Brett Kelman

The Desert Sun

PALM DESERT, Calif. — Two years ago, a sheriff's deputy did not call an ambulance for a sick man who was unable to walk, leaving him to slowly drag himself across the grounds of his apartment complex for at least 45 minutes. Five days later, the man was found dead just inside his front door, killed by heart failure, with cuts and bruises on his hands, knees and legs.

The deputy was fired for negligence.

Now he will probably get his job back.

Riverside County Deputy Mark Franks was investigating a report of trespassing on Sept. 3, 2014 when he first encountered Curt Nelsen, 55, who was pushing a shopping cart behind the Dollar Tree on Washington Street. Nelsen appeared disoriented, so Franks drove him home to a two-story apartment building across the street.

When they got there, something had changed. Nelsen felt pain in his back and legs and was no longer able to stand. He said he needed to catch his breath, then crawled out of Frank's patrol car on his hands and knees.

It then took Nelsen somewhere between 45 minutes to two hours to scoot himself a little more than 100 feet down a concrete walkway that led from the parking lot to the front door of his apartment. Records of the event are conflicting, but Franks either drove away as soon as Nelsen crawled out of the car, or hung around to help Nelsen climb over his doorstep.

Either way, Franks didn’t call for medics or an ambulance. He didn’t radio his supervisor to ask what he should do about Nelsen. He left a man, who clearly needed help, with none. And Nelsen was never seen alive again. Less than a week later, on Sept. 8, 2014, an apartment manager found his cold body on the floor just inside his front door.

An autopsy determined Nelsen died of heart disease, worsened by liver failure and chronic alcoholism. Emergency medical attention might have made a difference.

“I don’t know what’s expected of officers, but if I saw somebody incapacitated, I think I would try something more than just dragging his ass home and letting him go," said Nelsen's brother, John Nelsen, of La Quinta. "Ultimately, if Curt had been shown just a sliver of compassion, it might have extended his life.”

Nelsen died nearly two years ago, but the circumstances of his death and the fact that Franks was ultimately fired have never been public until now. Details were recently revealed in a lawsuit by the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, which has gone to uncommon lengths to keep Franks from returning to the force. The former deputy successfully appealed his termination in an administrative hearing in April, but the sheriff’s department has petitioned a county judge to overturn the ruling. Franks has denied all wrongdoing in court documents.

A hearing in the case is scheduled for Sept. 20.

Details of Nelsen’s death were also kept from his family, who said law enforcement never told them about the crawling incident or Franks' negligence. During a recent interview with The Desert Sun, relatives said their efforts to learn more about the death were "stonewalled" by law enforcement at every turn, but they never understood why. The family hadn't even seen Nelsen's coroner's report — a public document that describes his death — until they got a copy from a reporter in August.

“It’s a whole different ball game right now,” John Nelsen said, reviewing the document for the first time alongside Curt's mother, Jimmie. “The powers that be understood that there was complete negligence here. And they were trying to cover it. It’s just ridiculous.”

If the story of Nelsen's death and Franks' termination is hard to comprehend, that might be in part because almost nobody is willing to talk about it.

Both the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and its attorney said they would not comment on the case. More silence came from Franks' attorney, Robert Todd, who has been funded by the Riverside Sheriff's Association, a deputies' union. Union president Robert Masson did not respond to multiple requests for comment and blocked a reporter who tried to contact him through email. Finally, the arbitrator who gave Franks his job back admitted the case was "a matter of interest" to the public, but said he was barred from discussing his decision.

Regardless, more details should be revealed soon. As the sheriff's department lawsuit progresses, it will likely lead to the unsealing of now-confidential records about Franks' termination.

“When you see the witness statements, it will get even stranger,” said Anthony Snodgrass, an attorney who represents the sheriff’s department.

For now, details about Franks and Nelsen are incomplete, so one critical question remains unanswered. In the hour or so that Nelsen was slowly scooting down the walkway, what was Franks doing?

Police documents tell two different stories.

According to an investigation by the coroner’s office, Franks drove away as soon as Nelsen crawled out of his car, leaving the man to scoot on his own. Nelsen dragged himself to his apartment over the next two hours, a witness said.

According to the sheriff’s lawsuit, Franks stayed at the scene. The lawsuit says Nelsen scooted for about 45 minutes to an hour before he reached his doorstep, at which point Franks helped him over the slightly raised threshold of the doorway.

No other documents about Nelsen's crawling incident have been released. The sheriff's department has withheld all police reports and related emails, insisting they are exempt from public records disclosure.

Despite the differences in the coroner's report and the sheriff's lawsuit, both documents make it clear that Franks did not call for an ambulance. The lawsuit says one witness said she would have called for medics herself, but she didn't think it was necessary since a deputy was on scene as Nelsen crawled down the hall.

According to the sheriff's lawsuit, Franks later told investigators that Nelsen declined medical attention. But that doesn't matter, a policing expert said. Franks should have summoned medics anyway.

Jim Bueermann, a former Redlands police chief who now leads The Police Foundation, a Washington D.C. think-tank, said Franks assumed a “professional and moral obligation” to get Nelsen home safe as soon as he took him in his patrol car.

Franks didn't need Nelsen's permission to call a medic, Bueerman added.

“This guy sounds like he was in pretty poor shape, and there was obviously something wrong with him,” Bueermann said. “When in doubt, you roll medical aide. If you think you need medical aide, regardless of what the guy says, you call for them.”

The cops thought he was a gunman. He thought they were robbers. They met at his doorstep, guns drawn.

The warlords of Coachella

Franks, 39, worked as an insurance salesman before he trained to become a police officer. He joined the sheriff's department in 2007 and then spent most of his law enforcement career patrolling the streets of Palm Desert.

And the sheriff's department must have thought a lot of him – at least at first.

In 2013, Franks was chosen by department officials to take a Desert Sun reporter on a ride-along for a story about the rising cost of police services. The reporter tagged along with Franks for hours, and watched as the deputy busted a heroin-addicted parolee with a bottle of Vicodin. Franks urged the guy to get clean as he drove him to jail.

Later, during an interview, the deputy stressed the importance of community policing.

"I've built up a rapport,” Franks said, describing his work in Palm Desert. “I can go up to people who I may have arrested in the past, and call it weird – call it crazy – I will have people thank me and say that was the most pleasant experience being arrested they have had."

That rapport didn't last much longer, however.

On July 1, 2014, Franks fumbled a report of gunfire that included evidence of both a victim and crime, according to the sheriff's lawsuit. Details of the incident have not been released, but the lawsuit states that Franks "failed to investigate the crime and document the incident." The investigation had to be picked up by other deputies, who identified a suspect where Franks had not.

Two months later, Franks was in trouble again for his neglectful treatment of Nelsen. The sheriff's department launched an administrative investigation, looking for potential misconduct.

Franks was fired about 11 months later, on July 20, 2015.

Franks then appealed his termination to an administrative arbitrator, which is an option available to almost all deputies under their union contract. The arbitrator, Jerry Ellner, heard arguments during a private proceeding in February, then issued a ruling in April, saying that Franks should be reinstated to his old job and given back pay for all the work he's missed, minus a 30-day suspension.

Franks' back pay will likely equal about $45,000, according to public salary data.

The sheriff's department responded in July by petitioning a superior court judge to throw out Ellner's ruling, but challenged it on a technical basis only. Attorneys argue that Ellner said he would wait for post-hearing briefings before he ruled on Franks' termination appeal, then issued his ruling before those briefs were submitted.

Snodgrass, the attorney for the sheriff's department, likened Ellner's ruling to a trial judge issuing a verdict before a jury had even met.

"Regardless of the merits of this case, the hearing officer abused his discretion,” Snodgrass said. “I’ve literally never heard of another case like this."

Although the sheriff's department might not be willing to say it, the lawsuit over Ellner's ruling shows the agency is determined to keep Franks off the force, said Bueermann, the policing expert.

Police officers almost always appeal their terminations in arbitration, Bueermann said, but few cases make the jump to actual court.

"It means they feel very strongly that he is inappropriate for employment in their department," he added.

A similar feeling comes from the Nelsen family, who shuddered at the thought of Franks returning to the streets of Palm Desert.

Nelsen's mother, Jimmie, 79, said Franks' callous negligence had proven he was unfit for duty.

“He should not get his job back,” she said. “If he could let that incident go by, and live with it, he’s not fit.”

Reporter Brett Kelman can be reached by phone at (760) 778-4642, by email at brett.kelman@desertsun.com, or on Twitter @TDSbrettkelman.