RICHMOND, Va. -- As the family and legal representatives of Irvo Otieno call for further investigation into his in-custody death at a state psychiatric facility, attorneys who represented a former hospital worker acquitted of criminal charges connected to Otieno's death are asking for their client's 'not guilty' verdict to be respected.
On March 6, 2023, surveillance video showed Otieno being restrained by Henrico sheriff's deputies and hospital staff on the floor of a Central State Hospital admission room for up to 12 minutes.
Otieno had just been transported to the facility from a Henrico County jail where he was determined by a clinician to be suffering a severe mental health crisis.
Prosecutors argued that deputies and staff forcefully pressed down on Otieno's body as he lay in a dangerous prone position. However, defense attorneys claimed Otieno was actually on his side, and deputies and staff were trying to help keep him off his stomach.
Initially, former Dinwiddie chief prosecutor Ann Baskervill charged ten people with murdering Otieno through a highly unusual method that bypassed a grand jury.
Baskervill resigned just a few months after taking out second-degree murder charges.
Most of those charges were eventually set aside, and three remaining charges were reduced to involuntary manslaughter by the newly elected chief prosecutor Amanda Mann.
Only one of those three defendants has stood trial so far, Wavie Jones, a former security worker at Central State.
After a four-day trial that began October 1, a jury took 20 minutes to return a 'not guilty' verdict.
Otieno's mother Caroline Ouko and her lawyer Mark Krudys believe the verdict was the result of a poor performance by Dinwiddie prosecutors.
During a Monday press conference, Krudys criticized Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Amanda Mann for appearing unprepared for trial.
He said she failed to humanize Otieno during the trial, did not properly utilize video evidence, did not hire experts to bolster her case, and did not question the racial makeup of the jury, which he believed lacked Black jurors.
“If you really believe in this case, why aren't you standing up, Ms. Mann, and making the arguments in connection with us? Why aren't you presenting this with vigor? Why don't you have corresponding experts so we can hear from your side?” Krudys said. "We just feel that this case requires a far more aggressive, appropriately resourced response than the Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney is able to provide."
Mann did not respond to CBS 6's request for a response to these criticisms.
Krudys has now written a third letter to officials with the United States Department of Justice, including the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia Jessica Aber, and the Richmond FBI Special Agent in Charge Stanley Meador, requesting an investigation under federal civil rights laws into Otieno's death.
"This is really our final cry to them," Krudys said. "You're the Department of Justice. This is exactly why you were formed, to deal with a circumstance like this."
Otieno's mother Caroline Ouko added, “The DOJ has a reputation to keep. The world is watching.”
A spokesperson for the Richmond FBI referred CBS 6's request for comment to the U.S. Attorney's Office. A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to comment.
Doug Ramseur and Emilee Hasbrouck, who represented Wavie Jones in court, rejected the notion that federal resources are necessary.
And even if the DOJ were to get involved, they argued it wouldn't change the outcome of the case.
“It's unfortunate that they're not willing to respect and honor this jury's verdict," Ramseur said about the calls from Krudys and Ouko for the DOJ to take action. “It is frankly unbelievable that someone could think that a commonwealth attorney's office that has a sheriff's department at its disposal, that had the entire state police at its disposal, had the office of the chief medical examiner, had a division of forensic science at their disposal, somehow didn't have enough resources to properly prosecute a high-profile case like this.”
Hasbrouck added, "Wavie was found not guilty because Wavie was innocent, and trying to say that it was because the commonwealth didn't put on a good case really discounts that."
They pointed back to some of the key moments of their arguments including witnesses testifying that Otieno was not face-down while being restrained, multiple expert witnesses disagreeing with what they called a preconceived and reverse-engineered determination by a state medical examiner that Otieno died of asphyxia, and video showing Otieno's threatening behavior in the days leading up to his arrival at Central State.
Those videos showed Henrico Police arriving at Otieno's home on March 3, 2023, and transporting him to the crisis receiving center at Parham Doctors' Hospital.
Otieno could be heard shouting threats at the officers and punching one of the officers while in the hospital, which prompted that officer to have Otieno arrested, removed from the hospital, and taken to jail.
Supporters of Otieno have been critical of how the defense portrayed videos of Otieno while he was in a mental health crisis, saying they criminalized the symptoms of his condition.
“Do you believe that you weaponized his mental illness?” reporter Tyler Layne asked.
“Absolutely not. We showed the jury true information of what happened that weekend. We didn't make anything up," Ramseur answered. "That isn't pleasant and wonderful things to see when a gentleman who's going through a mental health episode and is unmedicated and is out of control that way. But that was the truth of it."
They maintain Jones endured "18 months of hell" from the time they said he was wrongfully charged and that the acquittal should be respected.
“Wavie lost his voice and had to hold it for 18 months while he was called a killer, and that is an incredibly traumatic and very difficult thing for someone to go through," Hasbrouck said.
"Not everyone gets what they want sometimes out of court results, and it's unfortunate," Ramseur added. "We are sympathetic for the tragedy of an early death that happened with Mr. Otieno and with the pain and suffering that his family has gone through, but we don't feel that it's appropriate to vilify other people who are trying to help."
Two more defendants still face involuntary manslaughter charges in connection to Otieno's death.
Kaiyell Sanders is set to stand trial next in December. His defense attorney Ed Riley said he's received no new information from Mann following the outcome of Jones' trial and expects to continue moving forward preparing for trial.
This is a developing story. Email the CBS 6 Newsroom if you have information to share.
