Inquest to probe officers in man’s homicide

Keith Paul

Tuesday, April 2, 2002 | 10:50 a.m.

Three Metro Police officers face a coroner's inquest after a medical examiner ruled the February death of a 46-year-old man who died in a struggle with them was a homicide.

The inquest, to be held in the next few weeks, will determine whether the officers' actions were justified or criminal in the death of Craig Becker at his home, Clark County Coroner Ron Flud said Monday. The official cause of death was restraint asphyxiation, Flud said.

"A killing by another is a homicide; we are not making a ruling on whether it is criminal or not. That's what the inquest will determine," Flud said.

Becker's wife, Rebecca Becker, said "Metro was out of line" in dealing with her husband. She has contacted an attorney.

Officers James Coovert, Christopher Peto and Matthew Gillis were called to Becker's East Washington Avenue house about 2:30 p.m. on Feb. 16 and found him destroying his home. Police say Becker started to fight with the officers as they tried to take him into custody for a psychological evaluation.

The officers pepper sprayed Becker with little or no effect, but were able to hold him down and handcuff him. The officers rolled him on his side, and found he had stopped breathing. He was taken to Lake Mead Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Restraint asphyxiation is caused when someone is held down and the person's own weight along with pressure makes it impossible for the person to breathe, Flud said. However, other factors also led to Becker's death, the coroner said.

"It appears that a combination of his physical condition, his medical condition, the activity he engaged in (the struggle with the officers), the officers trying to hold him down and the restraint caused the asphyxia," he said.

Flud said there were some injuries to the back of Becker's neck showing the use of restraint, but there was no evidence that a choke hold was used.

Rebecca Becker said the officers were too harsh with her husband and didn't get him medical attention quickly enough. She said she wasn't home at the time, but her two stepsons, ages 13 and 14, told her Becker was pulled out of the house and kicked while on the ground.

"They (the officers) were holding him down and he was turning blue," said Rebecca Becker, who married Craig Becker three years ago. "The last thing he said to one of his sons was 'Please help me.' "

When one of the two boys tried to go to his father, an officer pushed the boy back, Rebecca Becker said.

"It's really hard on the boys. They saw the whole thing," she said. The boys have gone to live with their mother in Salt Lake City.

Lt. Vincent Cannito, a department spokesman, said as soon as Becker started having medical problems, paramedics -- who were already at the house -- were called over.

"The officers utilized the necessary amount of force to bring the situation under control," he said.

Becker didn't have any illegal drugs in his system; however, he was overweight and had health problems. What led to his outburst and destruction of his home in front of two teenage sons was unknown.

"We don't understand what happened," she said. "He just snapped. I don't understand it. He never did that before."

The case is similar to the asphyxiation death of 33-year-old French national Philippe LeMenn in the Clark County jail on Jan. 4, 2001, after a struggle with correction officers. A coroner's inquest jury ruled in a 5-2 vote that LeMenn's death was excusable, not criminal.

The man's family later filed a federal lawsuit, which is still pending.

The coroner's inquest system -- in which prosecutors present the case and no direct cross examination of witnesses is allowed -- has drawn criticism from the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada. In more than 100 inquests since 1976, only one jury ruled an officer was criminally responsible in connection with a death. That ruling was later overturned, when a Clark County grand jury refused to indict the officers.

"We at the ACLU have little faith that the coroner's inquest process will get to the truth of what actually happened," said Gary Peck, executive director of the ACLU of Nevada. "That will have to wait for some other legal proceeding where all sides can present (facts) and cross examine.""