DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE: Charles Eimers Death-in-Custody
by Naja and Arnaud Girard…….
The image of the gray PT Cruiser parked sideways on South Beach with the huddle of Key West police officers who’d just realized the man they’d piled on top of had stopped breathing is probably going to remain in the memories of Key Westers for a long time.
What went wrong on that Thanksgiving morning in 2013 has been the center of considerable controversy.
“My dad always had this dream of spending a winter in Key West,” Treavor Eimers, Charles Eimers’ son, told The Blue Paper two years ago.
It was Charles’ first day in Key West. That morning he had run into trouble with KWPD, a low speed chase ended up on the beach at the end of Duval Street. Charles would not survive the encounter with a half a dozen of Key West’s finest. The incident has left the community with many unanswered questions.
Another piece of the puzzle arrived this week with the announcement by the Department of Justice that they had completed the review of the FBI’s investigation into the in-custody death of the 61-year-old tourist. DOJ declined to take any action against the officers under the federal criminal civil rights statutes. A complaint had been submitted by Key West’s Citizen Review Board [CRB], last year, over concerns of a possible cover-up of police use of excessive force.
It was a story that began in November of 2013 and just kept getting worse. Initially KWPD reported that a tourist had been fighting officers on the beach, had run away and collapsed all of a sudden. They’d said he’d had no pulse when officers got to him and they immediately began CPR.
Then eyewitnesses told The Blue Paper the police had tased the man to death. When we asked KWPD about the incident we were assured that the man was still at the hospital. In fact, he’d been dead for days and his body was next in line to be cremated — without a mandatory autopsy.
By December 13th The Blue Paper had found a video showing Charles Eimers on the beach, not fighting, but obeying every order the officers gave him, hands up, lying on the sand, until he is heard yelling “Oww!! You’re hurting me! “ Then more officers pile up on top of him.
The video stopped short. Eimers never regained consciousness after the encounter. With no hope of recovery, the family decided to take him off life support. They learned about the true fate of their dad in The Blue Paper and filed a lawsuit for wrongful death and excessive force championed by local attorneys David Paul Horan and son Darren Horan.
Officially, FDLE was to investigate the in-custody death for possible criminal charges, but witnesses complained FDLE agents had intimated them. Others said that agents were ignoring their attempts to give testimony. Dashcam video went missing, police dispatch records were apparently edited, important witnesses were unaccounted for.
Relying on FDLE investigator, Special Agent Kathy Smith, the medical examiner ruled Eimers must have died of heart failure, listing the struggle with police as a contributing factor. The testimony of the officers, as reported by Agent Smith, had convinced the coroner that Eimers had not been smothered in the sand on South Beach since his face “was never in the sand,” and he was “talking” prior to “collapsing.” That version, however, was contradicted by civilian witnesses.
That’s when the news broke out that Agent Kathy Smith, the FDLE agent who was heading the investigation, was the ex-wife of the Key West Police Captain who had been in charge of operations on the day of Eimers’ arrest. The Blue Paper later published documents that showed the two had been involved in a real estate scheme that included blatant perjury.
Facing mounting public outrage, State Attorney Catherine Vogel convened a Grand Jury to look into possible criminal charges being brought against the officers involved. However, local FBI agent, Patty Thompson, “helped out” by recommending an expert law enforcement witness who would testify in defense of the officers – a method which has become the trademark for Grand Jury investigations involving police officers around the country. When police officers appear as defendants, the proceeding turns into a one-sided secret trial that almost invariably clears the officers. Key West was no exception.
Agent Kathy Smith’s investigative report, now finally made available to the press, was another bombshell. Most of the dashcam videos and audio recordings had been erased, Officer Gary Lee Lovette’s taser video recording appeared to be missing: Even though the officer had testified that he had activated the device, mysteriously, the recording began only just after the incident was over. But most extraordinary was that it had remained on after the arrest, recording for over one hour unbeknownst to the officer.
Officer Lovette is heard claiming:
“We just killed someone.”
Someone at his home is heard asking: “Really, was he black? Was he homeless?”
He says, “Me, I dropped like a fucking bomb on his head.”
“Yeah, well we killed him.”
The civil case against the officers and the City however kept pushing forward and attorneys began the process of deposing the officers who had been present at the scene. The official story was pretty consistent: Charles Eimers was fiercely resisting the officers. He never had his face in the sand. He could breathe and talk until he was raised to his feet. Some officers said at that point he collapsed, others insisted he was still combative and had even tried to walk away.
Nina Newton singing “I Can’t Breathe”
After they were all done testifying under oath along came the final bombshell. Defense attorneys found a tourist in Colombia who had another video. It showed horrific footage of Eimers lying on the beach unconscious – his face completely caked up with sand and blood running out of his ear.
At that point, the City’s insurance company pulled the plug and ordered the City to settle or face the jury at its own risk. The case settled for $900,000.
The near-miss cremation of Charles Eimers before the required autopsy had caught CBS News’ attention. They published a piece entitled “Death in Paradise.” That story was followed a few months later by an even darker version, after the second video arrived from Colombia.
After finally conducting his own internal investigation, KWPD Chief Donie Lee issued a five-day suspension for officer Lovette. Detective Todd Stevens, who had been made a scapegoat, was demoted for not having made sure Eimers’ body was sent to the medical examiner. Yet even after it was clear at KWPD headquarters that Eimers had indeed died, the department still hesitated for another 24 hours before informing the medical examiner of his death.
KWPD Captain Smith, who had applied for a job at FDLE the same day Charles Eimers’ was taken off life support, now works as an investigator for the Public Defenders’ office. Kathy Smith was investigated for perjury, but the Statute of limitations had run out. None of the officers, who so obviously lied under oath, were disciplined.
The investigative report from the DOJ is not yet available. It will be interesting to know whether the FBI actually made efforts to locate missing witnesses, like the group of New York police officers who were on vacation and who reportedly described the arrest as “legalized murder on the beach.”
To KWPD’s credit, considerable changes have been made in response to the Eimers tragedy. The policy on prone restraint has been changed to include the need for an officer to monitor the suspect’s vital signs. All officers are now equipped with body worn cameras. So far, the cameras have produced very useful recordings that have helped dispel many accusations of police use of excessive force.
Eimers’ attorneys and many members of the public have blamed Eimers’ death, in part, on the City’s custom and policy of deliberately treating homeless men and women harshly with the hope they would then choose to leave town. Could it have been Mr. Eimers disheveled look, after a long journey living in his car, that sealed his fate?
Homeless people are still walking a parallel legal universe: drinking in public, the number one tourist sport on Duval Street, is a 30 days jail sentence for homeless people. Sitting on a folding chair at Bayview Park is called illegal camping. There are multiple reports of wrongful arrest, untraceable under the pretense of the Baker Act or Marchman Act. “Personal stun guns” also escape the record. As long as the City’s police are expected to follow two different sets of rules, to be partial to the Key West tourist industry, the risk of overboard reactions stemming from a sense of impunity and ill-conceived duty could still turn into tragedy.
SHAMEFUL. At least the Bluepaper has documented what really happened with the cover-ups, witness intimidation , and all the other stuff THAT REALLY HAPPENED. This would rival a John Grisham novel if it were fiction, but all the lying and obfuscation really happened. So much for justice, accountability , and One Human Family. Will they really get away with this ,City Commissioners?
” We received a complaint that officials of your agency may have been involved in violating the civil rights of Mr. Charles John Eimers. We recently completed our review of the results of the investigation of that complaint to determine whether a federal criminal prosecution was warranted. After careful consideration, we concluded that the evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes.” – Paige M. Fitzgerald, Acting Section Chief,Criminal Section, United States Department of Justice
Apparently murder isn’t a human rights violation in insane world.
I suggest all you concerned citizens to contact Paige M. Fitzgerald at
http://www.leadershipdirectories.com/profiles/Paige-Fitzgerald-Deputy-Chief-Criminal-Section-Civil-Rights.htm
At the bottom of the page toggle Contact Us.
Paige and her department need to know that this murder of Charles Elmers will not fade. I suggest this murder would be good on Dateline or 48 hours. I suggest someone right a book.
There are many many tourist who are now afraid and disgusted with KW and more and more will find out about this danger. People vacation to enjoy and relax. How can any knowingly tourist enjoy and relax in KW??
I saw the other day where former State Attorney Dennis Ward filed to run for State Attorney this year. I wonder what he might say on the campaign trail about how State Attorney Catherine Vogel handled the grand jury she impaneled in the Charles Eimers case? I wonder if he will say he would have prosecuted Key West police officers and Cathy Smith of Florida Department of Law Enforcement? Thanks to the blue paper, we have the real version, and not just the official version.
The ugly stain of the MURDER of Charles Eimers will forever be remembered by good people who live in and visit Key West, and good people from around the world who have been made aware of this perversion by police officers and their superiors. The total breakdown of police conduct and subsequent investigations has disgraced Key West forever. The perpetrators of this heinous crime, and those who attempted to cover it up – several individuals named in this article – got away with MURDER.
But it is not over. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of news accounts from around the world will live in perpetuity, telling good people of this shameful affair.
Enjoy the rest of your life, something you took away from Charles Eimers.
Based on how the city races went in 2014, when the Eimers case was getting a lot of coverage even in the Key West Citizen and the Keynoter, and twice on CBS Morning Show, there were not many people in Key West who were upset with how the mayor and city commissioners handled the Eimers case. Based on the hordes of people coming to Key West since 2014, the Eimers case had zero impact on the city’s tourist trade.
I’ve commented long and hard from the beginning and all I have left is a copy n paste of my last for I’m now out of fresh words and said this fed would turn a blind eye back when. sooo.
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wankajm says:
February 19, 2016 at 6:43 am
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how will it go if…..the 2 video recordings of Charles eimers ‘death on the beach’ are shown along with the time lines and perjured depositions and other “inconvenient” facts like mr f-bomb’s taser recording. the totally compliant poor sand face encrusted man was killed that day by asphyxiation and didn’t die from a heart problem just because he was taken off the ventilator machine a week later. this is not to say there was any shred of malice since there was none on behalf of key west’s blue team kids but is to say the kid’s play acting being a tv swat dwat can be bad for ones health and the cost of killing has not been met by any standard. great bobble headed cover up though had everyone up and down the line nodding in the affirmative!
best to all. wjm
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wankajm says:
March 3, 2016 at 12:38 am
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maybe not the only 2 but the only 2 to reply for now. I think the kwpd has had a religious experience at least I hope it did and lee needs use the 2 videos at any training session he can to instill in any newcomer just what could and did happen when you play tv swat. should never ever happen again is the lesson. but he won’t…so I leave it up to the next chief to use both videos the ‘before’ and the ‘after’ one!
poor Charles was dead’er then a doornail when they rolled him over with his sand encrusted face on the 2nd video.
sad the family settled on that scam of only 1M insurance because if they took a closer look into kw finance they would find the municipality had $35+M in reserve funds and a far cry from just $1M insurance,
but the discovery screeched to a stop and many ‘truths’ were buried that day. oh well life goes on. wjm
Yes life goes on but not for Mr Eimers.
Carless action like this will someday cost KW millions.
At the beginning of that video at .14 I heard something I had missed before. “get on the ground” “do it now” sounds like a female.
Up till now I had assumed he did this on his own. So in reallity he did exactly as he was ordered to do by a cop. How can anything get so far out of control as what we all can clearly see ? And to come charging after him that way was stupid. What if he did have a gun ? The order should have been ” freeze ” ” put your hand on top of your head and turn around slowly” Cops are trained better than to take such a risk of being shot at. Many wrong actions took place. Very poor method of making this arrest.
As to the claim of targetted as homeless , maybe I am missing something. How could they know this till they searched his car ? He clearly had no idea where he was going or would not drove to the end of Duval with no way out. None of us will ever know what he was thinking from the time he was pulled over till his death.
So yes they did an investigation but did they watch this vidio ? Did they have all of the evidence and still not see abuse of power ? Why was this amount of cops needed to make a simple arrest ? If they can say no violation after seeing all of this then they never will in any case. Just one big happy corrupt family covering up each others lies.
Will this case cost future tourist ? How can it not ? Only possable gain this sort of thing sometimes can cause is attention to Key West that it might never got before. So sadly yes it could actually help gain tourists.
What upsets me the most is the way cheif Lee took no action to maybe calm down a situation that brings shame to Key West. For most of the times we been in KW and that is very often what we see is a very tolerant professhional police department. We do feel safe at night walking down Duval and that is not something we can say about many other towns. But always remember that even just one bad apple destroys all of them.
Also upsetting is how cops can openly commit perjury in a court and no action taken.
Without this paper we would likely never hear anything negative about this city that clearly is very corrupt. Not sure if it is over yet but hope it does reach attention at some level to bring justice. And trust me I tell everyone we meet to check out the Blue paper and google in Eimers. This is one case that will harm KW for years.
During depositions officers stated that Eimers looked dirty – that he was dressed in hospital pants.
That is shocking to be judging a man based on the of pants he was wearing. Can easily see that after a very long drive from Ohio to KW that ones appearance is a bit less than desirable and to make such a trip in a small car with no trunk such as a PT. would be disorderly. Am I wrong in assuming that this traffic stop was more than asking for drivers license and registration ? The cop must be highly trained to judge that fast and easy. Sure the car might look bit messy but that is exactly how many tourists arrive after a day or two of hard driving. That is hardly reason enough to assume homeless. But yes then seems at this point he was targeted as homeless. And in fact we were told he had just arrived and planning on spending the winter. So yes till he finds a place to rent he is homeless. Is that a crime ?
Jiminkeywest, the officer who made the traffic stop on North Roosevelt, in all that haywire, confusing, dangerous traffic caused by the entire road being redone, profiled Eimers as appearing to live in his vehicle. Cops chatter, especially during a chase. From something you posted under one of my recent homeless in Key West articles, that KW police should round up drunk homeless people to make is safe for locals and tourists, but nothing from you about rounding up the many, many more drunk not homeless people here, I was left feeling you are a bit biased against homeless people. These cops had Eimers pegged as living in his vehicle. He clearly was unarmed. He clearly obeyed their orders and did not resist at the beach. And they clearly killed him there. And then they clearly tried to spin it their way, not yet knowing of the bystanders’ videos. The city officials demonstrated no remorse for what their cops had done. No apology to the Eimers family. They knew their cops believed Eimers was homeless, and they know the city’s policy is to target homeless people and make them as uncomfortable as possible, as the law allows, and even beyond what the law allows, to discourage them from being here. If you had lived on the street here, or if you had friends here who lived in their vehicles, you would not be so incredulous that the city commission has its police targeting homeless people. It’s the city’s policy. It’s been going on for years, and nearly all of the good people of Key West want it that way, Arnaud and Naja Girard and I talked about that today, and we have had much the same conversation in the past.
Sorry if you took anything I said as being biased as I am far from that. Am sure being homeless is very hard. And after hearing about the conditions of the shelter it seems the woods would be safer. Someone in the health department is not doing their job.
Up till last night I missed the few very low orders from the cop telling him to get on the ground. Till then I assumed he laid down on the ground on his own free will as an indication of surrender. This changes little about what followed as he complied and all that was required was to cuff him. To have 7 cops jump on him is clearly misuse of the amount of force required to make the arrest. So yes violated. What followed was a bunch of on duty cops looking to join in on a game of thug cop with adrenaline rush. That Lee defended them is not surprising. Plenty of wrong issues in KW. I had always been told cops had to follow a code of ethics on the job and off. Seems that is not the case in the KWPD.
Yes it was murder and seems the KWPD got away with it. At this point will simply believe the right department or news reporters have not been alerted yet.
We all know why they don’t go after the drunk tourist or enforce the open container law on tourists. Tourist have the one thing KW wants and that is money. And without them KW would become a ghost town and be far less jobs and even fewer cops. This is called doing your job just enough to stay employed but not enough to make the need of that job go away.
We did notice the last few visits to KW that we seen an old van with a wood box on it’s rear seemed to stay at Fort Zack every day and that seemed a bit odd that they could afford to pay the park fee if homeless. Had not noticed they were ran off of higgs beach. Will assume they park on the street at night and for what ever reason the cops are leaving them alone.
Can tell you if they are serious enough to remove all of the homeless that they have enough laws on the book to make life pure h— to the point of they will leave. Only thing stopping them is it cost them more than they can afford to arrest all of them and lock them up. Given the choice between KOTS and jail it does seem that jail would be a better choice.
I do feel sorry for anyone that ends up homeless but that is the result of a system of SS that simply is not enough to live on. And that situation will be getting far worse as the number of workers that retire end up without owning a home and unable to afford rent.
But as far as the Eimers case I am not sure how it would have changed even if the man was not homeless. He left the seen after being pulled over for a traffic stop. The officer had no choice but to pursue him and at that point acted proper. Would the story ended better ?
The people who live in vans generally are pretty okay people, they tend to be educated, interesting, informed, lowish income, either retirement or social security or VA. Some make a little money selling their art. They are like a subculture, live else where in their vans, and sometimes stay with friends or relatives.
Then are people who live in their vehicles here, who live here full time, but can’t afford rent for one reason or another, tending not to be their fault.
Likewise, many people live with relatives or friends, because of financial strain.
The street people are further down the ladder, many are chemically dependent and/or mentally ill in some way or another. There are some street people who are really smart and just as interesting. And other variations.
The city doesn’t want any of them here, but is constrained by law to tolerate having homeless people, many of whom end up in the sheriff’s jail for offenses non homeless are not jailed.
KWPD also is using the jail as a Marchman Act facility, and the hospital, too – usually for drunk homeless people.
Perhaps, I hope so, the Eimers tragedy woke the city and its police up, and we won’t see anything like that again here.
Eimers did talk and behave strangely when he was stopped for illegally changing lanes. He could have been viewed as on something, or mentally ill, as well as homeless. But he didn’t do anything aggressive, and his death was bizarre and pointless, is about the kindest way I can say it.
The blue paper has had an effect on city hall and its police, more so after Naja and Arnaud took the helm.
Oh Keys, Oh Keys. Oh Keys. How little doth yee know of the shananigans that walk on your top. How little doth yee know of the life that disappears from your top. Or maybe yee do know. Maybe yee were looking up when Mr Eimers was looking down and praying for his last breath. Maybe yee are looking up and trying to find the very culprits and lowlifes that extinguished Mr Eimers’ life. Maybe yee have put a curse on these lowlifes already . One doth never know.
What is this illegally changing lanes? Is this changing lanes without a turn signal? If so, that constitutes a warning at the most. I suggest he was first targeted because he was out of state, not local and thus an easy target. This BS of looking into someones vehicle back seat to see if they might have slept in it is utterly ridiculous and then to lump them along with the truly homeless is absurd. I suggest Elmers did absolutely nothing wrong or illegal and was an easy target because the cops were having a slow day. Elmers had some money as obvious since he had a nice vehicle, and would have spent some in Key West. Who in their right mind would ever take a chance visiting KW knowing this could happen to them? Who would ever visit KW knowing that corruption of all government agencies is rampant?
From googling about homeless many articles do show an ongoing problem. It is always important to establish the date of the article. And yes seems the methods the city and KWPD are using walk a thin line on legality. Find it interesting that they now define visiting the beach as sometimes camping. If reading this right they might view a single person with a van arriving early morning at higgs beach and spending most of the day as a camper or at the option of an officer to see it as a person living here or visiting as just enjoying a day at the beach. That is a very fine line. So what we now see is they push them to pay to enter fort zack and are fine with this. Am not at all sure just where they go when park closes. Will assume find free street parking. And now they run into the next law of living in vehicle. Seems pretty clear they intend to stop anyone from living free or cheap in Key West and if active they soon run all the homeless off of KW.
Not surprised at all because unless spending money KW does not want you.
What is not clear is if Charles Eimers was actually homeless or just arrived and had money to try and find a rental. Perhaps the real truth of what went on at that traffic stop will never be known. If that officer had him pegged as homeless then perhaps things did not go the way we were told. Just how long was he detained for what should been a simple ticket ? Would I trust the word of that cop ? LOL we all know cops lie some even under oath.
Must agree that from all evidence that he was no threat to anyone. Was he in his right mind to ever drove away from that traffic stop till the officer was finished with him does suggest something wrong in thinking. And that should been a clue to proceed with caution. But no matter the reason it did not require the amount of force and high number of cops to make this arrest. The KWPD got off far to easy this time.
WARNING to the city of KW and your KWPD. Many thousands will be reading of this case and sooner or later some sharp con artist will set you up to make another mistake similar to this one and go after you for millions and have the skills to force criminal charges on all involved and will win.
Yes KW has a serious homeless situation and seems they will create new laws to override any state laws to help them get rid of all the homeless. All part of a system to make it too hard to be worth it.
They do all of this with the “protect the tourists opinion” when in reality it is they don’t want the homeless because they do not spend money. And they dam sure are under pressure by the tax payers. They will not let people find a way to visit KW for free. Fact is many people have ended up homeless and if in that situation they will manage to do the best they can. Given the perfect climate of the keys and all of what KW has to offer it is near perfect.
A vacationer could use your system to come real close to free. They could arrive in a van with enough equipment to sleep and eat. Use a place like fort zack to sleep in day time. And depending on amount to spend enjoy the bars at night till 4 am and simply stay parked on street till morning and head to beach or ft zack. Am sure you might go unnoticed for a few days or even a week before harassed by the law. Not sure if true but been told many do just that at Fantasy Fest.
Police brutality just like this must be stopped in America. There are many good cops who by allowing the bad ones to violate our rights are just as bad as the bad ones. I believe in the Elmers case a female officer voiced her concerns to the other cops that they were killing Elmers. Well, if she was really good and had a conscience, she should have rammed those on top of Elmers with her full force to stop this murder. Since police brutality is becoming well known, don’t these good cops realize the assassination of cops by crazies is just going to increase? Don’t cops realize that an ordinary citizen can lawfully defend those being brutalized. That will end up being the next phase. I suggest the good cops ignore that blue line and do what is right.
Actually every cop has the duty to stop other cops from violating any laws. Perhaps you did hear one say this and if you can narrow it down to the second I dam sure will have another listen. And if she did say such a thing it should have been on her supplimental report. I have known all about cops being corrupt since early teens. The few that start off being a so called good cop are soon swallowed up into the system of cover each others a–
We are starting to hear of more cops being shot at and sometimes killed. Hate to say it but no longer do I feel sad over it. Maybe when cops start caring about the people they kill then my attitude will change. The Eimers family did not get so much as we are sorry or even admit any wrong doing. Lee knows his cops lied and dodges the issue in that video with him. Every cop that was at that arrest knows they did wrong.
Yes the brutality has got out of control and as long as the system covers each others a– nothing will change. Will we be seeing more cops killed ? Cops best understand that the chances of a camera catching them is high and growing.