Sunday, October 3, 2010

Please Write the County Commissioners by Monday

Please make a difference, their fight is our fight!

WE NEED TO CHANGE THE INQUEST PROCESS! They meet next Tuesday, October 5th. Please email all of the County Commissioners listed below by Monday. If you do not live in Las Vegas, tell them that you will not vacation or retire in their city simply because you don’t feel safe. You can use the template letter below or write your own. Please email this template to as many people that you know that may have an interest in this situation. THANKS FOR YOUR HELP!!!

http://www.accessclarkcounty.com/depts/commission/Pages/commission.aspx

ccdistA@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistB@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistC@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistD@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistE@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistF@co.clark.nv.us
ccdistG@co.clark.nv.us
ccmgr@co.clark.nv.us


SAMPLE LETTER - COPY AND PASTE

Dear County Commissioners,

I respectfully request that you change the Clark County Coroner's Inquest process to ensure ALL facts surrounding the death of any victim killed by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers are presented fairly at the deceased's hearing. To that end, I request your immediate action to ensure the family's attorney can:

Cross-examine all witnesses presented by the District Attorney, including the Metro officers involved.

Challenge evidence presented by the District Attorney.

Present witnesses on behalf of the victim's family.


Present additional evidence.

Require the Coroner, District Attorney and Metro police officials to disclose key evidence to the family's attorney prior to the inquest hearing, including homicide investigators' reports and the coroner's autopsy and toxicology reports.

Further, the District Attorney must not be involved in the inquest process, because the DA is not an independent party.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives should not be allowed to investigate officer-involved incidents that result in death. Instead, an independent third party, which has no relationship or involvement with any Police Protective Association (PPA), should investigate all officer-involved shootings, accidents, etc.

All findings of the third-party investigation must be shared with the victim's family, its attorney and representatives of the PPA at a pre-inquest meeting, prior to the formal hearing.

The PPA should have its attorney at that meeting to assist in reviewing evidence and facts.

In addition to the jury, members of an independent citizen's review board should be present at all inquest-related hearings, empowered to make inputs and evaluations. Its primary objective would be to ensure better training and avoid the use of excessive force by Metro officers.

Jury instructions must be written and presented to jury members prior to the initiation of the formal inquest hearing.

The inquest hearing should always be televised and video-streamed via Internet, enabling interested parties in the community to monitor all hearing proceedings.

Not implementing these changes virtually guarantees that a victim's hearing will be extremely one-sided, only carefully selected "facts" and data will be presented, and the DA's and Metro's focus will be on assassinating a victim's character, not on answering questions surrounding how and why the person was killed.

As it stands today, the ordinance governing the conduct of any Clark County Coroner's Inquest proceeding violates any reasonable interpretation of constitutional "due process." Thank you for ensuring it is changed immediately.

Regards,

your name here

Related: America is Not Safe for Elders, for Anyone?

1 comment:

Ray said...

Dear County Commissioners,

I respectfully request that you change the Clark County Coroner's Inquest process to ensure ALL facts surrounding the death of any victim killed by Las Vegas Metropolitan Police officers are presented fairly at the deceased's hearing. To that end, I request your immediate action to ensure the family's attorney can:

Cross-examine all witnesses presented by the District Attorney, including the Metro officers involved.
Challenge evidence presented by the District Attorney.

Present witnesses on behalf of the victim's family.

Present additional evidence.

Require the Coroner, District Attorney and Metro police officials to disclose key evidence to the family's attorney prior to the inquest hearing, including homicide investigators' reports and the coroner's autopsy and toxicology reports.

Further, the District Attorney must not be involved in the inquest process, because the DA is not an independent party.

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department detectives should not be allowed to investigate officer-involved incidents that result in death. Instead, an independent third party, which has no relationship or involvement with any Police Protective Association (PPA), should investigate all officer-involved shootings, accidents, etc.

All findings of the third-party investigation must be shared with the victim's family, its attorney and representatives of the PPA at a pre-inquest meeting, prior to the formal hearing.


The PPA should have its attorney at that meeting to assist in reviewing evidence and facts.


In addition to the jury, members of an independent citizen's review board should be present at all inquest-related hearings, empowered to make inputs and evaluations. Its primary objective would be to ensure better training and avoid the use of excessive force by Metro officers.


Jury instructions must be written and presented to jury members prior to the initiation of the formal inquest hearing.


The inquest hearing should always be televised and video-streamed via Internet, enabling interested parties in the community to monitor all hearing proceedings.


Not implementing these changes virtually guarantees that a victim's hearing will be extremely one-sided, only carefully selected "facts" and data will be presented, and the DA's and Metro's focus will be on assassinating a victim's character, not on answering questions surrounding how and why the person was killed.

As it stands today, the ordinance governing the conduct of any Clark County Coroner's Inquest proceeding violates any reasonable interpretation of constitutional "due process." Thank you for ensuring it is changed immediately.

Furthermore I have cancelled all plans to visit Las Vegas as a vacation destination because I fear for my safety and that of my loved ones.


Regards,


Ray Fernandez

http://www.ElderAbuseHelp.Org