The family of Irvo Otieno pleaded for the intervention of the U.S. Department of Justice on Monday afternoon, minutes after a judge approved the dismissal of five charges of second-degree murder in Otieno’s death in March 2023.
The request comes despite the possibility that charges may still be refiled by Dinwiddie County Commonwealth’s Attorney Amanda Mann, who has suggested to the family that the cases are only being dropped as part of her legal strategy to reorder the cases.
“This is my plea to the Department of Justice,” said Caroline Ouko, Otieno’s mother. “Irvo’s murder is worthy of your attention.”
U.S. Attorney Jessica Aber, who runs the Department of Justice office for Eastern Virginia, said she had no comment on the developments.
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The news conference came in the wake of Mann’s move to drop charges against five sheriff’s deputies involved in Otieno’s death. Mann filed the motions on Thursday.
In her motions, Mann wrote that her office did not find the order of the trials to be “sound and competent prosecutorial decision making.” Mann inherited the Otieno case from Jonathan Bourlier, whom she narrowly defeated in November to the elected position of Dinwiddie commonwealth’s attorney.
On Monday morning, the motions were granted.
10 deputies charged in death
Otieno’s death on March 6, 2023, drew national attention. Otieno died at Central State Hospital in Dinwiddie while being restrained by seven Henrico County sheriff’s deputies, as well as three hospital workers.
A total of 10 defendants were initially charged. Three remain.
A lawyer for the family, Mark Krudys, said he and Ouko met with Mann before she moved to drop the cases. The family opposed the move and questioned the necessity of temporarily dismissing any charges.
Krudys said he was left with the impression that the five dropped cases would be brought back. In their meeting, Krudys said Mann wanted the “strategically strongest cases” to go to trial first.
“We stated vehemently that we disagreed with it,” Krudys said at Monday’s conference. “This is not a case that requires a lot of strategy.”
Mann did not return a request for comment on Monday afternoon. Court records show she initially intended to move the cases around without dismissals, but that move was blocked by Dinwiddie Circuit Court Judge Joseph M. Teefey.
“These cases are not going to go away,” Krudys said. “We are going to continue to be on Ms. Mann’s doorstep — not telling her what to do — but asking her, as a victim’s family, for justice to be done.”
Ouko called the move to dismiss the charges a “radical, reckless decision with great ramifications for justice.”
“Dismissing for now means those charges could only be brought back if the state so chooses. That means it can be left to discretion. Discretion can be discriminatory,” said Ouko, who previously said “systemic racism” swallowed her son.
Turning to the cameras, she exhorted federal attorneys to bring federal charges to the defendants.
“DOJ, where are you?” Ouko asked. “Kindly step in and stand for Irvo Otieno. And turn every stone upside down to find the truth. Because what happened to my son is unimaginable.”
Trials were slated to begin in June. Those trials will now be canceled. The first trial — that of Central State Hospital employee Wavie Jones — will begin on Sept. 30.
Among the defendants whose charges were dropped was Dwayne Bramble, a Henrico sheriff’s deputy. Bramble’s attorney, G. Russell Stone, said he thinks it’s unlikely Bramble will be reindicted.
“I don’t believe that that will happen,” Stone said. “I have watched that video over and over. Mr. Bramble never should have been charged.”
Stone would not comment on whether Mann had told him whether she intended to reindict Bramble. Reindicting the deputies will require Mann’s office presenting evidence to a Dinwiddie grand jury. If the five defendants are reindicted, their trial dates will likely come in 2025.
The family was joined by national civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who spoke at Otieno’s funeral last year.
“We in the Black community, we always see it like this: We’re quick to be prosecuted when we are accused of a crime. However, when we are the victims of crime by the authorities, there seems to be delay, delay, delay,” Crump said.
He said the strength of the evidence should make for an “open-and-shut case.”
Lawyer: ‘What more do we need? That video is clear.’
Evidence in the trial will almost certainly include video made public after Otieno’s death. One video shows him appearing to be beaten by a deputy in his jail cell. Another video of CCTV footage from Central State Hospital shows the 12-minute segment in which he asphyxiated while restrained.
“What more do we need?” Crump said. “That video is clear. It’s crystal clear.”
Henrico police initially detained Otieno, who struggled with mental illness, on March 3, three days before his death. Police brought him to Parham Doctors’ Hospital’s crisis unit, where staff tried to sedate him with medication.
An external report commissioned by the federal agency that regulates hospitals found that he never saw a psychiatrist during a six-hour stay, nor was his mother allowed in from the hospital’s waiting room.
Henrico police arrested him on charges of assaulting an officer while in his hospital bed. Deputies continued to struggle with him at the Henrico jail facility nearby and ultimately sought his transfer to Central State — a maximum-security psychiatric facility.
In an intake room at the hospital, Otieno, a former basketball and football player who weighed about 270 pounds, was pinned under the weight of seven deputies and three hospital employees.