Off the Hook

On Jan. 4, a Travis Co. grand jury declined to indict seven Austin Police officers involved in a September altercation that ended with the in-custody death of 33-year-old Michael Clark. According to the Travis Co. District Attorney's Office, the grand jury cleared officers Blaine Eiben, Robin Denton, Robert Pewitt, Douglas Drake, Jesse Borunda, James Morgan, and Robert Schmitt of any criminal responsibility in Clark's death. The end of the criminal inquiry into the incident marks the start of an administrative review by APD Internal Affairs investigators, which police say will take about four weeks to complete.

On Sept. 26, police working the department's Southeast Area Command responded to a call for service on East William Cannon. When they arrived, they found Clark in an altercation with an, at press time, as-yet-unidentified woman. According to police, Clark was "displaying behavior that was violent and irrational." The responding officers called for backup and eventually nine officers were on the scene trying to subdue Clark. During the struggle, police say, Clark bit one officer and injured another's shoulder. Clark was sprayed with pepper spray and struck three times with a Taser before police could arrest him. Shortly thereafter, however, Clark went into "medical distress," and was transported to the hospital where he died that afternoon. According to Deputy Medical Examiner Elizabeth Peacock, Clark died as a result of "massive intravascular sickling" brought on by PCP and cocaine-induced "excited delirium." Interestingly, Peacock also concluded that neither the Taser strikes nor the heat of the day played any role in Clark's death – a conclusion that, at press time, was still being reviewed by a panel of local medical experts, of which Peacock is also a member. (For more, see "What Killed Michael Clark?" Dec. 2, 2005.)