Wednesday, July 30, 2003
Copyright © Las Vegas Review-Journal

LV police to pay $500,000 in '01 death of French citizen

Yves Le Menn, center, father of Philippe Le Menn who died Jan. 4, 2001, while in police custody in Las Vegas, displays a family photo of his late son with his son Herve, left, and Philippe Le Menn's cousin Philip Moreau, right, at the French Consulate in Los Angeles in this Jan. 16, 2001, photo. Photo by Associated Press

The Metropolitan Police Department will pay $500,000 to settle a federal lawsuit brought by the father of a French citizen who was suffocated during a violent struggle with guards at the county jail.

The settlement comes just eight months after the Police Department shelled out $900,000 in taxpayer money to end another civil case in which its officers were accused of misconduct.

"This was a tragedy, and no one was happy with how it was handled," Sheriff Bill Young said Tuesday. "I'm never happy when I have to use taxpayers' money to settle a lawsuit, but the facts of this case were not favorable to us. According to our attorneys, this could have cost us $2 million or $3 million if it would've gone to trial."

City and county officials on Monday approved the $500,000 payment in the wrongful death case of Philippe Le Menn, a Las Vegas restaurant manager who was pummeled and soaked with pepper spray before dying in a January 2001 fight with several corrections officers at the Clark County Detention Center.

The settlement does not require the Police Department to acknowledge responsibility for Le Menn's death.

"There is no admission of culpability," said Kathryn Landreth, legal counsel for the Police Department.

In November, police paid nearly $1 million to two tourists who claimed rogue officers concocted bogus charges and had them falsely arrested after they brawled with a group of off-duty SWAT officers partying at the now-defunct Drink nightclub in May 1997.

Yves Le Menn's attorneys in Los Angeles said Tuesday that the settlement provides only partial satisfaction to their client, and that he looks forward to a November trial against the remaining defendants, jail physician Dr. Harvey Hoffman and his employer, Prison Health Services.

"He feels that the death of his son was unnecessary and could've been averted if proper medical care had been provided for his son," attorney V. James DeSimone said.

Philippe Le Menn, 33, was arrested the morning of Jan. 4, 2001, after exhibiting bizarre behavior at a local elementary school. Le Menn screamed in French and English and banged on a school bus filled with children. Teachers were so alarmed by Le Menn, who was 6-foot-2 and 300 pounds, that the school went into lockdown.

He asked his arresting officer to phone Bill Clinton, Al Gore and George W. Bush on his behalf. Once at the jail for booking on misdemeanor charges, Le Menn screamed at personnel that he was Jesus Christ and Satan.

Guards decided to move Le Menn to an isolation cell on the second floor after he attempted to flood his cell by stuffing his clothes in the toilet. When they got him to the cell and removed one of his handcuffs, he began flailing his arms and the handcuffs.

Le Menn fought and screamed at the officers before being forced to the floor, where he died.

The Clark County coroner's office ruled Le Menn died of "asphyxiation due to restraint," meaning that direct or indirect pressure had to have been placed on his throat for an extended period of time. In addition to neck injuries, Le Menn also had bruising on his face, knees, right arm, right leg, right shoulder, right hand, right elbow, left foot, left ear, left wrist and his back.

At a coroner's inquest for the nine officers involved, a jury was tasked with deciding whether Le Menn's homicide was justifiable, excusable or criminal. Jurors found his death was excusable, a result of actions not entirely acceptable, but not egregious enough to be considered criminal.

The officers were not disciplined in the case because Police Department investigators determined the measures they took to subdue Le Menn fell within the department's use-of-force guidelines.

The controversial homicide garnered international attention. Black-and-white surveillance footage depicting the Frenchman's cell scuffle with corrections officers aired on national newscasts in France and the United States.

The grainy, stop-action footage showed Le Menn struggling against as many as five officers at a time before he collapsed on the cell's floor.

The Police Department said at the time that the tape depicted officers spraying pepper spray, punching and doing everything they could to restrain a delusional and belligerent madman who seemed to have superhuman strength in resisting them.

But Le Menn's family said it showed inadequately trained officers wrongfully killing a man in the midst of a mental health crisis.

The case garnered more attention when Le Menn's father announced his intention to file a lawsuit and hired as counsel Paul Hoffman, a renowned human rights attorney who serves as chairman of Amnesty International's executive committee. The American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada and DeSimone served as co-counsel.

DeSimone said Tuesday that his client thinks the settlement could make the Police Department a better law enforcement agency.

"When a government entity is required to pay a significant settlement, that provides it an incentive for it to change and train its employees better so that this type of tragedy does not happen again," DeSimone said.

But the sheriff said Tuesday that Le Menn's death prompted jail policy changes and other improvements that were implemented before the settlement.

"We've strived to improve our operation over there," the sheriff said.

Young, who took office this year, said officers at the jail recently received tasers, which he thinks will prevent episodes like the one that claimed Le Menn's life.

Tasers fire fish-hooked probes that deliver a five-second, 50,000-volt charge. The pain incapacitates subjects through loss of muscle control, usually forcing them to collapse, but causes no permanent damage.

Officers typically use tasers in situations that call for something stronger than pepper spray when deadly force isn't necessary.

The sheriff said part of the responsibility for Le Menn's death lies in Southern Nevada's shortage of mental health resources.

When police respond to situations in which a mentally ill person is causing a public disturbance or threat, the shortage of mental health facilities often forces officers to either ignore the problem or take the person to jail. The detention center is not well-equipped to deal with such crises.

"This Le Menn case is just one example in which the mentally ill, instead of being taken to where they need to be, are taken to jail," Young said.