Key Facts Exposed in Sanders Case: We Don’t Need a Trial to See How Deep this Cover Up Goes

Shoddy Investigation or Suppressed Evidence?

In a November 8, 2009 email from Assistant Chief David Carter (Chief Acevedo’s right-hand man) to the Department of Homeland Security about the progress of the Austin Regional Intelligence Center (retrieved through an open records request), he explained some delays were due to the fallout of the Sanders shooting and specifically cited its “flawed investigation.” APD’s second in command recognized, and documented, long ago that the investigation was botched. City leaders have failed to publicly recognize this.

If they are going to hire a new outside lawyer (they already have one representing Quintana), independent of previous knowledge of the case, as the Mayor Pro Tem suggests they do in his blog last week, the City would do better to hire an attorney to come in and audit all the failings in the matter. KeyPoint didn't do that. They investigated the evidence gathered by APD and were not given enough time to dig deeper and find the evidence that has since come out in the civil suit; the evidence that isn't being discussed by our City leaders.

The Plaintiff's Response to the City's Motion for Summary Judgment reveals facts that were never entered into official evidence during the highly-accelerated APD Internal Affairs (IA) investigation. The facts the Council either hasn't seen yet, hasn't asked the Legal Department about (did Legal reveal this in the last executive session; they've known for 6 months?), or knows about yet some of them still play chicken with the community (which would be unforgivable) are:

1. NO GUN IN SANDERS' HAND: Internal Affairs didn't run the gun for fingerprints; but Plaintiffs in the civil suit have had it tested by independent experts and there are NO FINGERPRINTS ON THE GUNs Sanders supposedly had in his hand as he "struggled" with Quintana. The Plaintiffs' expert report cites that on the audio, you cannot detect any signs of a struggle. This report also states that from the moment Sanders awoke, in 2 seconds he had a bullet in his shoulder. A very groggy Sanders woke up, felt around for this gun, located it/got it in hand, then supposedly struggled with Quintana for it, then Quintana made a decision to and subsequently let go of the gun, ran backwards, drawing his gun, positioned himself, aimed and shot Sanders through the rear windshield into his shoulder before -the 3rd second- firing the second bullet into the back of his head. Could Sanders have found “his” gun in a pill-and-alcohol-induced haze, a struggle ensue and all of Quintana's subsequent physical actions taken place within 2 seconds?

2. SANDERS' HANDS WENT IN THE AIR: There were several witnesses who reported after the shooting they saw Sanders' hands go into the air (with no gun in hand) immediately upon awakening. Independent media on the scene talked to these people...and officers did too. Internal Affairs, however, chose to not officially interview these witnesses, so none of this was included in the investigation. Four of five known such witnesses were deposed for the civil suit testifying this is what they saw that night.

These two pieces of VERY important information were left out of the IA investigation, which means they weren’t considered by the Grand Jury or the Citizen's Review Panel, or KeyPoint. Of course he wasn't indicted, of course he wasn't recommended for termination - the story was up until then he had a gun in his hand and fought Quintana for it. These key suppressed pieces of evidence validate the KeyPoint findings that Quintana's actions were "criminal" (not to mention his lying about his actions being federal offenses).  

If we accept even one of these two pieces of evidence as fact, this means that there was NO STRUGGLE and Sanders was UNARMED. I repeat: NATHANIEL SANDERS, II, WAS UNARMED. He woke up, startled and groggy, put his hands in the air and Quintana freaked out for whatever reason, tumbled backwards and started shooting. When Quintana does appear in video, he’s flailing, discombobulated and visibly not in control – at all, as also noted by KeyPoint.

Also not dealt with thus far, was the fact that Sanders' body was left on the ground for all to see, including the Sanders family, for almost 6 hours. Tensions mounted and area residents reacted violently in response to this horrific failing on the City and County's part (the City blames the County, since the Medical Examiner is charged with removing bodies - but there's been no public discussion on what went wrong that day with City of County leaders). All APD's evidence shows that Sanders was shot while sitting in the back seat. Why then was his body moved outside of the car onto the ground? Isn't that tampering with evidence? 

The cover up is much deeper than most realize. This is yet another case of APD killing an unarmed youth of color and getting away with it - if the APA and some at the City have their way.

This means that Quintana should be subject to criminal prosecution. The District Attorney now has cause to reopen the case and the FBI has cause to do their own investigation. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice will continue to investigate it in the swath of cases being reviewed for excessive use of force.

By no means, is this over.

"Quality Constituent Service" 

But the City wants this to be over, despite a few of them "showboating."  But the longer our City keeps sidewinding and saber-rattling, and avoids talking about the real facts of the case and the REAL issues surrounding our failed accountability within both APD and City Hall and how to fix these problems..."settle with the people of Austin," so to speak...the longer this will go on, and the worse it will get. Our experience to this point SHOULD dictate they stop trying to cover up cover ups with more cover ups.

The problem is deeper than this one leg of this one case; it's not about going to trial or settling. It's about lack of accountability and lack of leadership. We need leadership who'll put the politics aside to save lives.

The Statesman, yesterday, opined that Austinites "should not be distracted by the sideshows but demand that the city show the cards — all of them...and show us regardless of whether the suit settles or goes before a jury."

Amen to that.

A coalition of community activists supporting reforms the Statesman alludes to as a solution to our current problems, rather than focus on the specific fires raging at the moment, put out the following statement:

"Austin Police Accountabilty Coalition (APAC) supports the Sanders family in their efforts to seek justice. Although APAC is not taking a position on whether the settlement is the best course of action for the Sanders family or the City, we recognize that the proposed settlement does nothing to correct the systematic failures that the Sanders case brought to light. We want to know when our City leaders are going to take action to settle with the people of Austin and fix our broken system of police accountability so that this does not happen again."

APAC will not only present needed reforms to police oversight and police policy to Council this Thursday, but challenge each and every one of them to take on specific tasks in our community project. We need to begin now as there's a lot of work ahead of us before the next meet and confer negotiations begin in 2012. Let's hope Council gracefully accepts the challenge to the fullest and starts to rebuild the broken trust as they fix the broken processes.

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APAC meets Tuesdays, 6-8 pm at 5604 Manor and will hold a press conference and "Rally for Reform!" at City Hall this Thursday, July 29th at 11:45am.  Find us on Facebook.