Ga. Prosecutors Say Death Of Brianna Grier, Who Fell Out Of Patrol Car, Was Not A Crime
A Georgia district attorney declined to charge officers in the death of Brianna Marie Grier, saying her death in July was a tragedy but not a crime.
The Union-Recorder of Milledgeville reported on Monday (Oct. 17) that Ocmulgee County Judicial Circuit District Attorney T. Wright Barksdale III arrived at that conclusion after reviewing a police use of force report by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI).
“This case will not be presented to a grand jury, because no crime was committed,” Barksdale said, adding that there’s no evidence that the two Hancock County sheriff’s deputies did anything illegal.
A July 27 GBI report concluded that the deputies handcuffed the 28-year-old mother of twin girls, put her in a patrol vehicle and failed to shut the door, NBC News reported. Grier, who suffered from mental illness, fell out of the passenger side rear door of the moving vehicle. She was in a coma for several days and pronounced dead at a hospital days later from her injuries.
The Union-Recorder identified the officers as Deputy Timothy Legette and Deputy Lt. Marlow Primus, who is the older brother of Hancock County Sheriff Terrell Primus.
Barksdale apparently didn’t recuse himself from deciding whether to charge the officers–even though he told the newspaper that he personally knows one of the deputies and could vouch for his character, saying “I can tell you I know one of those deputies very, very well and he would never hurt anyone in a million years.”
Grier’s family retained prominent civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who demanded accountability for her death.
“Nearly 3 months after Brianna Grier's death, we are still searching for answers!” Crump tweeted. Hancock Police (GA) failed to secure Brianna Grier, a young mother of twin girls, into a moving police vehicle, and she died six days later. Join us in DEMANDING accountability.”
Authorities say on July 14, Grier was having a schizophrenic episode, so her mother, Mary Grier, called the Hancock County Sheriff's Office for help. The deputies put her in their patrol car with her hands cuffed in front of her body. According to the GBI, they didn’t close her car door before leaving the scene and failed to secure her with a seat belt after she refused to get in the car.
Grier’s parents have said they didn’t want their daughter arrested. They believed the deputies were taking her to a medical facility.
“She needed help; she didn’t need to be taken to jail,” her father, Marvin Grier, told The Union-Recorder during a protest.
Barksdale blamed the situation on police underfunding and officers being “ill-equipped” to manage people having a mental health crisis, which he said is a nationwide problem.
Still, Crump says there’s no excuse for the “reckless” conduct of the deputies.
“HOW does something like this happen?!” Crump’s office asks in an online petition. “Brianna deserved to live a long and fulfilling life with her family. Instead, she’s gone. Her daughters will have to grow up without a loving mother, and her family is left to pick up the pieces, all due to the RECKLESS disregard of Hancock County, GA, deputies.”
