Houston Chronicle

Wed 07/25/2007

Family questions death of man in custody / They say his injuries are inconsistent with police accounts; cause is unknown

By ROBERT CROWE

Pedro Gonzales Jr.'s family was incredulous after Pasadena Police Department investigators said the man died in police custody Saturday after he tripped and fell while officers escorted him to a patrol car.

"He had a punctured lung. His head was injured and his arm was scratched," Gonzales' brother, Jesse, 46, said Tuesday. "That doesn't happen when you trip and fall."

When asked Tuesday to explain how Gonzales, 51, sustained such injuries from stumbling to the ground, a Pasadena police spokesman said some injuries may have occurred when the officers scuffled with the man, who was arrested for public intoxication.

"The officers theorized that the scrape on the arm was from that altercation on the ground, but the bump on the head, I think, their view of it was that it occurred as a result of him tripping," said Pasadena Police Department Capt. Bud Corbett.

"I just can't believe that," Jesse Gonzales said. The family is also upset police did not take Gonzales to a hospital after arresting officers noticed he sustained injuries before his death. Police said he signed a letter refusing treatment but, because he was likely intoxicated, the family thinks he was not competent to make a decision.

Pasadena police on Monday said preliminary autopsy results indicated a "pinhole" perforation to a lung caused by a bone splinter from a rib fracture likely caused Gonzales' death. A Harris County Medical Examiner's Office investigator declined to comment Tuesday, citing a pending autopsy.

Corbett said detectives are still trying to determine whether Gonzales' ribs were fractured when he fell or during the scuffle with police on the ground.

"That's something for the internal affairs investigation," he said. The arresting officers, C. Jones, 29, and J. Buckaloo, 33, have been reassigned with pay pending the outcome of an internal affairs investigation, said police spokesman Vance Mitchell.

Jones and Buckaloo were patrolling Harris Avenue about 2 a.m. when they noticed Gonzales in the back of a pickup outside a business, Corbett said.

When the officers determined that Gonzales was drunk, they attempted to arrest him for public intoxication, but he resisted, Corbett said, adding that the officers forcibly took him into custody. A struggle ensued before he was handcuffed and placed in a car, Corbett said.

Jones and Buckaloo told investigators that Gonzales tripped and fell on a concrete island as they escorted him. When they arrived at the police station, officers called for an ambulance to treat him for the head injury and scrape to his arm, Corbett said.

A manager with the East Texas Medical Center ambulance service declined to comment.

Police cite waiver

Gonzales told paramedics he had pain in his ribs and legs, but he signed a form declining further medical treatment before he was placed in a holding cell, police said.

He was later found dead in the cell.

Police said they initially spotted Gonzales in the back of his pickup parked outside an auto shop in the 1300 block of East Harris.

The business is located in a converted gas station. The pickup was parked next to a concrete, oval shaped island where gas pumps once stood. It was on this island, police said, that Gonzales tripped.

"The handcuffs were on and one officer had a grip on him ... but then he fell," Corbett said. "The officer was not able to prevent him from going to the ground."

Just days out of jail

Adrian Caballero, a relative who lived with Gonzales and his brother Jesse about a mile away from the scene, said the department's explanation leads to more questions.

"Pedro wasn't a violent person," Caballero said. "He was a little guy, like 5-foot-3, and he only weighed about 130 pounds."

Corbett said the incident happened days after Gonzales had been released from the Pasadena Jail following a three-day stay for public intoxication.

Jesse Gonzales said his brother had always complied with officers when he was arrested for being drunk in public.

"It's just not right what happened to him," Jesse Gonzales said.