EIMERS DEATH-IN-CUSTODY UPDATE: Missing Video Surfaces
~CAUTION! VIDEO SHOWS DISTURBING IMAGES~
Colombia! The missing iphone video of Charles Eimers’ death was in Colombia!
“Once we had the phone number,” says Darren Horan, it took less than 48 hours to get a copy.” He is one of the five lawyers representing Charles Eimers’ family in a suit against the City of Key West and 13 police officers who were involved in the fatal arrest of the 61-year-old tourist, Charles Eimers, last Thanksgiving.
On November 28, 2013, while KWPD officers were busy arresting Eimers on South Beach, a couple from Colombia was filming the incident with their iphones. Nearly a year ago the first bystander video went viral and shattered the initial official police version of events describing an old man running away from police on the beach and collapsing due to a sudden heart attack. But in that video, aside from the controversy it raised about police action, there was one nagging detail: an unknown man was shown also filming the incident. But no one could ID that second tourist.
It became known as the “missing video.” Was it the same footage that a witness reported as possibly erased by two unnamed KWPD officers on the beach? Could it help answer the questions about the use of a Taser? The blow to the head? Yes or no – was Eimers head pushed into the sand? Was his head bleeding?
In fact we learned this week that FDLE had the phone number of the iphone videographer in Colombia all along but never made the call. The Eimers’ family attorneys did.
So here it is. The video begins like the first one on the pier at the end of Duval Street. Charles Eimers is initially perfectly compliant. He gets on his stomach, is being handcuffed, when all of a sudden he becomes agitated. An officer is heard saying, “Stop resisting!” At the 58 sec mark at least two officers are holding down his upper body while another officer is lifting a leg. We see what seems like one last jerk of the legs and then Charles Eimers is laying seemingly motionless in the sand.
Some officers move away and start to search the car while others are standing idly nearby. Then, all of a sudden, the officers appear to realize something is wrong. Eimers, whose legs appear to have been hobbled after he already lay still, is rolled over on his back and the hobble and handcuffs are removed.
Officer Gary Lee Lovette is seen trying to find a pulse. Everyone else appears frozen. Lovette pulls out a knife and cuts Eimers’ shirt off. Officer Gabriel Garrido arrives with a big red medical bag. Immediately you hear an officer – possibly Officer Henry DelValle – order the witnesses on the pier to move on,”You guys! Do me a favor – move out of this area. Move out of this area please! Go. Go-go-go.”
The Colombian tourist zooms in on Eimers’ face and yes, contrary to FDLE Kathy Smith’s findings, blood was running out of his ear and is even seen spilling down his cheek. His face is completely covered with sand. And “No”, said a physician we consulted, “bleeding from the ears is not a symptom of ventricular fibrillation.” The Medical Examiner’s hypotheses had been that Eimers died of cardiac arrest due to an abnormal heart rhythm [“ventricular fibrillation”]. The evidence of blood in the ear is consistent with Officer Lovette’s inadvertent and incriminating admissions: “Me. I dropped like a f***ing bomb on his head,” and “I slammed my elbow down into the back of his head and the guy quieted down.” The presence of sand was down-played and the presence of blood was denied in the FDLE report submitted to the Medical Examiner.
But the new video supports the civilian witnesses account, which is contrary to the testimony of certain police officers who claim Eimers was never face down in the sand. Civilian witnesses said Eimers face was “caked up with sand,” and that he had “sand in the mouth and nose.”
The new video also touches upon the controversial use of a Taser. According to at least three civilian witnesses Eimers was shocked with a Taser, but according to FDLE, police Taser firing data shows that none of the officers’ Tasers were fired that morning. On scene we hear one witness ask the Colombian tourist: “Did you see him when they were tasing him? When they had him on the ground?” and the witness imitates the sound of a Taser, “che-che-che-che-che” The Colombian tourist answers, “No,” but he had spent a good amount of time filming police cars on the street and his friends on the pier before he realized what had just happened. He then keeps the camera focused on Officers Lovette and DelValle who are desperately trying to revive the victim. EMS arrived thereafter and also tried to bring him back to life. But that was not going to happen.
Once again, the public is left having to question why a cruicial piece of evidence – that video – which was just one phone call away, was never secured by FDLE Agent Kathy Smith and presented to the Medical Examiner and why State Attorney Catherine Vogel likewise failed to secure the evidence and present it to the Grand Jury.
Stay tuned.
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To access all Blue Paper articles on the death of Charles Eimers click here.
NOTE ABOUT THE VIDEO: At the request of the videographer, some audio containing commentary by the videographer has been detached. Additonally, at the request of the videographer, approximately 13 seconds was deleted showing friends of the videographer standing on the pier. Video provided by Darren Horan, attorney for the Eimers family.
Wow!!! What we knew all along about the KWPD. Six minutes of murder caught on video. What say ye now citizens of Key West? What say ye now Mayor Cates and commissioners? What say ye now Donnie Lee? Will you continue to pretend it didn’t happen, and continue this blatant cover up? Or will you do the right thing and clean house? My guess is you will continue to support the rampant corruption and war on the homeless.
Terrific job Naja and Arnaud, keep the pressure on!
Absolutely frightening that so many people would be involved in a cover-up of a man’s death. Abject corruption is too kind a description.
I notice in today’s Citizen a brief mention that Capt Scott Smith is now working for the Public Defender’s office.Is that part of the State Attorney’s turf? Is he on paid admin leave from the KWPD?
What’s he doing there?
Not sure I would want him defending or sifting evidence for anyone…
“it’s our job to listen and be a partner…we are a paramilitary organization”… Donnie Lee , Key West Police Chief.
this is excellent! I still do not have much hope that this will result in criminal charges against the police, but this will certainly push the civil suit to the proper conclusion. hopefully the money damages will infuriate the Key West citizenry sufficiently to oust the mayor, city manager, commissioners, and donie lee and his jackboots.
did you catch donie lee saying that he and his force are a paramilitary organization in Mr. Adlers article? he should be removed for that alone.
After reading this latest blistering expose of KWPD, Florida Department of Law Enforcement and State Attorney Catherine Vogel and her top prosecutors and the grand jury, I opened today’s Key West Citizen online – http://www.keysnews.com – and read its article on the second Eimers video. There is plenty in the Citizen article which tries to shift the blame onto Eimers for how the cops treated him on South Beach last Thanksgiving Day. If those cops had not thought Charles Eimers was homeless, they would have treated him differently. He indeed came to Key West to do God’s work by being the vehicle through which God, aided by the blue paper and the Horan law firm, showed Key West, its citizens and the people of the Florida Keys and the world what kind of police department the city really has, and that its city officials like that kind of police department, evidenced by their steadfast support of Chief Lee and his cops, despite the good efforts of the blue paper and the Horan law firm. Charles Eimers also was used by God to show the Florida of Department of Law Enforcement, State Attorney Catherine Vogel and her prosecutors, and the grand jury they convened to investigate the death of Charles Eimers were, and are, a sham.
A suggestion to people of Key West, who are outraged over how Mayor Cates and the city commissioners have dealt with this case, so far. Go to the next city commission meeting and, during closing citizen comments, when citizens are allowed to speak to any issue they wish to speak for up to 3 minutes, take that opportunity to state your name and street address, which is required, and then tell Mayor Cates and the commissioners, and the television viewing audience, just how upset you are with the way they handled the Charles Eimers case. And, if you voted for Mayor Cates or for Margaret Romero in the recent election, also tell Mayor Cates, the city commissioners and the TV audience that you blame yourself as much as you blame them, because you approved their handling of the Charles Eimers case when you voted for Mayor Cates or for Margaret Romero.
Sadly, it is clear that (many) in the KWPD feel above the law, right up to the officer in charge; as well as some in the FDLE. This investigation has taken way too long. Maybe a way to speed things up, is to SUSPEND every person involved WITHOUT PAY, including Donnie Lee, until its resolved. Might make some come forward and tell the truth so this tragedy can be put to rest.
I continue to be very sad about what appears to be a cover up – not to mention the tragic death of a man. I don’t mean to diminish that life. I’m not sure how the evidence was kept from the Grand Jury, but there certainly is enough evidence to cast a very suspect eye on the KWPDwhen all the information is considered. Could it be there really was a conflict of interest on the part of Special Agent Supervisor Kathy Smith? When we read now that she is suspended because she allegedly lied about whether she was married to her legally divorced husband on mortage papers, we have to wonder whether she was trustworthy. I don’t know the law, but I sure hope this case can be revisited. Thanks to the Blue Paper for all it does to keep this case alive!
Paramilitary? Seriously? He and his buddies at the MCSO have been buying military equipment for at least 17 years that I’m aware of. Cops have no need for this stuff. They’re a bunch of wannabes who have serious mental issues, and who have massive chips on their tiny shoulders. If it weren’t for their extenders, they’d have nothing.
It should result in criminal charges and should open the case back up. It should also result in criminal charges for Ms. Smith, who is complicit in the coverup. They are murderers, one and all.
KWPD uses his alleged ‘homeless’ situation as an excuse, yet just try to get the KWPD to get rid of a true homeless bum living in a van on a city street, peeing and pooping on city sidewalks. They won’t go close to that. Duplicitous.
I would have to go so far as to say the Citizen is complicit in all of this. They have managed to delete a lot of details on this case from day-one.
Just watched the entire thing. Just look at all of those waddling, overweight cops!!! They have nothing better to do than to kill an innocent 61 year old visitor to Key West. Folks, this could easily happen to any one of us or our loved ones, because we know the KWPD dislikes the locals more than they dislike the visitors.
I would love to see this covered on CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes. They did an initial story in May, but this info and the Kathy Smith fraud info really exposes this for the murder and cover-up that it is.
Blue Paper, contact them!!!!
The Mayor and Commissioners need to quickly become active on this issue. It could save their political butts if they actually DID something.
Er, Susan, where did you get this information? Homeless people are targeted, harassed, threatened and jailed ongoing by KW police for real and made up (invented) on the sport crimes. Hatman, who had lived in his van in Key West for many years, was framed by KW police, and Judge Wayne Miller went along with the frame – I watched it happen during the trial. The cops claimed Hatman had a bucket in his van, which smelled like feces, but they produced no such bucket at trial; the bucket was not mentioned in their incident reports. At trial was the first Hatman ever heard of a bucket smelling like feces, Hatman told me. He said he did have a bucket in the van, but why would he crap in it, when he was sleeping in there? The cops invented the bucket smelling like feces, because the legislative history/rationale of the anti-living-in-a-vehicle city ordinance was people living in their vehicles allegedly posed a serious threat to public welfare and safety, and to tourism.
Those cops roughed Eimers up because they thought he was living in his PT cruiser. Even the mullet rapper (the Citizen) reported the cops thought Eimers was homeless. This was a hate crime, except the man the cops killed was not, in fact, homeless. But, alas, because he was perceived by the cops to be homeless, that made it … excusable? I don’t imagine any of the cops involved are making that lame argument; they are letting other people make it for them, it seems, though.
Ar around 3:40 in the video there’s a good view of what I call “The Swarm”. Thirteen officers on scene means 13 cruisers. Whenever there’s a ‘situation’ it seems like every policeman on duty feels compelled to drive to the location, for reasons that aren’t clear to me. Who’s out there protecting the rest of the city?
To the Key West police , Yes you bastards killed Mr Eimers. You killed him . Most curses are not deserved but you police deserve this one !!!!
I think we are lucky that Kathy Smith was so….oh, pick a word… lazy, criminal, stupid, that she didn’t track down the cell phone owner. My guess is that video would have “mysteriously” disappeared, and we would never have known about it. Major kudos to the Eimers’ attorneys for tracking it down, and again I have to thank Naja and Arnaud and TheBluePaper.com for having the guts for reporting this absolutely repulsive story. Mayor, Commissioners, City Manager, Catherine Vogel…grow some cajones and do the right thing. These criminal cops MUST be prosecuted and ANY elected leader that continues to ignore, keep silent, or worse, protect these people should be arrested for complicity as well. Unfortunately stupidity is not a crime.
This homicide coverup is not happening in a vacuum, it’s happening in the environment of a vicious conspiracy against local homeless citizens, one of which, the arresting officers assumed Mr Eimers was.
I submit the conspiracy leaders are among the wealthiest owners in key west and that they are members in good standing of our dear Chamber of Commerce. “Visibly homeless people are bad for business” the merchants say. [as if the tourists have never seen homeless people where the tourists come from, hahaha]
The anti-homeless campaign isn’t laid out on paper, the architects are silent in public, they only speak their malicious slanderous de-humanization of poor people in private chambers. The city’s minions get the point that there’s no protection for the under-class homeless and all methods is de facto aproved to eradicate their obvious presence in our puffed-up “paradise” including thuggery. Prejudice against the homeless is cool and condoned in the coral city.
Look at the local corporate newspaper always saying “homeless man [or woman]” in every headline when they do something wrong. That is biased reporting to make the condition of homelessness almost sound like a criminal occupation.
The shame of the unintentional homicide of Mr Eimers is borne by more than the perpetrators, it also belongs to the tourist operators who encourage municipal prejudice against poor people without shelter.
Key West, the city of “one human family,” would love to do better than to follow the lead of the bigots of commerce…
Amiga Hope, of Birmingham, Alabama, wrote to me about this article:
So how many KW policemen and police cars does it take for a traffic stop? There were a lot in the new video.
I replied:
The traffic stop occurred elsewhere in Key West.
Eimers then left the scene, that cop said. Then that cop followed Eimers, and must have called in for back up, and they trailed him to where the video was shot. At first there were perhaps 4 or 5 police cruisers there. Then, according to a friend of mine’s report in a blue paper comment, there were 13 cruisers he counted in the 2nd video only now made public by the blue paper, after a long time of nobody knowing who had shot that video or where that video was. Perhaps it was all the cruisers and officers there on duty at that time. Leaving the rest of Key West cop-less, was my friend’s point. I think it’s a phenomenon sort of like rubbernecking, when there is a accident or cops make an arrest on a road, and all passing vehicles slow down to see what’s going on, and the road becomes gridlocked as a result. If one or two cops are good, more cops are better in cops’ thinking? Now if Eimers had pulled out an AK 47 and was shooting or threatening to shoot at cop cars and officers, that would have been an entirely different situation. Maybe a few less cruisers would have rushed to the event :-)?
I have this theory that this all was orchestrated by angels, Eimers was taken over by them, he behaved loopy therefore at the first traffic stop, then he left the scene in a dazed state, he’d just said he came here to do God’s work, and the rest was in the cards to happen, because he was going to die soon from a heart attack in any event and this was the most useful way for the angels to assist his departure and bring to light in a really big time way what every homeless person in Key West knows many (not all) of the local police are like. And to similarly light up in a big time way how the police department deals with out of control officers, and how the department protects them and covers up and even destroys evidence; in this case, they tried to get the body cremated so there could be no autopsy. Then, they got to the county medical examiner, to the point he resigned and took a job several states away before he released his medical findings, which looked like maybe he had taken dictation from the police department. The Florida Department of Law enforcement did about the same in its investigation. As did the local state (district) attorney and her prosecutors and the grand jury they convened. All of that the angels used Charles Eimers to light up in a big way, is how I see it.
Hope wrote:
And Ferguson thinks it has a problem….
I replied:
Based on what I read online and saw on the TV news, I think Ferguson actually does have a problem; it’s police force, apparently, historically have been kinda like Key West’s, but the trigger point in Ferguson has been white cops going after black people. We have that in Key West, too, but here the black people have been subdued; they have given up; they mostly just endure. In Ferguson, the blacks have not caved in, is my impression. And they have a black-ish US President and his black Attorney General looking into it, as I recall. But Ferguson is not on my plate, not directly. Key West is, and, yes, we have a big mess in our police department, and I have no clue how that will go. It’s one step in that hell after another. Perhaps another way of saying chop wood, carry water? 🙂 I love your wit and short but pointed “darts” at what needs poking.
And, :-), Key West has a special feature, unique actually, which is in full play in the Eimers case. Key West prides itself as being THE city, the ONLY city, whose official philosophy is the so-called “all people are created equal members of one human family.” So just naturally God decided to test Key West on that; and just as naturally God decided to use Jesus to test Key West on that, since Jesus himself was homeless during his ministry, and since Jesus told people in the Gospels, as they did to the least of people, they did also for him. I imagine those those police officers in the Eimers case are Christians. I imagine Mayor Cates and the city commissioners and the city manager and the city attorney and the chief of police are Christians. And I imagine a goodly number of Key West residents who don’t want homeless people around here are Christians, or some other faith which teaches inclusion, not exclusion. And thus did suspected homeless man Charles Eimers indeed come to Key West to do God’s work, although I don’t imagine he understood just how that would play out. Meanwhile, the Thanksgiving candlelight Charles Eimers memorial at the scene of the murder is coming up, and it will be interesting to see just how many Key West people show up, and thus show their faces :-).
Key West’s psychiatrist emeritus, Jerry Weinstock, M.D., wrote to me about this article.
Sloan: We all have pent up feelings –sometimes intense hostile feelings bottled up===REPRESSED —I have always thought the Eimers tragedy had something to do with that element of our instinctual natures..
He (the victim ) got into the cross hairs of someones repressed hostility and once it spewed out –the rest –or some of the rest —in them(police) an outlet was triggered –and Eimers —got the result of conscious and unconscious wrath–bottled up and aged to a white hot intensity…. EVERYTHING IS MORE COMPLICATED THAN IT SEEMS—-that is what I deal with helped by a medical background. literary, philosophical , political it all comes into play—–Dostoevsky maybe had more to do with this case as far as insight than many other factors —(he and other creative insightful great authors..)—-my take —-this is a metaphorical case and will echo down the corridors of time and history.
—isn’t ISIS tribal and religious frenzy based on the core of deep instinctual human nature—-who would behead if that didn’t have heretical hatred—of an intense degree.—-sociology/ theology enters into this—as well. Religion instead of understanding fosters antagonism— I will stick with atheism—freedom of thought.———have an illuminating day–Jerry
Just back from Miami. Opening Night of our show “Five Guys Named Moe”. Sellout crowd at the Lyric Theater in ‘Overtown’. “Rave Reviews” from the Miami Herald and other critics…..
Now to the business at hand…..
I’ve been informed that the FDLE supervisor and special agents overseeing the killing of Mr. Eimers, coordinated and colluded with the State Attorney’s Office, to included some of its investigators and prosecutors; in exchanging possible story line interpretations, information and evidence; designed to develop a work product that could be used to conceal and cover-up the commission of any crimes that might have led up to, and followed, the murder of Mr. Eimers.
Based upon this information, it appears that some individuals within KWPD may have actively participated in, and facilitated this criminal conspiracy. The evidence suggests that a fraud may have been perpetrated upon the ‘grand jury’, residents of Key West and the United States of America.
The aforementioned malfeasance, has been typically punished with lengthy terms of hard time in our toughest prisons. If found guilty, for the cast of characters allegedly involved in these crimes, it would mean a death sentence.
My pleas for an independent, impartial, accurate and detailed investigation of the killing of Mr. Eimers were ignored.
It appears that the intent and focus of those responsible to secure a truthful and valid examination of this tragedy; were instead concentrated upon destroying evidence, suppressing and tampering with the facts, intimidating witnesses and obfuscating justice; in preparation for a skewed and biased proffering of their findings to our ‘grand jury’.
Apparently, this travesty of justice has been unraveling for awhile. Dealing with similar issues, I’ve described the process.
Although the wheels of justice grind slowly; the rats will jump ship, turn on one another, inform (snitch) on everyone they can, cut a deal with anyone who’ll have them, and accept any plea deal they may be given. It has been my experience, the type of alleged crimes addressed in Mr. Eimers’ death are usually punished with an extended stay in prison.
I’ve been apprised that the continued festering of this wound has become a source of embarrassment, rendering a ‘black mark’ upon the Justice Department. Although undergoing a change in leadership, they’ve described the ‘criminal negligence’ implicated in this matter, as having reached a ‘tipping point’.
Arnaud and Naja Girard are working their miracle via The Blue Paper…
John, if you have personally asked officials in the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate this case, and through your own investigation of this case, and the DOJ, you have learned DOJ officials and State Attorney Catherine Vogel, and the two assistant state attorney prosecutors she assigned to the grand jury also were in on the conspiracy you outline, then those DOJ officials, Vogel and her two prosecutors are as guilty in the cover up and destruction of evidence as the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the KWPD. Meaning, I’m asking you to tell us the names of the DOJ officials, with whom you seem to have spoken, and the names of any DOJ officials you say are part of the conspiracy. As to anyone being at risk to the death penalty in this case, this ex-lawyer thinks that at the very least would require premeditation by the person or persons who actually did the killing, and the death penalty would not apply to people who after the fact participated in cover up and destruction of evidence and refusal to prosecute, etc. I agree, however, anyone who did participate after the fact, as you described, should do hard prison time for a good while.
Thank you ‘FORMERBANKER’ for clarifying my ‘death sentence’ comment. You are ‘spot on’ in my meaning and intent.
Brother Sloan,
As you know, successfully infiltrating and penetrating a murderously corrupt paramilitary operation, can be an extraordinarily difficult and dangerous task. Life threatening risks are regularly taken on by those engaged in such activity. The data, intelligence and transparency that they are willing to share with the outside world is a valued source of information. These individuals are comfortably cognizant that their identities will be forever safeguarded. It kind of falls in with the old adage: “If I tell you, I’ll have to kill you”.
We don’t do violence anymore.
Therefore, it’s incumbent upon me to recognize, respect and protect the trust that I’ve been given. Violations of this trust have cost people their lives, careers and a chance to live free and earn an income. In many instances, a breach of this trust has caused lethal harm to innocent family members.
It’s a high stakes and deadly enterprise, that should not be toyed with…
Patience is a required virtue that will manifest itself during a deliberative legal process. Rushing to judgment isn’t necessary, as the evidence will identify, prove beyond a reasonable doubt and convict the guilty.
Moving on…
Researching through the articles published in “The Blue Paper” that address Mr. Eimers’ killing; while compiling a succinct, yet detailed file, which highlights the alleged misconduct and criminal activity of the KWPD, FDLE, Medical Examiner and State Attorney’s Office contained therein; will with certainty impact the outcome of this case; if we then forward this file to the United States Attorney, Justice Department, FBI, The President of the United States and the Southern Poverty Law Center.
Parenthetic rhetoric, observations, criticism and judgments will divert the scales of justice.
Bloviating will disrupt the stream of consciousness required for a clear and surgically precise presentation of the facts.
We are not outsiders in this matter. Our determined and steadfast pursuit of justice for Mr. Eimers’ will be realized, if we stay the course and categorically confirm ourselves to make a difference.
Love, Blessings and Respect…..
This is our personal, documented experience. In our case, the cops did nothing. We had photos of the guy defecating and peeing on the sidewalk after climbing out of his van. We had pictures of him sleeping in the van with his nasty feet sticking out the window, with beer cans and other trash surrounding the van as well as his excrement. It is a public health issue, plus the guy in the van, slept there for weeks, in a residential parking place without a Monroe county tag. Cops did nothing, much as they do when it comes to bicyclists who break the law and harm innocent people.
The cops wouldn’t even go close to this guy.
That would make sense. Sadly, it is doubtful it would happen.
The KWPD was nailed many years ago as a racketeering organization under RICO laws. It’s time they were nailed again.
I’m not saying that the cops don’t target certain homeless people, but it would appear you’re way-far out there.
I don’t think anyone has a problem with a person who has lost his/her job and is trying to pull themselves back up. But the people in this town who work two, even three jobs to make ends meet are fed up with the drunk, drugged up, aggressive panhandlers and scammers who choose their lifestyle.
Check one of the local hat shops for a new tin hat. Yours is obviously leaking.
To be clear, John Donnelly did not say that he had any indications that the DOJ was complicit in any “conspiracy” or “cover up” or “destruction of evidence”.