TACOMA — After 10 weeks of sidestepping discussions of race, racial tensions sparked a series of heated incidents just before the trial of three Tacoma police officers charged with killing Manuel Ellis moved to the jury.
The first incident prompted calls for the case to be dismissed because of language the defense and judge deemed racial.
Special prosecutor Patty Eakes in her closing arguments Tuesday had told jurors that the officers treated Ellis as “less than human” by continuing to apply force to his back after he repeatedly said he couldn’t breathe as he lay prone in the street and handcuffed with his wrists behind his back.
After jurors left the room, Mark Conrad, a lawyer for Officer Timothy Rankine, objected to her statement, citing precedent-setting case law which holds that describing someone as an animal can prejudice juries against them. He said the underlying court case states that animal comparisons amount to coded racist language that historically has portrayed Black men unfairly as inclined toward criminal behavior.
All three officers in their statements to detectives or testimony have described the noises Ellis made as “animalistic.”
Then Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff forcefully reminded Eakes of his pretrial order prohibiting lawyers from characterizing anyone with animal-like traits.
“You’re really pushing the boundaries on this, and not just on this one occasion — in the totality of the state’s approach in this case, you’re pushing the boundaries,” Chushcoff told Eakes. “Don’t push it any further.”
During pretrial motions, prosecutors from the Washington Attorney General’s Office had told the judge they would not raise the issue of race.
On Wednesday, Eakes repeated the word “human” as she capped her rebuttal argument, saying, “Mr. Ellis didn’t need to die that day. If only he had been granted the dignity of being human and being responded to.”
Lawyers for Rankine and officers Matthew Collins and Christopher “Shane” Burbank asked the judge to dismiss all charges, moments after jurors had just heard the conclusion of 10 weeks’ worth of evidence, testimony and arguments. The panel began deliberating around 11 a.m. Thursday without reaching a verdict, with deliberations resuming on Friday.
Chushcoff angrily told Eakes she had disregarded his order from the day before to leave the issue alone.
“You, earlier in this case when we were having motions on this, you said the state is not claiming in any way whatsoever that the actions of these defendants was racially motivated,” the judge said Wednesday afternoon. “And when you suggest that they treat him like an animal, like something less than human, it invokes all the stereotypes of Nazi Germany. And what does that do in terms of stirring people’s emotions, except to suggest that there’s some kind of white supremacist, bigoted activity going on here. … What am I supposed to do with you when this repeatedly occurs? Did I not say to you you’re on the boundary, don’t push it any further? That is how obtuse you are.”
“I said that they didn’t treat [Ellis] like a human by responding to what he said,” Eakes said. “It’s a fair inference from what the evidence is. He said repeatedly he couldn’t breathe and they didn’t respond to him, and that’s a less than human response to what he had to say.”
Immediately following that exchange, tempers flared in the gallery. People who were present said Rankine’s sister hollered at Ellis’ sister to point out that her own Asian family is also mixed-race.
Burbank’s lawyer Wayne Fricke tried to defuse the situation. The Ellis family’s attorney James Bible moved in his direction and called out to Fricke, who Bible said he has a friendly relationship with. Fricke’s co-counsel Brett Purtzer misinterpreted Bible’s calls to Fricke and loudly told Bible, who is Black, “Keep moving, boy.”
Purtzer said in a Thursday morning phone interview that he apologized to Bible and Ellis’ family on Thursday morning. “It was completely inappropriate,” Purtzer said. “I’m ashamed of what I said.”
Bible said in an interview that Purtzer’s remark is the equivalent of calling him a racial epithet for Black people. Bible said he intends to file a complaint with the Washington Bar Association, where Purtzer has served on the board of governors.
Chushcoff on Wednesday expressed reluctance to toss out the case based on the resources that have already been expended on it and the Tacoma community’s need to hear a jury’s decision in the matter. He said he would take under advisement the defense motions for dismissal but never addressed them during the brief moments that court was in session Thursday morning.
Collins, Burbank and Rankine are charged with first-degree manslaughter. The jury also has the option to convict them of the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter. Collins and Burbank, the first officers to contact Ellis, face second-degree murder charges as well. All three have pleaded not guilty, are free on bail and remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave.
Ellis died March 3, 2020, after repeatedly telling police he couldn’t breathe while they struggled on a south Tacoma street. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled his death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. Lawyers for the officers have argued that the high level of methamphetamine in Ellis’ system and an enlarged heart discovered during his autopsy were the real cause of his death.
Small protests have been held periodically outside the courthouse throughout the trial. They got the judge’s attention, and at one point he mulled calling for them to be shut down out of concern that they might affect the jurors’ decision. On Monday, about 20 protesters gathered and chanted, “No justice, no peace!” and “Justice for Manny Ellis.”
