Police Oversight Commission Files Complaints Related to Pepper Spray Incident, Despite Advice from City Attorney

Concerns about the diminished powers of the East Lansing Independent Police Oversight Commission were discussed at the body’s most recent meeting.

The Nov. 12 meeting was the first the commission has held since the City Council voted to adopt ordinance changes that commissioners say hurt police transparency and accountability. Some council members said the amendments to the ordinance governing the commission were necessary due to a bargaining agreement recently reached with a union representing ELPD patrol officers. However, commissioners have argued some changes go beyond what is required by the agreement and proposed these amendments be taken out.

Outgoing Councilmember Dana Watson, who has served as a council liaison to the commission, said she does not think the commission’s ideas were taken seriously. 

“It’s like you guys were faked out and spent a lot of time on something that was never going to be taken into consideration,” she said.

Under the amended ordinance, commissioners aren’t allowed to use officers’ names publicly, the commission’s ability to investigate incidents will be hampered and more information given to the oversight commission must be kept confidential, among other changes. 

“They’ve [ELPD] done everything they could in coercion or with their union representatives, and their union lawyers, to dismantle all the instruments that we had to bring about transparency and accountability,” Commissioner Robin Etchison said. “And they did this with the complacency, in my observation, of the City Council.”

Carlito Young, one of the city’s attorneys, said the commission can submit questions about the ordinance changes to be discussed during a closed-session later on. 

“We can have a candid discussion, in closed-session, to discuss these issues,” Young said. “I don’t know what will result from that. I don’t know how people will like the answers, but I can assure you we’ll have a candid discussion and address some of these issues that I cannot nor can the labor council address during open session.”

Commission files complaints, going against advice from a city attorney. 

For the second time in three days, a city commission passed motions against the advice of a city attorney, after the Human Rights Commission voted to investigate a pair of complaints days earlier. 

Like the complaints taken up by the Human Rights Commission, resolutions passed by the oversight commission are related to ELPD actions during an August incident and the weeks that followed. The incident saw ELPD Officer Andrew Lyon pepper spray two men downtown. ELPD later released a press release that said the men were fighting downtown, a narrative that was contradicted by security footage later released by an attorney representing the men. Charges against both men have since been dropped, and police actions that night and the press release are now the subject of a lawsuit filed in federal court. 

The oversight commission voted to file complaints about two officers’ actions during the pepper spray incident. The complaints state, among other things, that officers broke ELPD policy because pepper spray was deployed at an unsafe distance, officers failed to provide immediate medical attention to the two men and it was inappropriate for an officer to use explicit language while on duty.

As he did at the Human Rights Commission meeting, Young advised the oversight commission of passing the motions. 

“My job as the city attorney is to advise you of the issues you may face, but simply, you are an extension of the city. Your actions can have consequences on any action that’s threatened,” Young said. 

Commission Chair Ernest Conerly noted that complaints go to the police department, which ultimately investigates itself. He said he doesn’t understand how the motions interfere with this process.

Young explained that the commission was created by the City Council, and through the city of East Lansing ordinance, commissioners are considered representatives of the city by serving on the commission. He advised against taking action because of pending litigation and complaints filed with other agencies, including the states civil rights department, but was vague in his remarks, reiterating that motions could have “consequences.”

Commission VIce Chair Kath Edsall pushed back against Young, saying an oversight body is always in a position where it could impact litigation against the body it is overseeing.

“I’m not sure why this is any different than if we had passed these motions two weeks ago,” Edsall said.

Motions to file both complaints were approved in 8 to 1 votes. Commissioner Kathy Swedlow voted against the motions because she would prefer to wait one month until more information is available regarding the pending litigation and complaints filed.

The commission opted to table a third motion to file a complaint about Police Chief Jen Brown not providing medical assistance to the young men, and her role in writing the misleading press release. 

Commissioner Chris Root pointed out that a complaint against the chief can’t be investigated within the department and that an independent review of police actions and policies ordered by City Council last month should cover Brown’s actions. 

The commission unanimously voted to table the proposed motion until its Dec. 3 meeting. 

Nadia Sellers, the mother of one of the men who was pepper sprayed and arrested, addressed the commission and Young. Though the charges against the men were dropped, she said the harm caused by the incident cannot be undone. 

“I was really disturbed, Mr. City Attorney, by the comments you made, ‘well, the charges were dismissed,’ that to me was a racial statement within itself,” Sellers said. “It’s almost like you assume every African American boy is supposed to have an experience being arrested, and if it’s dismissed, it’s okay. 

“You dismissed the charges because they weren’t guilty… the City of East Lansing didn’t do us a favor, for once you did the right thing, whether you were forced, coerced, or put out there on blast when you had no choice.”

A group of commissioners who have been going downtown on weekends offer new narrative about violence in East Lansing. 

At recent City Council meetings, owners of some East Lansing businesses and Councilmember Erik Altmann have given a grim assessment of the state of the city’s downtown late at night on the weekends, saying the area is unsafe, and fights and guns have become common.

A group that includes members of the oversight commission, Watson and members of the city’s Human Rights Commission have gone downtown late at night to get a better idea of what is happening.

Commissioners said they were downtown the night of the Michigan State University versus University of Michigan football game and during Halloween weekend. They said downtown is not the war zone it is being described as.

“I saw 33 cops standing around bored on the MSU-UofM game day,” Conerly said. “We’re not naive as a commission to think that crime does not happen, that people don’t take opportunities to do things, but all of us have been kids…we know that kids do kids things…and I think it’s absurd our police department would act like young adults are not young adults, and then lie.”

Human Rights Commissioner Josh Hewitt said he drove for Uber a few years ago, and the scene downtown seems similar to when he was often in the area late on weekends picking up passengers. 

“To me, nothing really changed,” Hewitt said. “I think there’s a lot of information that’s being said about what’s safe downtown, and from my perspective, it doesn’t feel unsafe whatsoever.” 

ELi Managing Editor Lucas Day contributed to this reporting.