By Everton Bailey Jr.
The Oregonian, Portland, Ore.
COLUMBIA COUNTY, Ore. — Columbia County’s sheriff says the county District Attorney’s Office will review a case involving a jail inmate who was bitten and had his arm wrenched on by a sheriff’s patrol dog while in a cell in August.
Sheriff Jeff Dickerson said he and other agency officials have previously determined the use of force was justified. But reaction to recently released body camera footage of Lars, a 3-year-old Belgian Malinois, being sicced onto 47-year-old Christopher Bartlett on August 1 warranted revisiting the case as a precaution to ensure nothing illegal occurred, he said.
“We don’t think any laws were broken, but it helps us to have a legal entity review this case,” Dickerson said. “We don’t want this to be seen as being done in a vacuum. Everything we do is an open book.”
Lars, one of two Columbia County sheriff’s dogs, has been brought into the jail six times since joining the agency in 2015, Dickerson said. The dog is trained to track people and narcotics.
August was the only time Lars has been ordered to bite an inmate, because typically the sight of the dog or his barking causes inmates to comply, Dickerson said. He said he believes this was the only time an inmate has been bitten by a police dog at the Columbia County Jail.
The use of force was first reported by The Columbia County Spotlight.
Bartlett wasn’t seriously injured during the encounter and is no longer housed at the jail, Dickerson said. The sheriff said Bartlett was bitten because he refused to comply with deputies’ orders as they were attempting to move him from a temporary holding cell in one block to another cell in a high-security unit.
Bartlett’s sister said he is homeless, likely has undiagnosed mental illness and called footage of him being bitten “horrifying.”
“I strongly feel he was mistreated there, and it shouldn’t happen to anybody else,” Shawna Staats of St. Helens told KGW.
Mat dos Santos, legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union of Oregon, said the use of the dog in the jail in this case was reprehensible, and the “use of dogs as weapons is inhumane.”
“This practice has largely and rightly been discontinued in visible settings,” he said. dos Santos said the Oregon ACLU is trying to reach out to Bartlett.
Dickerson said the sheriff’s office needs more resources to help deal with jail inmates who have mental illness and behavioral health issues.
“We struggle because we have a caretaking responsibility within our community to keep citizens safe, and yet these people come with all these needs that need to be addressed,” he said. “We can’t get mental health workers to regularly come into the jail and because they’re not getting what they need in jail, they’re acting out and they’re putting our deputies at risk.”
Dickerson cited Bartlett’s aggressive behavior at the time, past history of fighting with law enforcement and refusal to comply with jail deputies’ orders warranted sending in the dog to help subdue him rather than risk a fight that could seriously injure him and deputies.
Bartlett has been booked into the Columbia County Jail 43 times since 2001, mostly for probation violations, jail records show. The arrests also included allegations of assault, unlawful use of a weapon, theft, drug possession and offensive littering.
Dickerson admits that the footage of Lars biting Bartlett looks “horrendous,” but he still believes it was “the most humane way to deal with a violent inmate at that time.”
According to body camera footage and a use of force report by Lars’ handler, Deputy Ryan Dews, the following occurs:
Bartlett refuses to place both hands through a small slot on his cell door to be handcuffed during the cell switch. At one point, deputies are able to place cuffs on one wrist. Dews wrote that a sergeant told him Bartlett was throwing items inside his cell.
When Dews and Lars arrive, another deputy tells Bartlett to come to the door to be handcuffed, but he doesn’t comply. Bartlett can be heard yelling from outside the cell. Dews later described Bartlett as irate at the time.
A deputy warns Bartlett that he’ll be bitten by the dog if he doesn’t come out of the cell as Lars barks outside the door. The cell door opens, Dews orders Lars to apprehend Bartlett, and the dog runs into the cell, jumps onto Bartlett, bitting down on Bartlett’s left arm just above his elbow as Bartlett is on the ground.
Dews wrote in his report that Bartlett threw a gray, three-pound bin toward the door as it opened, but it didn’t hit anyone. The bin is given to inmates to carry clothes in.
“Stop resisting,” Dews yells at Bartlett as the dog is on his arm. Dews moves the dog off Bartlett as other deputies hold the inmate down and handcuff him. After Dews and Lars are out of the cell, Dews warns Bartlett that he’s going to be bit again and tells him he was warned several times.
“You throw stuff, you threaten us, you get bit,” Dews later said to Bartlett.
The deputies bring Bartlett to an outdoor recreation area, where nurses check his injuries. His shirt and pants are later cut away as he is being checked. At points, Bartlett tells the deputies and nurses that he believes his arm is broken, begs for help, curses at the deputies and tells them they all are going to hell. The deputies put a hood on his head to prevent him from spitting at them, and he is put into the second cell.
Bartlett had been booked into the jail the day before -- July 31-- on suspicion of contempt of court, Dickerson said, and was released from jail on Aug. 2.
Bartlett has been booked into the jail two more times since then, records show: on Aug. 15 on a contempt of court warrant, and on Aug. 30 for harassment and criminal mischief. He was released Nov. 14.
Dickerson said Bartlett should have been initially booked into the high-security unit on July 31 instead of the temporary holding cell “because we’re well aware of who he is.” The sheriff said newer staff members who weren’t as familiar with Bartlett handled his initial booking then.
“As it turns out, it probably wasn’t the wisest decision for us to put him in [the temporary holding unit],” Dickerson said. “But that’s all with the benefit of hindsight.”
©2017 The Oregonian (Portland, Ore.)