ST PAUL, Minnesota — Community leaders said they want to see changes after a video from 2016 was released, showing a Ramsey County correctional officer kneeing and punching an inmate.
Tuesday, the Ramsey County sheriff announced a number of changes in detention practices.
"I was horrified when I looked at it," said Tyrone Terrill, president of the African American Leadership Council (AALC), during a press conference at the Ramsey County Sheriff's Office on Tuesday.
Both St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter and Ramsey County Sheriff Bob Fletcher described the actions in the video as "disgusting."
"If we saw a video of that arise from any other country or someplace else in the world, we would call it torture," Mayor Carter said.
The video, released Tuesday, is from April 2016 inside the Ramsey County Detention Center garage. Correctional Officer Travis VanDeWiele can be seen kneeing and punching Terrell Johnson, who had been arrested for theft and was handcuffed during the incident. At one point, Johnson can be heard saying "excessive force" and VanDeWiele responds by saying, "You ain't seen excessive force yet," followed by four punches to Johnson's abdomen.
Johnson can also be heard saying, "Please don't kill me. I'm sorry."
"No one else in that video, whether it was the six correctional officers or the two police officers, were willing to step forward and put a hand on Mr. VanDeWiele and say, 'Hold on. I've got it from here.' And intervene in that cycle," said Sheriff Fletcher, who was not sheriff at the time of the incident.
VanDeWiele eventually pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct, a misdemeanor, in 2018 and the fifth-degree assault charge was dropped. He was sentenced to one year of probation.
VanDeWiele reached a settlement agreement with the county and submitted his resignation last week. His resignation is effective Feb. 28.
"There's certainly an accountability failure when our community members see that the system's response is a two-year paid leave for that officer," Mayor Carter said.
During his time on administrative leave, VanDeWiele was paid more than $120,000.
Mayor Carter said he spoke to Sheriff Fletcher and wants a report of immediate actions they can take to make sure this doesn't happen again.
In a press conference Tuesday, Sheriff Fletcher announced additional changes to the county's detention practices.
Monday, a new policy was adopted that requires a "duty to intervene" any time a staff member observes excessive use of force. They have also created a new program led by Sgt. Joe McKinney called the "Civilian Ombudsman program" that will have civilians as an extra set of eyes during the booking process.
Other changes include staff assignment changes, additional training, an improved complaint monitoring system and upgrades to the video camera system at the jail.
To ensure timely investigations, Sheriff Fletcher said they would utilize a "dual path" when an investigation has both criminal and employment elements so that the criminal investigation does not impede on swift employment action.
"I thank the employee, whoever he was, that stepped forward and provided this tape," said Dianne Binns, president of the St. Paul NAACP.
Terrill said he believed race played a role in the incident and said, "We're very lucky that Mr. Johnson wasn't killed."
Ramsey County Commissioner Toni Carter said, "We have a justice system, overall, which is highly racialized. Whether an individual is racist or not, the system over its history has within it had embedded practices of racism and I do not believe our Ramsey County systems are not impacted by that."
Terrill said he was upset it took nearly three years for him and other leaders in the community to be notified about the incident.
"We're here to say to the community that there are going to be changes put in place. That this sheriff and his leadership team are committed to working with our organizations and the broader community to make sure this this doesn't happen again," Terrill said.
Even though Sheriff Fletcher was not the sheriff at the time of the incident, he said he plans on personally apologizing to Johnson.