LITTLE VALLEY, N.Y. — Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Rieman’s office is investigating the November 2012 death of an Erie County Holding Center inmate, which is now ruled a homicide.
Rieman confirmed Wednesday she has been appointed special prosecutor on the reopened case analyzing the death of Richard A. Metcalf Jr., 35, who died after being restrained for exhibiting bizarre, self-injurious behavior in his cell. Former Erie County District Attorney Frank Sedita filed no charges following an initial investigation, but a new report from the New York State Commission of Correction alleges corrections officers are culpable in the suffocation death.
Rieman will not speak publicly on the case until completing the investigation, at which point her office will release its findings.
She did say she potentially could pursue homicide charges “or anything else appropriate” against the officers allegedly responsible.
Newly elected Erie County DA John Flynn Jr. — following through on a campaign promise to re-examine Metcalf’s death — sought an external office to avoid conflicts of interest.
A report by the Medical Review Board to the state Commission of Correction stated: “Had Metcalf received appropriate crisis level mental health care for his acute psychosis with proper restraint methods and pharmacologic interventions, and had been the subject of a properly supervised use of physical force, his death could have been prevented.” The 25-page document, released in October, detailed the traumatic series of events from Metcalf’s Nov. 27 burglary arrest that year to reportedly being choked by a spit mask at the Erie County Holding Center the next night to his death Nov. 30.
Photos released afterward show Metcalf on a ventilator at Erie County Medical Center, his face cherry red from asphyxiation and bruised by reportedly self-inflicted blows. A video from the holding center shows the inmate leaving the facility on a stretcher, lying motionless on his stomach with a pillowcase and spit mask covering his head.
A review uncovered “evidence of the classic elements of a death that was caused directly by traumatic asphyxia with compression of the torso and neck,” the report stated. An initial New York State Police investigation completed in 2013 claimed Metcalf died of a heart attack.
The night he was subdued, corrections officers and nearby inmates witnessed Metcalf banging his head against the bars, punching and biting himself, drawing blood with a plastic fork, and shouting “radioactive” and “slaughterhouse.”
Officers used force to stop him, and he began spitting blood, the report stated. The spit mask placed on him was tied so tightly around Metcalf’s neck that EMTs first transferring him to Buffalo General Hospital that night had to cut it off with scissors. Metcalf reportedly bit through the mask, prompting officers to use the pillowcase in violation of the sheriff’s office policy regarding restraints, according to the report.
In an earlier prepared statement to the media, Erie County Sheriff’s Office representative Scott Zylka said the agency had “reviewed the report and disputes many of its purported findings. In preparing the report, we believe the (state corrections commission) mischaracterized and misinterpreted critical evidence, and the failure to accurately take account of that evidence led to flawed conclusions. The Erie County Sheriff’s Office looks forward to defending itself and the actions of its deputies in court.”
Metcalf had shown increasingly “bizarre and erratic” behavior for about a week before his arrest, family members told investigators.
He regularly used alcohol, marijuana and cocaine, and was prone to a “paranoid thought process,” the report stated. In the early hours of Nov. 27, Metcalf reportedly ran from an apartment he shared with his girlfriend, broke into a nearby catering business and entered its walk-in cooler.
“Metcalf stated his rationale … was he felt hot and wanted to cool off,” the report stated, noting a Depew police officer shot him twice with a Taser before arresting him for burglary.
Multiple police officials and doctors interviewed said he appeared to be either mentally ill or on drugs. He was, however, approved for general supervision with no special precautions or treatments.
Metcalf’s family has filed a wrongful death civil suit.
