Lawyers for Tacoma police charged in death of Manuel Ellis try again to get case dismissed

Lawyers for three Tacoma police officers on trial for the death of Manuel Ellis made a list-minute bid Monday morning for dismissal of the charges against them.

One of Officer Timothy Rankine’s lawyers, Mark Conrad, argued that when prosecutors last week mentioned that Rankine had a lawyer present during an interview with detectives, it potentially planted a seed in jurors’ minds that his client had done something wrong.

While cross-examining Rankine last week, special prosecutor Patty Eakes for the Washington Attorney General’s Office questioned the three-day lag between Ellis’s death and Rankine’s interview with detectives from the Pierce County Sheriff’s Department to “consider and counsel” his statement.

Conrad argued that Eakes deliberately violated an earlier ruling by Pierce County Superior Court Judge Bryan Chushcoff prohibiting prosecutors from casting negative light on the officers’ exercise of their constitutional rights as defendants. Conrad insinuated that the Attorney General’s Office was hoping for a mistrial to get “a do-over” of a case that Conrad perceives as headed toward an acquittal.

Chushcoff ruled that Eakes’s remark violated his order but was not deliberate and had minimal effect on the jury. He denied motions from all three officers to dismiss the charges against them, setting the stage for closing arguments to potentially begin Monday afternoon. The rest of the morning was spent haggling over jury instructions.

Ellis, 33, died March 3, 2020, after repeatedly telling police he couldn’t breathe as they struggled in the street. The Pierce County medical examiner ruled Ellis’ death a homicide caused by oxygen deprivation from physical restraint. Lawyers for the officers have argued that the high level of methamphetamine in Ellis’s system and Ellis’s enlarged heart (discovered during his autopsy) caused his death.

Matthew Collins, 40, Christopher “Shane” Burbank, 38, and Rankine, 35, are charged with first-degree manslaughter. Collins and Burbank, the first officers to encounter Ellis, also are charged with second-degree murder.

Jurors were instructed Monday that they also have the option of convicting the officers of the lesser included offense of second-degree manslaughter.

Collins and Burbank told detectives that Ellis was reaching for the door of a car as it passed through an intersection, prompting them to question him. All three officers have pleaded not guilty, are free on bail and remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave.

Collins testified that Ellis turned aggressive and exhibited extraordinary strength in fighting him and Burbank. Eyewitnesses for the prosecution, however, testified that Ellis was walking away from the officers’ patrol cruiser when he appeared to be summoned back to it, where Burbank said he swung open his door and knocked Ellis to the ground.

The eyewitnesses, two of whom recorded cellphone videos of Collins and Burbank roughly handling Ellis, characterized the officers as the aggressors and said Ellis did nothing to provoke them. The officers contend that Ellis continued to resist them by flailing his legs and refusing to be handcuffed.

In statements to detectives after the death, Collins and Burbank denied hearing Ellis say he couldn’t breathe, despite a home surveillance video that recorded Ellis pleading for air and Collins admitting that he responded, “Shut the (expletive) up, man.” Another officer who was present testified that he heard Ellis say he couldn’t breathe in the presence of Collins and Burbank.

Rankine was in the first patrol car to respond to the scene. He testified that he continued to sit on Ellis even after hearing his gasps for breath. Rankine said he was concerned that Ellis was still a threat, even with his hands cuffed behind his back and his legs tethered to his wrists.

Throughout nine weeks of testimony, prosecutors presented expert witnesses who testified that the officers violated known policing standards, applied excessive force to Ellis and caused his death. The officers’ defense teams countered with experts of their own who said Ellis’s death was caused by drugs and health problems. Rankine and Collins testified; Burbank chose not to.

The officers’ attorneys took aim at Ellis’ history of addiction, zeroing in on his prior arrests in 2019 and 2015 that involved methamphetamine intoxication and physical confrontations with police. Chushcoff ruled that Ellis’ prior arrests were similar enough to the circumstances on the night he died that testimony about them was relevant.

Chushcoff, meanwhile, excluded evidence about the officers’ pasts, including numerous internal investigations of Burbank at a previous police job for use of force, and one accusation of racial bias. He also excluded testimony that Rankine lapsed into what his trainer called a “mental break” during a police academy exercise focused on appropriate uses of force.

Court will resume Monday afternoon with continued discussion outside of the jury’s presence about jury instructions.

This story was originally published December 11, 2023 at 12:48 PM.