for their safety.

She was trying to lock the doors when Jeremiah got inside, got on top of the youngster in the van's rear seat, gripped him by the collar with one hand and held the blade with his other, authorities said.

Representatives for the family have said Chass' parents were summoning medical assistance when they called for help.

Sheriff's Deputy John Misita, a 25-year veteran, was dispatched to the house and arrived five minutes later at 8:43 a.m., Passalacqua' s office said.

He immediately engaged in a struggle with Jeremiah Chass, who was still clutching his brother while his father struggled to get hold of his other hand, eventually grasping it, authorities said.

Misita sprayed pepper spray into Chass' face twice and struck him on the arm with the cannister, allowing the younger Chass to squirm free and run to safety, although Misita did not know the 6-year-old was out of the van, Passalacqua' s statement said.

Deputy James Ryan arrived five minutes after Misita and found Misita struggling with Chass and Chass' father holding his son's hand, authorities said.

Misita and the younger Chass were both bloody, and Ryan struck Jeremiah Chass with his baton to try to loosen his grip on the knife-like tool, Passalacqua said.

Ryan passed some handcuffs to Mark Chass, who managed to get them on one of his son's wrists before backing away as the fight continued.

Ryan got a grip on Chass' right wrist but lost his grasp, allowing the teen to swing the knife. Chass then bucked and kicked Ryan in the face several times, causing Ryan's face to swell and his vision to become impaired, the district attorney said.

Ryan, believing his colleague had been stabbed and fearing he might lose consciousness, fired his weapon several times, the statement said. Misita then fired once.

Two minutes after Ryan's arrival and seven minutes after Misita's, Chass stopped fighting.

Ten minutes later, he was pronounced dead.

His death ignited a firestorm of criticism against the Sheriff's Department and prompted continuing debate and discussion about improved crisis intervention training for law enforcement officials.

Critics of police use of force have scheduled a vigil at 6 p.m. Monday in the Sebastopol Plaza marking the anniversary of Chass' death. The event was scheduled before today's release.

Emery said most of the evidence in the case, including police reports and the 911 tapes, have been withheld until now and he hoped a federal judge would soon compel authorities to turn them over.

In the meantime, he noted discrepancies in the number of times Chass was shot and said he had additional questions, some of them raised by Passalacqua' s statement.

Among them, he said: "Why couldn't two large officers physically subdue a 127-pound boy over the course of seven minutes of fighting with him?"

Emery said Passalacqua' s assistant warned him earlier in the week that the ruling would be forthcoming. He said he was alerted and able to notify his clients that it was out minutes before the decision was made public.

Although its release and Monday's milestone are proving traumatic for the family, "they're doing the best they can to carry on with their lives and parent their other child well, and get back to work and live as normal a life as they can under the circumstances, " he said.