Officer Larry L. Wingfield, a 28-year Portland police veteran, took the witness stand Tuesday in federal court to describe how he used a controversial chokehold on a man with a gun last year.

Wingfield had been placed on paid leave after he used the carotid neck hold on Jonathan Armand Harris, a man wanted on a warrant.

The bureau banned the hold in the 1980s after a man died in police custody and today considers it deadly force that requires an immediate investigation if used by an officer.

Harris alleges officers used excessive and deadly force during his arrest in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. He also claims officers failed to adequately advise him of his Miranda rights or recognize that he suffered from mental illness.

The courtroom testimony pulled back a curtain on the contentious police encounter with an armed suspect and revealed for the first time that the Police Bureau had found Wingfield’s actions were within its policy.

Harris, 32, claims in court documents that officers didn’t give him a reasonable chance to alert them that he had a gun or to safely surrender it. He’s now accused in federal court of being a felon in possession of a firearm. He’s trying to suppress the evidence and his statements to police.

While in the chokehold, Harris said he feared for his life as other officers hammered him with “kidney punches” while pushing his face into the ground. One other officer threatened, “I’m going to crack your (expletive) skull open” as the struggle occurred, he said.

Wingfield testified he didn’t make that remark, but said he heard it come from another officer who was trying to help restrain Harris.

Wingfield said he had taken Harris to the ground. When he spotted a pistol under Harris and couldn’t wrangle it away, he said he was worried that Harris would shoot him or his partner, so that’s why he used the chokehold.

"I reached over his head and I was choking on his neck, making it harder for him to breathe,'' Wingfield testified. "I feared it would turn into a shooting. … It just kind of stayed like that until a third officer got there.’’

Police handcuffed Harris once there were four officers holding him. The 9mm handgun police finally pulled from Harris had a round in the chamber and one in the magazine.

“Gun was loaded,’’ Wingfield testified. “It was ready to fire.’’

Jonathan A. Harris, 32, alleges officers used excessive and deadly force during his arrest in violation of his Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure. (MCSO)MCSO

‘That kind of panicked me’

The confrontation unfolded eight days after a police detective distributed a flier on Harris, seeking his arrest in connection with the alleged theft of a Glock 9mm handgun from a former girlfriend, who reported her home had been burglarized. The flier said Harris had a history of drug abuse and mental illness.

Police said they developed probable cause to arrest Harris, based on the ex-girlfriend’s statements, neighbor’s descriptions of the suspect and a police review of area video surveillance.

On Aug. 31, 2018, Wingfield and his partner Officer Tim Giles were called out to a cul-de-sac at Southeast Ramona Street and 93rd Avenue after another of Harris’ ex-girlfriends reported he was at her apartment, refusing to leave. She also reported he had a warrant for his arrest, according to court testimony.

The two officers confirmed through a dispatcher that Harris had a failure-to-appear warrant stemming from a theft charge in Clackamas County, according to prosecutors.

Wingfield and Giles parked about a block away and walked up to the location. They spotted Harris and recognized he fit the description of the suspect, Wingfield said.

Without much conversation, Wingfield said he and Giles just reached for Harris, concerned he might run. They were both in police uniform.

“First chance we got, we just reached out and grabbed his wrist,’’ Wingfield testified.

Once they grabbed him, Wingfield said: “He tensed up. We’re like, ‘Don’t resist. You’ve got a warrant.’”

According to Wingfield, Harris started struggling. Giles tried to trap him with his knee but was unable to, so Wingfield tried the same maneuver and took Harris to the ground, Wingfield said.

As they were grappling on the ground, Wingfield said he heard Harris objecting that no one had read him his constitutional rights. So, as Harris and his partner continued to struggle, Wingfield said he began to recite to Harris his Miranda rights, hoping that would “calm him down.”

Harris freed one hand from Giles, the smaller of the two officers, and tried to push himself up five or six times, according to Wingfield.

“All of a sudden, his arm is under him,’’ Wingfield testified. “That kind of panicked me.’’

Wingfield saw a tip of a pistol sticking out from under Harris’ body. Wingfield climbed on top of Harris, he said, and then reached for the gun, placing his finger over the muzzle.

Wingfield said he warned his partner, yelling, “Giles get out of the way, he has a gun.” Wingfield said he noticed the muzzle of the gun was pointed toward Giles’ back.

“We’re fighting,’’ Wingfield said. “I reach underneath him, grab a hold of the gun.”

They continued to wrestle with Harris, and Wingfield said he grabbed the frame of the gun but couldn’t get it away. That’s when he decided to let go of it and do a choke hold in an attempt to avoid a shooting, he testified.

“We took you into custody and you resisted arrest,” Wingfield said, when questioned directly by Harris, who was representing himself with a standby lawyer. “It was conduct you initiated, caused it to happen.”

‘Force proportionate to threat,’ prosecutor says

Portland police in 1985 banned the use of the carotid-artery hold – which cuts the flow of blood traveling through the artery to the brain. It followed public furor over the death of Lloyd “Tony” Stevenson, an off-duty security guard who died after police applied the hold while trying to break up a scuffle outside a Portland convenience store.

The city adopted a settlement agreement in 2014 in response to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation that found Portland police used excessive force against people suffering from mental illness. As part of the agreement, the bureau included a revamped deadly force policy with a reference to the carotid neck hold as a type of lethal force that would demand an immediate investigation.

Deadly force is defined by the bureau today as “any use of force likely to cause death or serious physical injury, including the use of a firearm, carotid neck hold, or strike to the head, neck or throat with a hard object.’’

Officers can use deadly force, according to bureau policy, to “protect themselves or others from what they reasonably believe to be an immediate threat of death or serious physical injury,” but “reckless or negligent use of deadly force is not justified.”

Immediately after Harris was taken into custody, Wingfield said he recognized his use of the chokehold would require an investigation and he alerted a sergeant. He was on paid leave for about two weeks while an internal inquiry got underway and a grand jury reviewed the case.

WIngfield said he received a letter a month ago that an internal investigation found his actions were within bureau policy. Lt. Tina Jones, bureau spokeswoman, later confirmed the outcome. Wingfield returned to duty on Sept. 28, 2018.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Greg Nyhus argued that the force used by police was proportionate to the threat the officers faced.

“As defendant struggled with the officers, the gun was lying under him and the officers reasonably feared it could be fired at any moment,” Nyhus wrote in response to the motion to suppress. “Given the officer safety and public safety concerns, the degree of force used by the officers in arresting defendant was objectively reasonable.”

After the hearing ended for the day and the judge had left the bench, the prosecutor offered Harris an informal plea offer of five years in prison if he pleaded guilty to charges pending against him in Multnomah and Clackamas counties and federal court.

“Negative,” Harris responded, and he was led away by a deputy U.S. marshal.

The hearing will continue with additional witnesses later this month.

-- Maxine Bernstein

Email at mbernstein@oregonian.com

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