D.A. says troopers not at fault

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Nearly a year to the day since Kenneth Howe died in police custody following a struggle on the lawn of The Eagle-Tribune, Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett has determined that police did nothing wrong. The decision today means no officers will be prosecuted or disciplined as a result of Howe’s death, although a civil suit by the family against the police and the district attorney is still continuing.

What’s probably most notable about today’s decision is the acknowledgement that Howe did appear to die as a result of the struggle with police, but that in the DA’s opinion the fault seems to lie with Howe himself. Clearly this isn’t a Rodney King case where police were seen beating a suspect. Blodgett reiterated several times that there was no evidence that Howe was beaten, kicked or punched. In fact, our own Eagle-Tribune photographer Carl Russo who witnessed the apprehension told the D.A. that he saw no evidence of that either. But what Blodgett does emphasize is that right from the get-go — which occurred as police were conducting a routine sobriety check point in front of our office here in North Andover — Howe appeared to fight police at every turn and resist any attempts to subdue him.

What the civil suit will likely concentrate on, however, is whether simply apprehending Howe and holding him on the ground while he struggled caused his death and left police responsible. Clearly the family feels so. What do you think?

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  • http://twitter.com/murmur55 murmur55

    Where’s the journalism on this case? Why was Blodgett not questioned more thoroughly?

    Mr. Kenneth Howe died from positional asphyxia, also known as restraint asphyxia, at the hands of the violent, abusive, poorly trained police. The mechanism of action is confirmed by the photos of a prone man with officers on top of him for a sustained amount of time and the autopsy finding of “compression of chest”. Charges against the police should have been brought by the DA.

    This is a well known cause of “in custody deaths”. See NYPD video explaining the process: YouTube – Positional asphyxia 2003 http://bit.ly/eRBQRq. See also DOJ report: Positional Asphyxia and Sudden Death http://bit.ly/fWyJKg.

    Once in the prone position, Mr. Howe’s struggles were due to air hunger from being suffocated by the prone position itself, in addition to the body weight of the police officers. The police officers, both individually and as a group, then failed to correctly identify the ensuing crisis which inexorably leads to death if not immediately rectified.

  • http://twitter.com/murmur55 murmur55

    Where's the journalism on this case? Why was Blodgett not questioned more thoroughly?

    Mr. Kenneth Howe died from positional asphyxia, also known as restraint asphyxia, at the hands of the violent, abusive, poorly trained police. The mechanism of action is confirmed by the photos of a prone man with officers on top of him for a sustained amount of time and the autopsy finding of “compression of chest”. Charges against the police should have been brought by the DA.

    This is a well known cause of “in custody deaths”. See NYPD video explaining the process: YouTube – Positional asphyxia 2003 http://bit.ly/eRBQRq. See also DOJ report: Positional Asphyxia and Sudden Death http://bit.ly/fWyJKg.

    Once in the prone position, Mr. Howe's struggles were due to air hunger from being suffocated by the prone position itself, in addition to the body weight of the police officers. The police officers, both individually and as a group, then failed to correctly identify the ensuing crisis which inexorably leads to death if not immediately rectified.

  • Disgusted by Cowards

    These Police officers are COWARDS!!  I saw the bruises on his chest, he did not die from only Positional Aspyhixia!!!  He was stomped on while shackled, and these animals need to not only be suspended IMMEDIATELY, but fired from the force!!!!!  Hopefully justice will prevail in this case.  My heart goes out to the family of Kenneth Howe.  

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