KTLA News: "Excessive force by LA County Sheriffs suspected in death of Ferdinand Bell..." (1978)
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Description:
The KTLA newsfilm collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive consists of cut and unedited stories, outtakes and fill footage, originally shot on 16mm reversal film stock with magnetic soundtrack. Some footage, particularly material not used for broadcast, may be without sound.
Title: “Excessive force by LA County Sheriffs suspected in death of Ferdinand Bell while in custody” Date: January 19, 1978.
Summary: On January 9, 1978, Ferdinand Bell was booked at the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of reckless driving. According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, Bell became violent while being booked and as a result was taken to the jail hospital ward where he was medicated and placed in heavy leather restraints. Sheriff’s officials claimed Bell broke out of those restraints twice, and after the second time, they noticed he had developed irregular breathing patterns. Bell was then transported to County USC Medical Center where he later died. During a press conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, a lawyer representing Bell’s family discusses the findings of a private pathologist that indicate manual strangulation caused Bell’s death. The family’s lawyer states that the Coroner’s office will not release their preliminary findings and mentions the coroner did not perform an autopsy in the part of Bell’s neck that indicated manual strangulation. The lawyer also mentions that Sheriff’s reports stating Bell had to be restrained do not mention that Bell “had to be choked in order to be restrained.” The lawyer announces the family intends to sue Los Angeles County for wrongful death, and he expects the District Attorney’s Office will investigate to see if there is a basis for filing criminal charges. Newspaper articles from 1978 indicate that in February of that year, the Los Angeles City Council ordered a complete investigation into the Los Angeles Police Department’s policies on using force to subdue suspects. Some segments containing the reporter's voiceover are audio only; additional footage lacks sound.
Learn more about this UCLA Film & Television Archive project: ucla.in/1SONCuw
© The Regents of the University of California
Complete Record: The KTLA newsfilm collection at the UCLA Film & Television Archive consists of cut and unedited stories, outtakes and fill footage, originally shot on 16mm reversal film stock with magnetic soundtrack. Some footage, particularly material not used for broadcast, may be without sound. Title: “Excessive force by LA County Sheriffs suspected in death of Ferdinand Bell while in custody” Date: January 19, 1978. Summary: On January 9, 1978, Ferdinand Bell was booked at the Los Angeles County Jail on suspicion of reckless driving. According to the Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department, Bell became violent while being booked and as a result was taken to the jail hospital ward where he was medicated and placed in heavy leather restraints. Sheriff’s officials claimed Bell broke out of those restraints twice, and after the second time, they noticed he had developed irregular breathing patterns. Bell was then transported to County USC Medical Center where he later died. During a press conference at the Greater Los Angeles Press Club, a lawyer representing Bell’s family discusses the findings of a private pathologist that indicate manual strangulation caused Bell’s death. The family’s lawyer states that the Coroner’s office will not release their preliminary findings and mentions the coroner did not perform an autopsy in the part of Bell’s neck that indicated manual strangulation. The lawyer also mentions that Sheriff’s reports stating Bell had to be restrained do not mention that Bell “had to be choked in order to be restrained.” The lawyer announces the family intends to sue Los Angeles County for wrongful death, and he expects the District Attorney’s Office will investigate to see if there is a basis for filing criminal charges. Newspaper articles from 1978 indicate that in February of that year, the Los Angeles City Council ordered a complete investigation into the Los Angeles Police Department’s policies on using force to subdue suspects. Some segments containing the reporter's voiceover are audio only; additional footage lacks sound. Learn more about this UCLA Film & Television Archive project: ucla.in/1SONCuw © The Regents of the University of California
Transcription
On Tuesday of this week, a Dr. John Ryan, a private pathologist in the valley, performed an autopsy on the body of Ferdinand Alonso Reed Jr., better known as Ferdinand Bell. And his findings, which were reported to me by Dr. Ryan, indicated that there were many of the classical signs of death due to manual strangulation. The sheriff's department said they would make no comment until after the final autopsy report. They did indicate that the victim became irrational and violent while he was being booked. He was taken to the hospital ward here at the county jail, was given medication to quiet him, placed in heavy leather restraints. Then twice during the night, he broke out of those heavy leather restraints. After the second time, he was transferred to County USC Medical Center when they noticed irregular breathing patterns. He later died at that facility. Stan Chambers, Channel 5 News Watch reporting from the county jail. Bell died in the hospital ward of the County USC Medical Center. He was sent there after being booked at the county jail on suspicion of reckless driving. >> Is everybody ready? >> At the request of the family members, Mr. Weedman and myself were called to the mortuary that evening, January 12th, because there was some suspicion on the part of the family members that Ferdinand Bell had not died as a result of some natural causes. After viewing the body, I decided that the most important thing to have done at that point was a private autopsy to follow that of the coroner's autopsy into the tissues around the vocal cords. bleeding into the tissues of the anterior portion of the neck. Bleeding into the tissues of the two large muscles on the sides of the neck. Some bleeding into the left eye. And in addition, he found evidence of bleeding into the bones of the cervical spine. Through the efforts of Mr. Weedman and Mr. Johnny Cochran at the district attorney's office. We have attempted on numerous occasions to obtain some preliminary report from the coroner's office as to the cause of death of this young man. Up until at least 5:00 yesterday afternoon, the coroner's office has steadfastly refuse to release any preliminary findings. It is inconceivable to me as a doctor of medicine and also as an attorney that the findings that Dr. Ryan found at his private autopsy could not have been observed by any reasonably competent coroner and we fail to understand why those findings at least cannot be released to the public. Secondly, without question, the coroner's office did not perform an autopsy in the area of the posterior part of the neck of the deceased. Therefore, they cannot know that there is evidence consistent with manual strangulation being present in the posterior portion of the neck. There is no sign that they ever dissected the tissues completely around the neck. The inst are very muddled and are not clear even at this time to those of us who have instigated very extremities of the deceased which indicate that he was placed in restraints. But there is no mention by anyone connected with the sheriff's department or any other official arm of our police force which indicates that he had to be choked in order to be restrained. Because of these findings and because it seems impossible to Mr. to Weedman and to myself that a person could be committed for a 72-hour hold for observation could leave that infirmary dead with all indications pointing to his death as resulting from force being applied to his neck in a manner to cause strangulation. We intend to forthw with file a claim against the Los Angeles County for $2 million for the wrongful death of this young man. And when the names of the persons or person is available to us, those people or that person will also be named in the complaint. In addition, we have contacted the district attorney's office and we expect based upon their representation that this matter will be investigated by their office to see if there is a basis for criminal charges being brought against anyone arising out of the death of this young man.
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