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Unedited jail video supports ‘straight bear-hug type tackle’

By Nick Budnick

The Portland Tribune, Oct 29, 2008, Updated Oct 30, 2009

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The basement level booking area of the Multnomah County Detention Center in downtown Portland is where police bring the newly arrested to be booked into the jail. The process includes reviewing the arrestee’s criminal history, checking in and cataloging their belongings, taking a mug shot and doing a brief medical check.

Former Multnomah County Sheriff Dan Noelle caused cameras to be put into the booking area in the wake of a controversial use of force that led to four corrections deputies being fired in 2001.

The camera records activities in the central booking area, but not in the segregation cells that are intended to hold unruly arrestees until they calm down enough to be booked.

The camera system’s audio quality is poor. Even when the background noise has been professionally reduced, as in this video, only parts of the conversation are audible enough to be understood.

The audio is clearest when played on a television.

The jailhouse video starts at 6:06 p.m. — or, in military, 24-hour time, 18:06 p.m. — as is recorded in the upper lefthand corner of the video. Most of this analysis uses the 24-hour time, so it can be synchronized to the video.

The video begins with three sheriff’s deputies and Officer Christopher Humphreys, in the blue uniform and wearing a cap, carrying Chasse in, hogtied in handcuffs and with a hood over his head that officers call a “spit sock.” The hood is intended to keep arrestees from spitting on officers.

They take him into a segregation cell. Typically, before the door is shut on a detainee, deputies will toss out his possessions to be placed into the property holding area. This is standard procedure to ensure the person in the segregation cell does not have the means to hurt themselves. This can be seen on the video.

The corrections staff spray the air with an anti-bacterial agent and comment on Chasse’s odor.

Sheriff’s Patrol Deputy Bret Burton paces outside the cell, and occasionally goes to the door of the cell.

18:07 p.m.: Chasse can be heard talking, groaning and asking for water.

18:08 p.m: Presumably, an officer or deputy is the one saying, “Please relax.”

Chasse is protesting: “No.”

18:10 p.m.: Humphreys paces outside the cell.

18:11 p.m..: Jail nurses arrive.

18:12 p.m.: This apparently where, according to interviews conducted in the investigation, after a brief inspection the nurses decide he is too injured to accept him into the jail. He needs to be taken to the hospital, they say, and then leave.

18:13:39 p.m.: Humphreys spells Chasse’s last name for booking-area record keeping: “Chasse: C-H-A-S-S-E.”

18:13:49 p.m.: Humphreys: “First time I ever seen him downtown.” Humphreys starts describing to the booking area’s corrections staff what happened.

18:14:05 p.m.: According to the reports from the criminal investigation of Chasse’s death, Humphreys, Sgt. Kyle Nice and Burton — all part of a TriMet transit police detail — first saw at about 5:08 p.m. near Northwest 18th Avenue and Everett Street.

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The TriMet detail had been assigned to focus on “quality of life” crimes in Northwest Portland.

While the officers dealt with other unnamed intoxicated men, Chasse left the area. This is the scene that Humphreys apparently begins to describe.

18:14:10 p.m.: Humphreys references dealing with “another situation,” apparently referring to an intoxicated person referenced in police reports.

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