Eugene weekly., July 22, 2021, Page 8, Image 8

A HIDDEN
DEATH
Last year a Eugene man was arrested during a mental health crisis.
He died two days after deputies knelt on his back at the Lane County Jail.
BY ARDESHIR TABRIZIAN
LANDON PAYNE NEEDED HELP.
On a Friday night in March 2020, Landon Payne
returned to his Eugene home high on meth, panicked
and paranoid. He’d been clean for three years, but now,
after using methamphetamine again, he believed people
wanted to kill him.
His wife wanted to help. Angie Payne knew Landon
had a history of mental health issues, especially when
he was on meth. So that night, with Landon high and
frightened, she turned to the Eugene Police Department.
It made sense — she’d done the same thing three years
earlier. Back then, the police took Landon to a hospital
on a mental health hold for his safety. Why wouldn’t they
help him again?
This time, the Eugene police chose not to help.
Instead, EPD officers set into motion a chain of events
that led to Landon Payne’s death, according to a joint
Eugene Weekly and Catalyst Journalism Project inves-
tigation.
Records show the officers dismissed signs of Payne’s
mental instability and discounted EPD policies about
dealing with people experiencing a mental health crisis.
Payne had committed no crime and posed no threat
to anyone. EPD’s policies call for officers, if possible, to
avoid arresting someone in crisis and instead seek to
de-escalate the situation and offer assistance.
But records show two of three officers at the scene
had not received EPD’s mandatory crisis intervention
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training for dealing with people experiencing a mental-
health crisis.
Rather than help Payne, the EPD officers decided to
arrest him on a three-year-old warrant from a civil child-
support case. As it turned out, Marion County, which
issued the warrant, didn’t want Payne. It was a warrant
that, as it turned out, did not need to be enforced.
The unnecessary arrest flipped Payne from panic
into delirium. The EPD officers refused to take Payne
to a hospital and insisted he be booked in the Lane
County Jail. At the jail, sheriff ’s deputies pinned Payne
face down on a concrete floor in order to control him.
At least two deputies placed their knees on Payne's
back, according to documents and a video of the inci-
dent reviewed by EW.
At one point, a gasping Payne told deputies, “I can’t
breathe.”
Payne’s heart stopped 63 seconds after that. Deputies
and emergency medical technicians applied CPR for nearly
20 minutes before restarting his heart. But the damage
was done. Payne died at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medi-
cal Center at RiverBend two days later.
The Lane County Medical Examiner ruled the cause
of death as a lack of oxygen to his brain after he suffered
a cardiac arrest “during restraint by law enforcement."
A death tied to police restraint could have triggered a
thorough, independent investigation into actions of EPD
officers and Lane County sheriff ’s deputies.
Illustration by Chelsea Lovejoy
But the county medical examiner, Dr. Daniel Davis,
prevented that from happening when he ruled on the
manner of death.
After ruling police restraint was a cause contributing
to Payne’s death, Davis made a separate ruling as to the
manner of death. In death investigations, “manner of
death” refers to the events that brought on the cause of
death. In all cases, there are a limited number of possi-
bilities for the manner of death: natural causes, accident,
suicide, homicide or undetermined.
Davis listed Payne’s manner of death as “undeter-
mined.” An independent forensic expert and a cardiologist
contacted by EW say that they question Davis’ finding.
Both experts say a “homicide” finding would have
been consistent with Davis’ own conclusions that police
restraint of Payne helped cause his death. A finding of
“homicide” as a manner of death wouldn’t mean a crime
had been committed. But the finding would have triggered
an independent criminal investigation.
Davis’ ruling allowed EPD and the Lane County sher-
iff ’s office to avoid such an investigation. Davis declined
to answer questions for this story.
Despite the lack of an outside investigation, Lane
County District Attorney Patricia Perlow tells EW she
does not believe officers broke any laws in dealing with
Payne. She believes the sheriff ’s deputies used reason-
able restraint on Payne, and that they summoned medical
help as soon as it was clear Payne had stopped breathing.
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