On Jan. 23, former Auburn Police Officer Jeffrey Nelson was sentenced to virtually 17 years in jail for the 2019 assault and homicide of Jesse Sarey. Nelson ignored his coaching and started a useless bodily encounter that ended along with his capturing Sarey, first within the intestine after which a second time within the head as Sarey sat on the bottom, mortally wounded.
To many readers, this case might by now really feel like outdated information. However what’s new is that in sentencing Nelson, King County Superior Court docket Choose Nicole Gaines Phelps sharply referred to as out the tradition of Nelson’s employer, the Auburn Police Division, which for years allowed Nelson’s violence to go unchecked.
Pretrial proof in Nelson’s case, taken from Auburn’s personal police data, documented Nelson’s historical past of extreme power as an officer. The jury didn’t hear this proof for authorized causes. However Choose Phelps was effectively conscious of it, and in sentencing Nelson she was free to think about what she knew to be his predilection for violence when his authority was questioned and his willingness to cowl up his illegal actions by submitting false police experiences.
As part of this pretrial proof, a police professional reviewed and wrote a report detailing Nelson’s historical past of utilizing power within the years main as much as Sarey’s homicide. The professional — one in all our authors, Jim Pugel — highlighted 17 episodes during which Nelson had clearly used extreme power by deploying his police canine, utilizing his Taser and rendering folks unconscious with a neck restraint, along with fatally capturing two folks earlier than he murdered Sarey. The report confirmed an unmistakable sample that ought to have been apparent to Nelson’s superiors.
One of many extreme power occasions Pugel recognized concerned a younger man who testified throughout a pretrial listening to about his encounter with Nelson. Choose Phelps repeatedly highlighted this incident in sentencing Nelson. On a summer season day in 2014, the younger man and Nelson traded insults on an Auburn avenue. The person had dedicated no crime, however Nelson nonetheless mentioned to his patrol companion, Cristian Adams, “You wish to (expletive) him up? I wish to (expletive) him up.” Nelson didn’t know he was being recorded. Moments later, Nelson shocked the younger man with a Taser and choked him unconscious as Adams assisted. Maybe most telling, Nelson was then recorded boasting to fellow officers, “I’ll take the largest and the baddest and make an instance of them.”
Astonishingly, Nelson’s supervisor authorised this use of power, merely cautioning Nelson to observe his language. Much more remarkably, Auburn Mayor Nancy Backus promoted that supervisor, Mark Caillier, to function the Auburn police chief whereas Nelson’s murder trial was nonetheless pending.
Nelson’s use of power historical past additionally consists of Auburn police video displaying him celebrating and high-fiving different officers after his police canine bit a teen who had already been taken into custody, and was left howling in ache. One other video captured Nelson steering his patrol automotive to collide with a shifting motorcyclist as a result of the rider had “flipped off” Nelson. One other report documented Nelson unleashing his canine on an individual who fled after merely jaywalking.
Complaints from throughout the division seem to have surfaced earlier than Sarey was killed. A number of workers complained a few “good outdated boy community” on the division and a failure of management to manage self-discipline. Discontent throughout the ranks in the end led to the commissioning of the McGrath Report that substantiated many of those points. But no motion was taken to handle the problems. The division even featured Nelson’s {photograph} prominently on its recruiting posters after Sarey’s killing.
Individuals who examine police science and coverage typically repeat the axiom that “tradition eats coverage for lunch” — even the very best insurance policies can not repair a tradition that overlooks, and even rewards, extreme power.
So many indicators pointed to a damaged tradition within the Auburn Police Division and but it doesn’t seem that any significant corrective motion was taken. After Nelson was charged, the Police Division refused to evaluation the Sarey capturing, regardless that it was inside its purview as his employer.
As a substitute, Auburn taxpayers saved paying Nelson’s full wage and advantages for years whereas he was on home arrest awaiting trial. Different police departments have taken disciplinary motion in opposition to officers when they’re underneath a felony cost. However nobody at Auburn was keen to take action. It possible would have uncovered some troublesome truths.
Throughout closing arguments in Nelson’s trial, and even later because the verdicts had been being learn, Chief Caillier — the highest-ranking police official within the metropolis — and different officers prominently arrayed themselves behind Nelson, carrying their police uniforms and badges in a present of solidarity. Confronted with responsible verdicts, the division and the town issued a press release claiming to “respect the decision.”
Nevertheless, somewhat than “respecting the decision” of 12 jurors who reviewed the crime video and heard the proof at trial, a number of Auburn law enforcement officials, together with present Auburn police Assistant Chief Sam Betz and Patrol Commander Adams, complained to the court docket at Nelson’s sentencing that the prosecution had portrayed Nelson unfairly. All attested to his good character and endorsed him for instance of excellent policing. Notably, not a single one in all them expressed the slightest regret or remorse over Sarey’s demise. They hardly talked about that somebody misplaced their life. To them, it was about Nelson being “bullied” by the prosecution.
Though the town pledged a evaluation of the Sarey murder after the verdicts, it’s not clear that evaluation has begun. However even when the division does examine, that work will presumably be accomplished by the identical individuals who vouched for Nelson at sentencing.
Auburn must look not solely at Nelson’s use of power in opposition to Sarey but in addition at a departmental tradition that tolerated and, at occasions celebrated, the police practices of an officer who has now been convicted of murdering an Auburn citizen. The Auburn Police Division must take a tough have a look at its insurance policies and practices within the wake of this homicide. However having good insurance policies in place won’t be sufficient if the tradition of the division, and the assist its leaders obtain from the town, stays unchanged. Town must reclaim the “core values” the division proclaims on its web site: “braveness, honor, integrity and professionalism.”
Now’s the time for Auburn and its police division to rise above any bunker mentality and to think about the biases and tradition that predisposed Auburn police management to fail to critically assess the makes use of of power by its police, and specifically, Nelson. Town of Auburn owes it to Jesse Sarey. It owes it to his household. It owes it to all the opposite neighborhood members who discovered themselves on the improper aspect of Nelson, a person with a badge who used violence in opposition to Auburn residents who challenged his authority. It owes it to your entire neighborhood as effectively.
All views expressed on this op-ed are the opinions of the authors.
