Tuesday, October 30, 2001
Witness describes Owensby arrest
By Susan Vela
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Only one of Roger Owensby Jr.'s hands was cuffed when Cincinnati Police Officer Patrick Caton began striking him in the lower back on Nov. 7, Brian Menefee, a defense witness, testified Monday.
Caton
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Owensby
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Mr. Menefee, at the time a public safety officer at a nearby apartment complex, said Monday he saw four police officers atop Mr. Owensby, whose stomach was pressed flat to the ground in a Roselawn gas station parking lot.
Officer Caton straddled him as they tried pulling his arms back and cuffed an arm.
Officer Caton, “delivered approximately four blows to the lower middle back. At that point, the other arm came back and he was cuffed,” Mr. Menefee testified.
“There was no strike after he was detained.”
Other witnesses have said both of Mr. Owensby's hands were cuffed at the time.
Mr. Owensby, 29, of College Hill, died while in custody. Officer Robert “Blaine” Jorg is accused of placing him in a deadly choke hold. Officer Caton is charged with misdemeanor assault for allegedly striking Mr. Owensby after he was cuffed and later in a police cruiser.
The officers' trials have been unfolding simultaneously in separate Hamilton County courtrooms. Officer Jorg's jury began deliberating Monday.
Mr. Menefee testified that he doesn't remember everything, but he recalls giving a statement to Cincinnati Police three days later.
In that statement, he said Officer Caton ordered other officers to spray Mr. Owensby with Mace. He also said Officer Caton's blows seemed to loosen Mr. Owensby's arm, so it could be handcuffed.
But, “there are a lot of parts that I can't remember,” he testified. “Certain parts of it are real fuzzy. It all happened so fast.”
Cincinnati Officer Todd Bruner, who teaches defense tactics and physical conditioning to recruits, said Monday that blows to the lower middle back can distract a resisting suspect and are considered permissible force.
He also said recruits are trained to focus on a suspect's hands.
“The hands yield weapons,” he said. “The hands themselves are also weapons.”
The testimony contradicted two Cincinnati police officers, who have said the blows to Mr. Owensby were excessive.
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