Syracuse, NY - An Onondaga County grand jury has recommended more education and law enforcement training about the effects of today's abused drugs - and a change in the way emergency teams are used in dangerous situations in the jail - in the wake of inmate Raul Pinet Jr.'s death.

The grand jury's nine-page report into the circumstances of Pinet's August 2010 death was made public this afternoon by Onondaga County Judge Joseph Fahey after his review of the grand jury proceeding.

District Attorney William Fitzpatrick revealed last Thursday that a grand jury had issued a report after finding no cause to file any criminal charges against any of the law enforcement officials who dealt with Pinet the night of his death.

The grand jury accepted the findings of Dr. Robert Stoppacher, the county medical examiner, who concluded Pinet died as a result of sudden cardiac arrest due to cocaine-induced excited delirium syndrome with a contributing factor of prone restraint.

Members of the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team (SERT) had placed restraint belts on Pinet after he was brought to the Justice Center jail by Syracuse police. He had begun struggling with deputies in the booking area.

After the restraints and a spit hood were placed on Pinet, he was stripped of his clothing - to make sure he had no contraband or weapons - and left alone in a padded room called a "time-out room," the grand jury said.

After the SERT deputies returned to their regular duties, other deputies noticed Pinet was not moving, the grand jury noted. Those deputies were unable to get any reaction from Pinet despite yelling to him, pounding on the door and spraying cold water on him, the grand jury wrote.

By the time emergency team deputies were called back to go into the room to check on Pinet, he had been alone in the room for approximately seven minutes, the grand jury noted.

The grand jury concluded incidents such as the one involving Pinet must be treated as medical emergencies. Those kinds of emergencies are likely to occur again and again with the increased use of certain substances, including synthetic drugs, the panel noted.

The grand jury made the following recommendations:

The grand jury also provided a detailed description of the incident that led to Pinet being brought to the jail the night of Aug. 6, 2010.

Two female residents of a home at 208 Merriman Ave. found Pinet opening and closing the door of their porch and looking in the windows of their residence. When they confronted him because they did not know him, Pinet asked for and was given a glass of water.

He then asked the women to call an ambulance, telling them he had overdosed on heroin.

When police and Rural Metro personnel arrived, Pinet ran through the backyard, hopped a fence and fled toward Shonnard Street.

Pinet then ran onto the porch of the home at 309 Shonnard St. and attempted to get inside the residence. The female owner prevented him from entering and called 911 as Pinet ran away again.

Pinet then went to another neighboring home and asked a resident for help and a drink of water. He repeatedly said someone was going to kill him and acted in a panicked manner.

Pinet then grabbed the resident's 7-year-old son, let him go and grabbed the woman's 2-year-old son.

Police arrived and got into a struggle with Pinet to place him in handcuffs. The struggle carried Pinet and police officers off the porch and down into the front yard of the residence where Pinet tried to bite one of the officers.

When Pinet's sister arrived, police managed to calm Pinet before a prisoner transport van arrived. That's when Pinet began struggling again, forcing police to physically pick up Pinet and carry him to the vehicle.

Pinet was screaming and kicking the walls of the van during the ride to the jail.

Once at the jail, Pinet told deputies he had smoked water (PCP), but then retracted that statement and said he didn't want to die. When the door to the van was opened to let Pinet out, he slumped to the ground and again began struggling with officers.

That's when the SERT team was summoned which placed Pinet in restraints and put him in the time out room.

A nurse who evaluated Pinet at that point conducted an inadequate medical evaluation before Pinet was left alone in the room.

Deputies later noticed Pinet was not moving and the SERT team was called back to get him out of the room. He was declared dead at Upstate Hospital at 9:49 p.m., about an hour after his arrival at the jail.

The state Commission of Correction issued a report in April concluding deputies caused Pinet's death by kneeling on his back and neck and improperly fitting him with a mask to block his spitting. The commission concluded those actions interfered with Pinet's ability to breathe.

The grand jury made no such finding of blame in assessing the evidence. According to the report, the grand jury heard testimony from 25 witnesses and concluded the conduct of the city police and sheriff's deputies who were involved with Pinet that night had been "reasonable in the exercise of their officials powers, duties or functions."

See Sheriff Kevin Walsh's reaction.

20120906134546226.pdf