SALT LAKE CITY — Two Salt Lake City police officers will not face criminal charges for detaining a naked man found outside near a busy street in November, who later died.
Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill announced Friday that “he found no wrongdoing” by the officers.
On Nov. 21, about 5 p.m., police received two 911 calls of a man not wearing any clothes near the corner of 800 South and 700 East. The temperature at that time was 46 degrees, according to police. Officers found 50-year-old John Michael Gianini sitting down near a boarded-up house. Next to him was a wheelchair that appeared to have tarps and personal items loaded onto it.
In body camera video of the incident released in December, Gianini does not answer any of the officer’s questions and police say he did not appear to be alert and was making “growling” noises. He also “appeared very thin, weak, malnourished and skeletal,” police said.
“Officers decided to ‘pink sheet’ Mr. Gianini — the legal process for temporary, involuntary commitment of a person to the custody of a local mental health authority — and police called for medical to transport him to a hospital,” according to Gill’s findings released Friday,
While waiting for medical crews to arrive, the video shows the two officers trying to cover Gianini with a blanket. They also tell him several times to remain seated or “cover up.”
“If you try to stand up again, you’re going to go into handcuffs,” an officer tells him.
Gianini tries to stand up again, and the officers place handcuffs on him with his arms behind his back. Gill says this was done for Gianini’s safety. He is heard in the video making moaning noises as he is being handcuffed.
As Gold Cross crews prepared to take Gianini to a local hospital, the officers took the handcuffs off one of his wrists and locked it around the gurney Gianini was being transported on. While en route to the hospital, police say ambulance crews reported that Gianini “had altered mental status, low blood pressure, was hypothermic, and they could not get vitals.”
Gianini was pronounced dead at the hospital, 44 minutes after police first made contact with him. The Utah State Medical Examiner determined Gianini died of hypothermia, Gill stated.
As a precaution, the Salt Lake City Police Department invoked an officer-involved critical incident protocol, meaning an outside agency was called to investigate Gianini’s death and turn their final report over to Gill, who would determine if the actions of the officers were criminal.
“The DA’s office review of the facts led them to conclude that the incident did not fall within the statutory definition of an officer-involved critical incident. Nevertheless, the district attorney concluded that no wrongdoing had occurred and declined to file a criminal case,” the office announced Friday.
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