Here's the second article:
Again, access to the (Adobe Flash Player)
Video in question via the article title link:
-------------- • -------------- • --------------
The Anniston Star ·
AlabamaFBI confirms preliminary investigation of Amersonby Cameron Steele · Star Staff Writer
Apr 01, 2011
Video appears to show sheriff accosting restrained teen
The minor's face has been blurred in this video to avoid revealing his identity.[/list]
The FBI is probing potential civil rights violations related to a video that shows Calhoun County Sheriff Larry Amerson using manual force against a juvenile male.
The FBI has launched a preliminary investigation to "gather facts" about whether Amerson's actions, which were recorded by a surveillance camera, were a violation of the boy's civil rights, an FBI spokesman told The Star Friday.
The spokesman, Paul Daymond, said the FBI cannot disclose when the investigation began or what sparked it.
"In general, what triggers a civil rights investigation, that could be a newspaper article, that could be a victim coming forward, it could be a number of things," Daymond said.
The video was first published by The Anniston Star after a source requesting anonymity gave it to the newspaper Wednesday. It shows the sheriff using physical force against a juvenile who is handcuffed and shackled in a room at the Calhoun County Jail.
Bryan Fair, a constitutional law and civil rights professor at the University of Alabama's School of Law, called Amerson's actions "shocking" and "inexplicable."
"I certainly hope that this is being investigated fully as a constitutional violation and a civil rights violation," Fair said Friday after watching the video.
"It has to be a violation of due process for a law enforcement worker to engage in this type of behavior. Yes, it needs to be investigated."
In the two-and-a-half-minute silent video, Amerson grabs the boy, who is seated on a bench next to him, handcuffed, shackled and dressed in an orange-striped jumpsuit. Amerson forces the boy's head back toward the wall by pushing on the boy's chin; the sheriff then holds the boy in that position for several seconds.
Then, after a moment of what appears to be further conversation between the sheriff and the boy, Amerson uses both arms, one at the boy's shirt collar, to pull him backward toward the wall again.
During an interview with The Star Wednesday, Amerson acknowledged the video showed a portion of what he described as "a talk" between himself and the boy. But Amerson stressed he couldn't comment about any other aspect of that interaction because it would be unlawful to discuss a matter that might become a juvenile case.
Although attempts to reach Amerson Friday were unsuccessful, Amerson's defense of his actions has been that the video clip only shows a piece of what he called "a talk" with the boy.
Calhoun County Sgt. Jon Garlick said that he was there the day the talk took place and noted the boy had been acting out. Sheriff's Office officials said they couldn't elaborate on what exactly the boy was doing, because they said they couldn't comment publicly on a situation that may be a criminal juvenile case.
Amerson also wouldn't comment specifically on the boy's status during the interview or why the boy was dressed in an orange-striped inmate jumpsuit, wearing shackles and handcuffs. But Amerson did say the county jail doesn't house juvenile inmates. If a boy is seen at the jail dressed in an inmate jumpsuit, he is there as part of a "scared straight" program, in which parents can send children who commit minor crimes or skip school to the jail to perform community service tasks.
Tallapoosa County District Attorney Paul Jones has noted, in general, there might be times when it's permissible and even necessary for a law enforcement officer to use physical force on a restrained person.
But Fair, the constitutional law professor at UA's law school, said it doesn't matter if the boy's interview with the sheriff was the result of the boy's bad behavior while participating in the program or if the boy had committed a crime in the moments leading up to the scene caught on camera.
"You have a completely helpless child in this clip, it doesn't matter what happened before. That doesn't authorize the police to engage in that kind of behavior," Fair said. "There are actions, like if he reached for an officer's gun, that would justify restraining him, but nothing justifies what the video seems to show the sheriff doing."
Not even if the boy had just committed a murder, Fair said.
"No matter how far you want to take the "even-ifs", it doesn't matter what the kid did before ... there is no reason for that kind of behavior," Fair said.
Fair and LaJuana Davis, a criminal law and procedure expert at Samford University's Cumberland School of Law, noted the boy has a list of options if he wishes to take legal action against Amerson.
But those options are somewhat limited because of Amerson's role as Calhoun County sheriff, the experts said.
That's because the Alabama Constitution and the 11th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution define a claim against the sheriff as a claim against the state and bar that kind of action unless the state consents to be sued, Davis said in a statement emailed Wednesday.
But Davis said the boy could probably successfully sue Amerson in civil court in at least two other ways: He could file a state tort action against the sheriff for assault or he could sue Amerson as an individual rather than an as an official.
A state tort action suit is won when a law enforcement official knowingly violates a person's constitutional rights "in a way not authorized by his position," Davis said.
Suing the sheriff as an individual is permissible by federal law, under what's called a "section 1983 lawsuit," meaning that the boy could seek civil monetary damages from the sheriff as a way "to prevent law enforcement officers from using the badge to violate people's rights," Davis said.
"The court looks at whether the officer's conduct is objectively reasonable in light of the facts confronting the officer," she said. "In this video, the sheriff's conduct qualifies as excessive force. The person could also say that this is a violation of his Fourteenth Amendment due process rights, because the sheriff used physical coercion."
Both experts noted that other types of civil suits, like civil racketeering charges for repeated misconduct, and most types of criminal charges filed by the juvenile himself are hard to prove or win.
But the state or U.S. attorney general's offices could decide to press criminal charges of police misconduct or brutality if they choose, Fair and Davis said. Those kinds of criminal charges are contingent upon what the state and federal investigating agencies determine about the case.
While the FBI confirmed an investigation Friday, attempts to reach a spokesperson with the Alabama Bureau of Investigation — the state agency that investigates allegations that law enforcement officers have behaved inappropriately — were unsuccessful.
ABI spokeswoman Robyn Litchfield said Thursday the agency wasn't investigating Amerson.
Daymond, the FBI spokesman, said that, in general, a preliminary investigation means that federal agents are collecting "basic" information about a case.
"Our job is not to do anything other than to gather facts," he said. "We present those facts to the U.S. Attorney's Office, and they are the ones that make the determination to move forward."
Star staff writer Cameron Steele: 256-235-3562.Copyright © 2011 Anniston Star.