CLACKAMAS COUNTY, Ore. — Three Clackamas County Sheriff’s deputies can be heard joking and laughing as a man makes incoherent noises and flails uncontrollably in a jail cell after an apparent overdose.
The incident happened in November 2016. The man, 31-year-old Bryan Perry, was later taken to the hospital where he died. Perry was a U.S. Army veteran.
Perry’s family filed a federal lawsuit in Portland this week, alleging deputies and medical staff from Corizon Health Inc., the jail’s medical contractor, failed to properly treat Perry.
In cellphone videos released by the Clackamas County Sheriff’s Office on Thursday, deputies can be heard mocking Perry as they watch outside his padded cell.
Raw video: Deputies mock man suffering from drug overdose (WARNING: Disturbing)
“You don’t think this needs to go the schools as like the new D.A.R.E.?” One deputy says at the beginning of the video.
“Should we just take him and put him in front of the classroom?” Another deputy asks.
“That would be fantastic,” a deputy says as the group laughs.
“If you could just wheel him in a cage and wheel him back out,” another deputy responds.
“Just let him sit there for like 10 minutes, and then, ‘Don’t do drugs,’ and then wheel him back out,” a deputy jokes.
“Look what I brought for show and tell today,” a deputy says while laughing.
One of the deputies also jokes about showing the video to Perry's girlfriend.
“We should go show this to his girlfriend and be like, ‘You love this?’”
According to the lawsuit, the conversation took place between deputies Lacey Sandquist, Ricky Paurus, Matrona Shadrin, and an unidentified man.
Clackamas County Sheriff Craig Roberts said the office conducted an internal investigation. He said the deputy who filmed the videos resigned by the time the investigation began. Roberts said the deputies who still worked at the sheriff's office were disciplined, but he didn't specify the punishment.
"The laughter, substance, and tone of several comments heard from my employees in that video were inappropriate, and do not conform to our professional standards,” Roberts said.