By Noah Osborne -
NBC News
The Alameda (California) District Attorney's Office on Thursday announced involuntary manslaughter charges against three police officers accused of the death of a man in this San Francisco Bay County (which includes the city of Oakland). Mario González, 26, was pinned face down to the ground for more than five minutes on April 19, 2021, less than a year after the death in police custody of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
The initial autopsy attributed his death to the "toxic effects of methamphetamine" and "other significant medical conditions," including "physiological stress from the altercation and restraint, morbid obesity, and alcoholism," the District Attorney's Office reported. in a statement on Thursday.
Then-District Attorney Nancy O'Malley concluded in March 2022 that “the officers' decision to arrest Gonzalez and their subsequent use of force was objectively reasonable given the agency's policies, the entirety of the circumstances and the reasons declared by the agents.” She decided that the evidence did not justify filing charges against the officers, identified as Eric McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy.
Last year, however, the new Public Accountability Unit of the current district attorney, Pamela Price, reopened the case and a second autopsy concluded that González's death was "the result of asphyxiation due to immobilization," according to its statement. Thursday. The charges against the officers were filed after a "thorough review" of the case, the Prosecutor's Office said.
One of the three officers no longer works for the Police Department and the other two were placed on administrative leave, the city said in a statement.
Alison Berry Wilkinson, a lawyer for the agents, criticized the charges: “There is no new evidence. “It is a blatantly political process,” she said in a statement to local broadcaster NBC News, the sister network of Noticias Telemundo.
Police released a video with body camera footage from two officers. They are first seen talking to González in a park after receiving calls to the 911 emergency number reporting that he appeared to be disoriented or drunk. González appears dazed and struggles to answer questions. When he did not present any identification, the officers tried to force his hands behind his back to handcuff him, but he resisted and they threw him to the ground.
Last December, the city reached two agreements with González's family, agreeing to pay $11.3 million. "The settlement agreements [...] are expected to establish that the payment will completely and permanently release [the city] from all claims and causes of action," municipal officials said at the time. It is not known if the agreements were finalized and how they could be affected by the new charges filed.
The officers could face up to four years in prison if convicted of involuntary manslaughter, prosecutors said.