By Jill Sederstrom

A former Colorado doctor was sentenced to 30 days behind bars after he pleaded guilty to choking a nurse in a recovery room full of patients after she objected to him turning off patient vital signs machines.

Mark Randle Ryan, 58, was also sentenced to three years of deferred judgement, three years of probation, 100 hours of community service, mental health treatment and anger management therapy for the incident, according to a statement from the District Attorney’s office of the 18^th Judicial District.

“This happened in front of other patients and in front of other professionals,” Judge Theresa Slade told Ryan during the sentencing. “When you did this to (the nurse), she couldn’t care for other patients, and you put them at risk. You don’t get to act this way, ever.”

Ryan had been working as a contract anesthesiologist at Sky Ridge Medical Center on Oct. 8, 2018 when prosecutors said he and a charge nurse—who has been identified as Beth Duche—got into argument after Ryan began turning off vital-sign machines for patients who were recovering from surgery.

Ryan contended that the continuous beeping from the machines was creating “alarm fatigue” for the nurses but Duche disagreed and intervened, according to local station KCNC-TV.

Ryan grabbed the nurse by her throat and squeezed it so hard she would later tell Lone Tree police officers that she saw stars.

In court Monday, Ryan said that he had “blacked out” and didn’t remember the attack clearly.

“It’s hard to believe I blacked out but I really did,” he said, according to the local station. “All I could tell was that my hands were around, feel your jaw, feel throat, soft tissues—I did not know what was going on. I remember separating hands away from the throat.”

Duche—who said she has suffered from PTSD, panic attacks and insomnia after the incident—said she believed at the time that Ryan was going to kill her.

“I was assaulted by a colleague who took a Hippocratic Oath to do no harm. No amount of stress Mr. Ryan was experiencing in his life should make him snap to that extent,” she said.

She had argued that Ryan should receive the maximum punishment, 90 days behind bars.

Ryan pleaded guilty on March 9 to one count of second-degree assault by strangulation and one count of third-degree assault, prosecutors said.

He has already relinquished his medical license.

“Few people in society have as much responsibility as the medical professionals we trust to treat us in the hospital. This defendant was an anesthesiologist, who worked in stressful situations every day to monitor patients during surgery,” District Attorney George Brauchler said in the release. “No occupation, regardless of stress, provides an excuse for assault, especially strangulation. The message here is clear: Teacher, electrician, attorney or doctor … viciously attack a coworker and go to jail.”

Ryan is scheduled to begin his jail time Thursday.

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By Jacob Kaye

The NYPD officer who allegedly used an illegal chokehold on an unarmed Black man during an arrest on the Rockaway Boardwalk on Sunday, June 21, has been arrested.

David Afanador, 39, faces charges of attempted strangulation and strangulation, the NYPD announced Thursday. Afanador turned himself into the Queens District Attorney’s office, according to police. He was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday morning, the Queens DA’s office said.

Under the new police reforms signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo earlier this month, the use of the chokehold by a police officer is considered a felony.

“The ink from the pen Governor Cuomo used to sign this legislation was barely dry before this officer allegedly employed the very tactic the new law was designed to prohibit,” said District Attorney Melinda Katz. “Police officers are entrusted to serve and protect  and the conduct alleged here cannot be tolerated. This police officer is now a defendant and is accused of using a chokehold, a maneuver we know has been lethal. This Office has zero tolerance for police misconduct.”

Afanador is accused of using the illegal maneuver to detain Ricky Bellevue during the weekend arrest. The incident was caught on camera by a bystander and widely shared online.

Soon after the video went viral, the NYPD released an officer’s body cam footage of the incident and suspended Afanador without pay by nightfall.

The incident began around 8:45 a.m., on Sunday, June 21, on the Rockaway Boardwalk at 131st Street. Three men on the boardwalk began to get into a verbal altercation with at least four police officers, the body cam footage shows.

At one point during the dispute, Bellevue, 35, appears to reach inside of a trashcan, at which point several officers tackle him to the ground, video shows.

While being cuffed, Afanador appears to wrap his arm around Bellevue’s neck. “He’s choking him,” someone call be heard yelling off camera.

Afanador can be seen holding Bellevue in the alleged chokehold after Bellevue had been put in handcuffs, according to Katz. Bellevue can be seeing going limp as he lost consciousness under Afanador’s maneuver, the DA said. Afanador eventually pulled his arm from around Bellevue’s neck after another officer taps on his shoulder.

If convicted, Afanador faces seven years in prison.

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By Patty Nieberg and Thomas Peipert

The Colorado governor on Thursday ordered prosecutors to reopen the investigation into the death of Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old Black man put into a chokehold by police who stopped him on the street in suburban Denver last year because he was “being suspicious.”

Gov. Jared Polis signed an executive order directing state Attorney General Phil Weiser to investigate and possibly prosecute the three white officers previously cleared in McClain’s death. McClain’s name has become a rallying cry during the national reckoning over racism and police brutality following the deaths of George Floyd and others.

“Elijah McClain should be alive today, and we owe it to his family to take this step and elevate the pursuit of justice in his name to a statewide concern,” Polis said in a statement.

He said he had spoken with McClain’s mother and was moved by her description of her son as a “responsible and curious child … who could inspire the darkest soul.”

Police in Aurora responded to a call about a suspicious person wearing a ski mask and waving his arms as he walked down a street on Aug. 24. Police body-camera video shows an officer getting out of his car, approaching McClain and saying, “Stop right there. Stop. Stop. … I have a right to stop you because you’re being suspicious.”

Police say McClain refused to stop walking and fought back when officers confronted him and tried to take him into custody.

In the video, the officer turns McClain around and repeats, “Stop tensing up.” As McClain tries to escape the officer’s grip, the officer says, “Relax, or I’m going to have to change this situation.”

As other officers join to restrain McClain, he begs them to let go and says, “You guys started to arrest me, and I was stopping my music to listen.”

One of the officers put him in a chokehold that cuts off blood to the brain, something that has been banned in several places in the wake of Floyd’s death May 25 under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer and the global protests that followed.

In the video, McClain tells officers: “Let go of me. I am an introvert. Please respect the boundaries that I am speaking.” Those words have appeared on scores of social media posts demanding justice for McClain.

He was on the ground for 15 minutes as several officers and paramedics stood by. Paramedics gave him 500 milligrams of the sedative ketamine to calm him down, and he suffered cardiac arrest on the way to the hospital. McClain was declared brain dead Aug. 27 and was taken off life support three days later.

A forensic pathologist could not determine what exactly led to his death but said physical exertion during the confrontation likely contributed.

McClain’s younger sister, Samara McClain, told The Denver Post shortly after his death that her brother was walking to a corner store to get tea for a cousin and often wore masks when he was outside because he had a blood condition that caused him to get cold easily.

In the video, Elijah McClain sobs as he repeatedly tells officers, “I’m just different.” Samara McClain said her brother was a massage therapist who planned to go to college.

The Police Department put the three officers on leave, but they returned to the force when District Attorney Dave Young said there was insufficient evidence to support charging them.

“Ultimately, while I may share the vast public opinion that Elijah McClain’s death could have been avoided, it is not my role to file criminal charges based on opinion, but rather, on the evidence revealed from the investigation and applicable Colorado law,” Young said shortly before Polis ordered the investigation reopened.

Aurora police said interim Police Chief Vanessa Wilson won’t comment to avoid interfering with the investigation.

Mari Newman, the McClain family’s attorney, said she was pleased with the governor’s decision.

“Clearly, Aurora has no intention of taking responsibility for murdering an innocent young man,” she said. “Its entire effort is to defend its brutality at all costs, and to lie to the public it is supposed to serve. It is time for a responsible adult to step in.”

Colorado’s attorney general said in a statement that the investigation will be thorough and “worthy of public trust and confidence in the criminal justice system.”

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By Jonny Wakefield

The lawyer for a man accused of kidnapping and sexually assaulting a young girl has filed a formal complaint over an Edmonton Police Service news release that he says sparked vigilantism and violent threats.

Mark Jordan, the lawyer for Wade Stene, says demonstrators have been camped outside his client’s mother’s home for more than a week after police issued a news release saying Stene posed a safety risk to children while out on bail.

By Sharif Paget

A Milwaukee policeman charged in the April choking death of a man at the off-duty officer’s home had his first court appearance Wednesday.

Michael Mattioli, 32, is charged with first-degree reckless homicide in the death of Joel Acevedo the morning after a party at Mattioli’s house, according to the criminal complaint.

Mattioli’s bond was continued Wednesday at $50,000 at the hearing, and “he remains out of custody pending trial,” Michael F. Hart, an attorney for Mattioli, said in a statement to CNN, adding that he’s confident his client will be vindicated.

Civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, who represents the family of George Floyd, is now representing Acevedo’s family, “because the police continue to literally choke the life out of Black and Brown people,” Crump said Tuesday in a statement.

An altercation turned deadly