Hayward Police Face Wrongful-Death Lawsuit

A federal civil rights lawsuit was filed Friday June 10, 2016 on behalf of Eugene Jimerson, the brother of former major league baseball player Charlton Jimerson. Hayward police face wrongful-death lawsuit

Hayward police should have provided medical attention to a man who died last year after officers arrested him and put him in a full-body restraint even though they had found him intoxicated and in distress at a shopping center, a federal wrongful-death lawsuit alleges.

The suit, filed June 10 at the U.S. District Court in Oakland, claims police used excessive force and neglected the needs of 42-year-old Eugene Jimerson Jr., who died of a drug overdose. Jimerson was the brother of former major league baseball player Charlton Jimerson.

Hayward police officials did not immediately respond to the suit, which was filed by Jimerson’s mother.

Jimerson was arrested on suspicion of being under the influence of drugs on April 12, 2015, at Soto Road and Jackson Street.

According to the suit, he was sweating profusely and acting paranoid, and had a “white, pasty, dry mouth” when placed into custody.

He suffered from schizophrenia, and Hayward police knew him from previous contacts, attorneys said.

Instead of taking Jimerson to a hospital, officers took him first to a jail in Hayward — where he was rejected because of his condition — and then to the county lock-up in Dublin. The suit says officers at one point applied a full-body restraint device that binds a person’s wrists to their body and straps their legs together.

Officers realized Jimerson was unresponsive in a patrol car en route to the Dublin jail and administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation, the suit says. Jimerson was then taken to Valley Care Medical Center in Pleasanton, where he was pronounced dead. The Alameda County coroner’s office said the cause of death was acute methamphetamine intoxication.

The lawsuit alleges that Hayward police Officer Russell Sharrock and community service Officers Raymond Eakin and Johnathan Colton put Jimerson in the restraints despite “symptoms of extreme intoxication.”

“His heart rate when the police encountered him was 160 beats per minute — that’s dangerously high,” said EmilyRose Johns, an attorney for the family.

“I saw this as an opportunity to bring justice to a family who has gone through quite a lot.”

Charlton Jimerson, who played center field for the Houston Astros and Seattle Mariners from 2005 to 2008, published a memoir last year, “Against All Odds: A Success Story,” that discussed his childhood in Hayward and his family’s struggle with drug addiction.

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: [email protected] Twitter: JennaJourno

Source: www.sfgate.com www.sfgate.com

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