Mike O’Dell and Sara Goff contributed to this report

On the morning of December 28, 2014, at about 4 AM, Seattle police officer Daniel Erickson responded to a call from Swedish hospital on First Hill. It was still dark outside, the air, chilly.

Mental health patient Wendlyn Phillips, 57 years old at the time, was reported to have kicked at the medical staff and was now lying in the driveway.

Erickson would need to draw on his 40 hours of federally-mandated crisis intervention training — training specially designed to help him handle erratic individuals who might be suffering from addiction or mental illness without hurting them.

But Phillips was hurt in the encounter, her face bruised and bloodied. She was accused of assaulting the officer and charged.

Documents obtained through public records requests show how the investigation of what happened two years ago on First Hill was handled using new SPD systems. They offer a window into Department of Justice-driven reforms: The use of the Force Investigation Team (FIT) and Force Review Board (FRB) — two teams of officers and commanders who operate behind closed doors — to review controversial incidents like this one and hold officers accountable.

Erickson arrived on the scene in his patrol SUV. The video comes from his dashcam and the hospital’s surveillance camera. It contains disturbing scenes.

Phillips suffered a bloody bruise to her face and a broken thumb, photos from the scene and medical records show. She was taken to Harborview Medical Center.

“I wasn’t able to see that she made physical contact with the officer,” said Daniel Malone, the executive director of the Downtown Emergency Services Center, a nonprofit serving clients with mental illness, who viewed the video. “It seemed unnecessary.”

“That’s not what I would expect to see based on having seen police interact with [many] people behaving in very similar ways,” he said. “Taking somebody down who is angry and gesturing in their face with their hands is not at all typical, in my observation.”

The videos show that in ten seconds, Phillips waves her bag in Erickson’s face and he takes her down into the street, her face slamming into the pavement. Erickson does not appear to tell her not to swing her bag until he has grabbed her.

The case was given to Detective Don Witmer, an officer with nearly 20 years of experience, to investigate for the Force Investigation Team. The FIT is a group of six officers whose task, under the new accountability system, is to “thoroughly investigate the most serious uses of force with veteran detectives,” including fatal shootings.

In March of 2015, Phillips called from a mental health center in Tacoma and left a voicemail for Witmer: “A while back… I was in Seattle, I was laying on the ground crying,” she said. “The police were called… He hit me so hard, I was bruised and my face was bleeding.”

Part way through the voicemail, Phillips cries. “Anyway, I don’t know what to do about this. I have really high respect for police officers and stuff.”

Witmer wrote in his log, “It was difficult to understand what she was requesting if anything,” and he did not return her call. He did not refer her to the Office of Professional Accountability (OPA), the quasi-independent civilian-led arm of the SPD which investigates complaints from civilians.

In statements and interviews immediately after the incident, Erickson and his partner Olson James said Phillips “fell” off the curb as the officer attempted to “escort” her to his patrol vehicle. “Once on the ground with Phillips, I affected an arrest for the attempted assault on myself,” Erickson wrote in his report on the incident.

After many hours of interviewing the involved officers and witnesses, Witmer agreed. He wrote in his report that Phillips “fell forward” and caused her own injury:

As Officer Erickson pulled subject Phillips’ right arm toward him for control, Phillips fell forward causing Officer Erickson to take her straight to the ground. Subject Phillips’ sustained a facial injury to her chin that began to bleed.

An EMT who responded to the scene to treat Phillips said in her interview she was told the woman “essentially threw herself” onto the ground.

FIT’s Lieutenant Stephen Hirjak concurred and said the use of force did not violate SPD policy:

Given the attempt to use de minimis force and the potential crime at the outset of this incident, the force appears to be reasonable and necessary, with an unintended outcome (fall to the ground).

Once FIT completed its work, the Force Review Board took up the case for an additional round of analysis. The case would be “rigorously dissected and evaluated” to determine if policies were violated and to learn lessons. The board includes SPD sergeants, lieutenants, trainers, along with representatives of the federal monitor and Department of Justice. Judge James Robart has called the body “a critical element” of federal reforms, “essential to the [Department’s] self-regulation.”

The board met at Seattle police headquarters on March 4, 2015. Captain Mike Teeter presented the case, arguing that Erickson should have waited for his partner before getting so close to Phillips. He said Erickson did not take reasonable efforts to de-escalate and violated the department’s de-escalation policy, noting that the officer could have simply stepped back from Phillips.

But, he argued, Erickson’s use of force was “necessary, reasonable, and proportionate.”

Teeter suggested Erickson register for advanced crisis intervention training. It would be up to Captain Pierre Davis, his supervisor, to follow up on that.

Then-Assistant Chief Tag Gleason signed off on the final FRB report one week later, calling Erickson’s conduct “professional, polite, and calm.” He said Phillips fell to the ground “during the attempt to escort her to the vehicle.”

He agreed with Teeter that Erickson could have stepped back. “While this was identified as a technical violation of the de-escalation policy the board believes that an appropriate remedy is for the chain of command to discuss this with the officer,” Gleason said.

The SPD did not respond to questions about the difference between a “technical violation” and an ordinary violation of its policies.

Attempts by CHS to reach Phillips by contacting medical centers who reportedly treated her were unsuccessful. She sought a protection order against a Tacoma man last April, alleging abuse, but failed to attend a hearing on the matter.

Almost one year after the incident, on November 6, 2015, the City Attorney charged Phillips with “intentional” assault of Erickson, court records show. A month later, a warrant was issued for her arrest. There are no further records in the case.

Officer Erickson joined the SPD in 2013, with federally-mandated reforms already coming down the pike. The Seattle Police Foundation named him and his partner East Precinct officers of the year in 2015, praising Erickson for talking down a suicidal woman and for his “‘no nonsense’ approach to the habitual offenders in the Cal Anderson Park area.”

Erickson did not respond to an e-mail seeking comment sent to his work address.

The SPD sent this statement about the investigation:

This incident was reviewed in accordance with policies and procedures established in partnership with the Department of Justice and the Monitoring Team. The Force Investigation Team conducted an independent investigation into the force used during this incident and the Force Review Board, which includes members of the Monitoring Team, scrutinized the Force Investigation Team’s report. Following the Department’s investigation, the incident was referred to the officer’s chain of command for additional training.

Federal monitor Merrick Bobb and the Department of Justice declined to comment.

In June of 2015, Bobb said he was troubled by the FRB’s “reluctance” to find officers violated use of force policies and its tendency to engage in “unrealistic and implausible interpretations of facts.” Later that year, he praised the board, saying it was in initial compliance with the terms of the federal consent decree.

