Family of Columbus man who died after arrest wants justice. There could be a new delay
A criminal investigation into the actions of three Columbus police officers involved in Hector Arreola’s fatal 2017 arrest may delay a federal civil trial in the case, which was set to start Aug. 9.
Attorneys representing the three officers sued for allegedly using excessive force in restraining Arreola have asked U.S. District Judge Clay Land to postpone, or stay, the civil trial after District Attorney Mark Jones announced he appointed a special prosecutor to pursue criminal charges against the three.
Jones has appointed Christopher Breault, whose expertise is in civil litigation, to take the evidence against the officers to a grand jury. Breault served as Jones’ “transition coordinator” as Jones took office after defeating incumbent District Attorney Julia Slater in last year’s election. Breault also represents Jones in a criminal case Columbus police initiated during Jones’ campaign.
Breault was sworn in as a special prosecutor on May 20, according to court records.
In a motion filed jointly on Monday afternoon, the attorneys representing Officers Michael Aguilar, Brian Dudley and Aaron Evrard said the criminal probe unfairly would hinder their trial strategy in the civil case.
Because the officers could face murder charges in Arreola’s death, they likely would have to invoke their Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination and refuse to testify in federal court, possibly prejudicing the jury, the attorneys say.
“Allowing this matter to proceed to trial would force defendants to choose between asserting their constitutional Fifth Amendment rights to protect their interests in a criminal proceeding or potentially facing adverse inferences being drawn against them in this case,” they wrote.
Jones acknowledged the likely delay, but said Breault may be ready to present the evidence to a grand jury before the current court term ends in two months. If not, then the criminal case would have to wait until a new grand jury is impaneled in the next court term, early August.
Columbus attorney Mark Post represents the Arreola family, who filed suit Jan. 8, 2019, alleging the officers handcuffed and pressed Arreola to the ground in a prone position, and continued that pressure after Arreola stopped struggling and repeatedly said he could not breathe.
That was early on Jan. 9, 2017, after Arreola, who officers said appeared delusional and paranoid, twice called police to check on his mother at her Moss Drive home, though she was in no danger.
Aguilar and Dudley tried to arrest him, initiating a struggle that led to their handcuffing him face down and pressing on him as he writhed and cried out. He eventually weakened and reportedly appeared dazed when they got him upright as an ambulance arrived. He went into cardiac arrest en route to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead the next day, records show. He was 30 years old.
Evrard was not involved in the other officers’ initial struggle with Arreola, but helped Aguilar restrain the suspect later as Dudley left to get shackles for Arreola’s legs.
The lawsuit alleges the cardiac arrest resulted from brain damage caused by the force the officers used in restraining him.
Attorneys defending the officers claim Arreola died primarily from methamphetamine toxicity. That was the cause of death initially listed by a medical examiner, but the report was amended June 29, 2020, to add a struggle with police as the cause of death, and list the manner of death as homicide.
Already delayed
The federal lawsuit was supposed to go to trial this week, as an earlier schedule had it set for June 7.
“We should have been trying it right now,” Post said Monday, but he was compelled to seek a delay after he suffered a serious leg injury that hampered his mobility. He’s using a wheelchair now, he said.
He sees no reason to delay it further.
“It’s ready for trial,” he said. All the preliminary steps are done, including the discovery and sharing of evidence, and Judge Land has issued rulings narrowing the disputed facts a jury will have to decide.
Post said years of work have been invested in preparing for trial: “It’s been a long road.... The family wants their trial. They want their justice.”
His clients are Arreola’s parents, Rodrigo and Concepcion Arreola, and their son’s child, a minor identified only as “S.A.”
Post had to fend off an earlier motion to postpone the case, which was prompted by Jones’ remarks to the press about pursuing a criminal probe. That motion was filed on Feb. 18, and included some of the same reasoning the attorneys included in their Monday motion for a stay.
Responding on March 3, Post wrote that a criminal case could take years to resolve, and Arreola’s family has waited long enough:
“To stay the upcoming trial, would substantially delay the justice they seek. This is so because criminal trials in Muscogee County, Georgia, often occur many years after alleged crimes have occurred, and because cases are often not presented to grand juries until years after alleged crimes have occurred.”
He argued the circumstances regarding pretrial publicity and possible criminal prosecution in Arreola’s case have not significantly changed, as Jones long has said he would investigate it.
“Defendants’ argument that they face an impossible choice when choosing whether to testify at trial or to invoke the Fifth Amendment privilege rings hollow,” he wrote. “This is so because each of the police officer defendants was deposed under oath.... Their version of what occurred is well-documented, and their interaction with Hector Arreola is audible, and often visible via the officers’ body cameras.”
Post repeated some of those arguments Tuesday afternoon as he filed another motion opposing a stay in the civil trial.
Because the police officers could face murder charges, for which Georgia law has no statute of limitations, prosecutors have no deadline to pursue a criminal case, so any delay in the civil case could be indefinite, Post wrote: “Thus, there is no way for the parties or the court to know when any criminal case might arise against the defendants or when it might conclude, if ever.”
The lawsuit initially named the city of Columbus as a defendant, under the reasoning the officers acted according to city policies, but Judge Land ruled Dec. 20, 2020, that no evidence showed the officers were adhering to city government procedures.
That left the three officers to be sued individually, though the city continues to pay for their defense. Attorney Jim Clark represents Aguilar; Pete Temesgen represents Dudley; and Neal Callahan represents Evrard. The lawyers declined to comment publicly Monday.
All three officers still are employed with the police department.
What’s next?
Judge Land has yet to rule on the motion to stay the civil trial.
Jones said the evidence amassed in the civil case can help guide the criminal probe into Arreola’s death, including the officers’ depositions and their body-camera video.
“There are going to be medical records from taking him to the hospital, that sort of thing,” he said. Breault will have to issue subpoenas to gather all the data he needs, Jones said.
He said he chose Breault because of his experience in examining medical evidence in civil lawsuits, and because Breault has offered to do the job without being paid.
“It’s not costing us anything more than we would already incur to prosecute it,” he said.
Jones believes the crucial issue in the police encounter is clear:
“The issue is Hector Arreola was handcuffed. There’s no dispute: He was handcuffed, and he’s there saying ‘I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe, I can’t breathe,’ and at that point, I think any rational person would agree that we have to look into this and investigate it fully, as to, did he die when the officers were applying the force on his back, trying to restrain him? If he did, then they’ve got a real problem.”
‘I can’t breathe’
Jones said a March 3, 2020 ruling from Judge Land outlines the most pertinent issues in the civil case.
In that decision detailing the events leading to Arreola’s death, Judge Land wrote that Arreola first called 911 at 3:40 a.m. to request police check on his mother, and called back at 4:55 a.m. He was in his car outside the mother’s home when Aguilar and Dudley came back.
“Something seemed to be off with him,” the officers said later. At 5:21 a.m., Dudley requested emergency medics for a psychological evaluation, though Arreola denied having any mental illness or using drugs. At 5:24 a.m., Aguilar called for an ambulance, adding “just come routine, no lights, no sirens.”
The struggle started at 5:25 a.m. as the officers tried to arrest him for disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, Land wrote. They put him on his stomach, and “flattened” him, holding him down.
The officers got handcuffs on him at 5:29 a.m. Evrard arrived a minute later, and took Dudley’s place, as Dudley left to get leg shackles.
Land found the officers had pressure on Arreola’s back from around 5:26 to 5:31 a.m., when Evrard stood him up to search him. In four minutes and 27 seconds, Arreola said he could not breathe 16 times, the judge wrote.
After handcuffing him at 5:29 a.m., they remained on his back for two minutes and fourteen seconds, Land determined.
Viewing the evidence in the light most favorable to the plaintiffs, Arreola’s family, Land said it showed officers continued to use force after Arreola stopped resisting, though the officers maintain he still kicked and struggled.
Wrote Land: “The ultimate question ... is whether there is enough evidence in the record from which a reasonable jury could conclude that Hector ceased resisting when he was handcuffed.”
If jurors decided that’s what occurred, then “a jury would be authorized to find that Hector’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from excessive force was violated.”
The Arreola family’s lawsuit seeks compensation for medical and funeral expenses, attorneys’ fees, the value of Hector Arreola’s life, and any other award a jury deems justified.
Post said the family would like to proceed, with the civil case, regardless what Jones decides to do in a criminal probe.
“They do not want the civil trial stayed,” he said.
This story was originally published June 8, 2021 at 4:44 PM with the headline "Family of Columbus man who died after arrest wants justice. There could be a new delay."