People in Baltimore and other cities accuse police of sometimes giving prisoners an extra-rough "nickel ride" in the back of a transport van and are asking whether this tactic might have been a factor in the death of Freddie Gray.
Gray was arrested and put into a transport van. He died a week later of a mysterious spinal injury suffered at some point while in police custody.
A lawyer for the Baltimore police officers union said Gray wasn't strapped in with a seat belt after he was hoisted into a police van and driven to a Baltimore station.
If that's correct, the officers who arrested Gray would appear to have violated a policy issued by their own department just nine days before the April 12 arrest.
The document, released by a police department spokesman, says "all passengers, regardless of age and location, shall be restrained by seat belts or other authorized restraining devices."
Assistant Police Commissioner Jerry Rodriguez said Gray was secured by "leg irons" after he became agitated during the trip, but the department hasn't said whether he was left otherwise unsecured, as Attorney Michael Davey has said. Davey acknowledged that department policy requires seat belts, but said "policy is policy, practice is something else," particularly if a prisoner is combative.
A lawyer for the family of Dondi Johnson said that he died of a "rough ride" after his arrest for public urination in Baltimore in 2005. Attorney Kerry D. Staton said Johnson was seated alone in the van with his hands cuffed behind him and no seat belt to restrain him.
Staton said Johnson broke his neck after he was thrown from one seat into the opposite wall. His family won a $7.4 million judgment that was reduced to $200,000, the legal cap for such cases.
In 2001, Philadelphia police barred transportation of prisoners without padding or belts after The Philadelphia Inquirer reported the city paid $2.3 million to settle lawsuits by people subjected to intentionally rough rides, including two who were permanently paralyzed.
