Politicians Grumble After Three Cops in Wash. State George Floyd 2.0 Case Are Completely Exonerated

This case was supposed to have been George Floyd 2.0., but after a two-month-long trial, Tacoma, Wash., jurors made a different decision this week in acquitting three police officers accused of killing a black man. Manuel (Manny) Ellis suffered a deadly heart attack while in police custody in March of 2020. Jurors would learn during a ten-week-long trial that Ellis was a troubled soul, overtaken by a meth habit, who was a diagnosed schizophrenic.

More than one political career was riding on the cops being found guilty of killing Ellis. The mayor called for the officers to be fired on the spot. A community leader demanded the cops be prosecuted. She used the incident to win election to the city council. And, after the Pierce County district attorney failed to bring charges against the cops, Democrat Governor Jay Inslee ordered the state attorney general to take over the case. Attorney General Bob Ferguson, who's running for governor, threw the book at three of the officers on scene that night. Two of the officers involved in the takedown of Ellis, Officers Christopher Burbank and Matthew Collins, were charged with second-degree murder and first-degree manslaughter, and Officer Timothy Rankine was charged with first-degree manslaughter. State attorneys gave jurors a menu of lesser and included charges on which to find the officers guilty. The seven-man, five-woman "diverse" jury cleared the officers of all charges.

BREAKING: Tacoma Police officers Matthew Collins, Christopher Burbank and Timothy Rankine have been found not guilty in the death of Manny Ellis.
READ MORE: https://t.co/tT8q2dPLjW pic.twitter.com/KhE7tJHti8
— FOX 13 Seattle (@fox13seattle) December 21, 2023

Emotional video and images from a Ring camera on that night three years ago showed officers manhandling Ellis who told officers "I can't breathe, sir." But the cellphone video didn't show everything. Two officers testified Ellis was combative and agitated and picked up one of the officers. Cameras weren't rolling at the beginning of the encounter, so the only images that made it into the news were of the officers was their attempt to arrest a "thrashing" Ellis. Officers tased, then hogtied Ellis. Another officer put a spit mask on him.

The AP detailed the encounter:

Ellis was walking home with doughnuts from a 7-Eleven in Tacoma, about 30 miles (50 kilometers) south of Seattle, late on March 3, 2020, when he passed a patrol car stopped at a red light, with Collins and Burbank inside.
The officers claimed they saw Ellis try to open the door of a passing car at the intersection and he became aggressive when they tried to question him about it. Collins testified that Ellis demonstrated “superhuman strength” by lifting him off the ground and throwing him through the air.

The former ousted Pierce County medical examiner testified during the trial that he believed the officers' actions killed Ellis. Another medical expert for the defense said the schizophrenic man had an enlarged heart from drug use and was so high and agitated that he triggered the heart attack that killed him.

There was community drama with Benjamin Crump-like overtones. Pierce County settled a civil wrongful death lawsuit with the family for $4 million in 2022, which telegraphed a message to potential jurors and the black community that, of course, the officers must be guilty of something. Ellis was memorialized in a hand-painted mural at S. 11th St. and Martin Luther King Way, which featured his image and the words, "Justice for Manny." The mural became a gathering place for protesters.

“Fuck the Tacoma Police Department” — Manny’s sister shortly after the jury found the cops who killed Manny Ellis not guilty on all counts pic.twitter.com/W0UPZOsjTo
— grace s. deng is @gracesdeng.bsky.social (@gracesdeng) December 22, 2023

The two-month-long trial was set back by sick jurors, a near-hung jury, battling attorneys who demanded the judge issue sanctions, and two jurors who had to be replaced by alternates during deliberations—forcing them to start deliberations over again. At one point the judge told prosecutors they were on thin ice because of their courtroom contretemps. And the Christmas break was looming.

The defense exploited several areas of reasonable doubt, including 18 instances by the reckoning of one defense attorney. "A common theme throughout his presentation was that the state did not have the grounds to charge [Officer] Collins in Ellis’ death – and they knew it before they brought their case to the jury. At different points, [defense attorney Jared Ausserer] accused the state’s expert witnesses of being 'hired guns,' or of harboring their own political agendas." On another issue the attorney said, “How in the world do four separate agencies observe conduct that is a gross deviation from what’s accepted and a disregard for a substantial risk of death? It wasn’t. That’s why they didn’t intervene.”

Officer Rankin's attorney, Mark Conrad, told jurors the state was hiding pertinent facts of the case: “It’s a dangerous thing when a prosecutor is not being forthright with the facts; turns a blind eye to facts that don’t fit their narrative."

Even woke Washington jurors could see the con.

Jurors also heard about another civil wrongful death lawsuit against the City of Tacoma. Under cross-examination by defense attorneys, jurors learned that cell phones that captured the video of the violent encounter had mysteriously gone missing after the family got an attorney. Or, as one trial watcher, a former prosecutor put it, the cell phones "mysteriously combusted." Jurors weren't buying it.

Attorney Mark Lindquist said he thought the key turning point in the trial was when "one of the prosecution's own witnesses...a medic at the scene said it was his opinion that Mr. Ellis had died from a combination of methamphetamine and agitation and that's the state's own witness."

Two defense attorneys told the media after the verdict that jurors doubted the prosecution's line on "Ellis’ cause of death and the credibility of civilian eyewitnesses called by prosecutors."

After the verdict was announced, a small gathering of people took over the intersection, preventing traffic, including transit, from getting through. Businesses were boarded up in case there were fiery but peaceful protests.

A jury has found three officers not guilty in the 2020 death of Manuel "Manny" Ellis while in police custody in Tacoma Washington, protests have begun. Businesses are boarding up. pic.twitter.com/xAI3rB4NCg
— Freyja™ (@FreyjaTarte) December 22, 2023

Lindquist wrote an op-ed for the Tacoma News Tribune about what justice is supposed to look like and it's worth excerpting here:

We all want justice, but what does that mean?
Justice does not mean the jury delivers the verdict you want.
Justice does not mean a message that favors or condemns any particular segment of people.
Justice does not mean your group of family and friends get to revel in validation from 12 strangers.

He said a change in the law five years ago removing the burden of proving malice by the cops in a death while in custody was a good idea because "we want officers, public servants, to be accountable for their actions," and "we also want officers to be able to do their job and keep us safe without fear of being sent to prison for reasonable conduct in challenging circumstances, including good-faith mistakes. We need good officers."

And then he said, "Here, if the officers are acquitted, this case may serve as an example of prosecutorial overreach. If the officers are convicted, this case may serve as an example of police accountability in action."

Political actors at the governor's, attorney general's, mayor's, and city council offices used this fraught, racially charged case around the George Floyd riots and COVID shutdowns to make political points by dunking on three cops who were just doing their jobs and followed their training. That's what the evidence and outcome attests to anyway.

The mayor missed an opportunity to move for calm and comity after verdict and instead made an emotional display for the cameras.

BREAKING: Tacoma mayor Victoria Woodards is giving a press conference about the Manny Ellis verdict. Also here are the police chief and the Tacoma City Manager. The mayor right now: “His death creates a hole that will not be filled”. pic.twitter.com/GruU8Nm7og
— Ryan Simms (@RyanTVnews) December 22, 2023

Activists pointed to the trials of cops involved in the George Floyd deaths to somehow prove that what happened to Manny Ellis was malicious murder. Eventually, those convictions may be tossed out because of the politically fraught time, place, and manner of that outrageous trial.

Manny Ellis died in custody. His death is a tragedy. His mom and family weep at their loss. We understand the questions by black citizens and community members. Cops shouldn't be given a pass just because they're cops. They need to be accountable and questions must be answered. After three years, three investigations, hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal expenses by each cop, overcharging, months in court and hour after hour of depositions, and a unanimous jury, those questions have been answered.

This is what justice looks like.

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