A 42-year-old Westchester County woman and mother of 8 was found dead in her holding cell in Mount Vernon, New York last July, two days after being arrested for allegedly shoplifting a box of crab legs from a wholesale food market. Today, State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that his seven month investigation into Raynette Turner's death while in the custody of the Mount Vernon Police Department had found no criminal culpability. The AG's report [PDF] details that Turner died from an enlarged heart—the result of "chronic cocaine and morphine use."
"The fact that we find that a homicide prosecution would be unsustainable...doesn't mean there weren't things that happened that were wrong," said Schneiderman on Thursday.
Governor Cuomo issued an executive order last June that appointed Schneiderman special investigator into the deaths of civilians in police custody. Today's findings are the result of his first investigation in this capacity.
Turner was arrested shortly after 3:00 p.m. on Saturday July 25th, a few blocks from Restaurant Depot in Mount Vernon, on allegations that she had shoplifted a box of crab legs. Court was out of session for the weekend, so she was jailed in anticipation of a Monday arraignment.
Questions immediately arose surrounding the nature of Turner's death, just over two weeks after Texas woman Sandra Bland died in a holding cell, also while being held before her arraignment for a minor violation (in her case, failing to signal while switching lanes). Early reports indicated that Turner had a medical history of high blood pressure, and had undergone weight-loss surgery a year prior to her arrest. On the Sunday night after she was arrested, Turner was taken to Montefiore Mount Vernon Hospital, having told officers that she didn't feel well. She was treated for high blood pressure, and returned to her cell.
Schneiderman's investigation, which involved analysis of surveillance footage documenting "virtually the entire time" Turner was in custody, corroborated police accounts that Turner was checked on regularly.
Schneiderman and his team walked reporters through a powerpoint presentation on Thursday, detailing Turner's movements within and to-and-from her holding cell. The AG's office stressed that police officers granted Turner's request to go to the hospital on Sunday night, and asked about her health throughout the night on Sunday and into Monday, the morning of her arraignment. Turner said repeatedly that she was "feeling better," according to investigators. When she asked to be returned to her cell to lie down a few hours before her scheduled arraignment, the request was granted.
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, Bragg summarized his team's methodology. "Having determined that there was no physical abuse or assault, the inquiry shifted to attention and care," he said. Bragg added that "the only conceivable theory" for a homicide charge would be criminally negligent homicide. His team determined that a charge of criminal negligence would not hold up.
They did fault one guard, Ricardo Atkinson, for not physically checking in on Turner every 15 minutes, as was his mandate, during the final hours of her life. However, his actions were not deemed grounds for prosecution.
Video shows that Turner vomited several times the day she died. Stressing that the bar for criminally negligent homicide is "very high," Schneiderman's office hinged the defensibility of the police department's actions in large part on the details of Turner's final hours. From the report:
After the hospital visit, on late Sunday and Monday, the Video shows that Ms. Turner appeared to vomit or retch on many occasions. MVPD employees continued to check on her periodically. For example, from 11:45 am to 2:11 pm, MVPD employees were present at or near her cell approximately 10 times; during six of these visits the employees either interacted with Ms. Turner directly or looked into her cell.
On Monday, MVPD employees also inquired about Ms. Turner’s medical condition twice, and, in response, Ms. Turner did not request additional medical attention. Finally, when an MVPD employee discovered that Ms. Turner was nonresponsive, emergency medical services (“EMS”) was contacted immediately.
"While you can see her vomiting or retching, it was not readily apparent that death was imminent," said Chief of the Special Investigations and Prosecutions Unit Alvin Bragg, reviewing footage stills. "It [vomiting] can be evidence of a medical condition, but symptomatic of non-fatal conditions as well, and she was well enough to walk."
Schneiderman called for "more expedient" pre-arraignment release on Thursday, noting that the State court of appeals has ruled delays exceeding 24 hours "unreasonable."
"There is no good reason why someone arrested for shoplifting should wait 48 hours to be arraigned," he said. The AG's office recommended video conference arraignments to speed up the procedure, and called on the Mount Vernon PD to mandate in-person inmate check-ins, rather than video surveillance check-ins, which were found to be "typical" at the police station.
When Turner's autopsy results were released last October, her husband and son decried them, saying that Turner had used drugs in the past, but that they had no reason to believe that she had relapsed before her death. "It's not the cause of death," Turner's widower said. "It still doesn't tell me why my wife died in a holding cell."
"We met with the family," said Bragg on Thursday. "We did a lot of listening. I think by the end Mr. Turner appreciated the thoroughness, but in terms of words to offer a family in mourning—I can only offer condolences."
