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January 6, 2005
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| Leon Nins, standing, listens as his son, Thomas Nins, a Baptist pastor from Connecticut, says he can't understand how his father posed any threat that warranted the officer's reaction. (MPR Photo/Art Hughes) |
St. Paul, Minn. — By all accounts Leon Nins is a law-abiding church usher and World War II Navy veteran, devoted to his wife of 60 years who's now in a nursing home. Not the sort you'd expect to become involved in an altercation with a police officer. But there's little dispute Nins did end up in some kind of incident with officer Michael Lee. There are questions over exactly what happened. Nins says it began when Lee approached him in as he got out of his car in the parking lot of his wife's nursing home. "He started raving at me and I was wondering what was going on because I never saw him. Then I took my bag from beside me and got out of the car. And he screamed at me and hollered at me and raved at me. He was raving so much I couldn't understand a word he said at the time," according to Nins.
Nins, a black man, didn't stop minutes earlier when Lee attempted to pull him over. He says he never heard the siren or even knew he was being pulled over. With St. Paul NAACP leaders and fellow church members at his side at a news conference on Thursday, Nins described how Lee ended up handcuffing him, spraying him with pepper spray and striking him with a nightstick. He says he was trying to comply but couldn't move fast enough.
"He was still beating on my legs," he said. "He told me 'get in.' I said 'I'm trying to get in as fast as I can,' I said, 'but I'm halfway in and you got the door on my legs; I can't push myself in.' He didn't worry about that. He just kept spraying mace and beating on me."
St. Paul NAACP President Nathanial Khaliq says Lee should be fired and criminal charges filed against him. Khaliq also wants the federal Justice Department to look into possible civil rights violations.
"We cannot understand in any way fashion or form what would have justified the officer treating Mr. Nins the way he did. He was physically mishandled. He was maced. He was handcuffed. He was thrown in the back of a squad car," Khaliq said.
Khaliq also points to a 2001 incident in which Lee shot and killed a black car-jacking victim. Charles Craighead was trying to wrestle a gun away from a white suspect. A grand jury cleared Lee of any wrongdoing.
Police Chief John Harrington confirms Lee used pepper spray to subdue Nins, but says it only happened after Nins refused to produce any identification and began flailing at the officer. He says Lee did not use a baton or anything else to strike him.
"I believe that Officer Lee did not act brutally. I do not believe he was acting with excessive force and I don't have any intention of suspending him or moving him to any administrative assignment at this time," Harrington said.
Harrington says a witness at the scene verify's the police version and Nins may have been disoriented and can't correctly recall the facts.
"We're talking an 85-year-old man and he simply may be confused; I don't know. That happens sometimes with our elderly citizens is they sometimes do get confused and they have moments sometimes where what they believe and what is really going on is not in alignment," he said.
Nins' family and friends are just as confused with the notion the frail, 130-pound octogenarian is capable of what police claim. His son, Thomas Nins, a Baptist pastor in Connecticut, says Lee's reaction was unwarranted.
"He did not see my father. Because if you see my father you will not see a threat to the community. You will not see a threat to society and whatever threat the officer may have felt could not possibly have come in the form of physical fear from my father," he said.
That support is backed up by James Erlandson, pastor of Lutheran Church of the Redeemer where Nins has been a member for some 40 years. He calls Nins "a faithful worshiper" and usher.
"We've always known him to be a man of exemplary character who's never been a threat to anyone. So we are shocked that a man who's 85-years old and of slight frame could be treated in such a rough manner by an officer of the St. Paul Police Department," Erlandson said.
Erlandson says he wants to make sure the police investigation is conducted fairly and thoroughly.
Nins' brother, David Nins, says he couldn't believe police had the right man when he first heard the news.
"I called down there and they said he assaulted a cop. I said 'my brother doesn't smoke, he doesn't drink, he doesn't do dope. He's a bell ringer at the church. He's an usher.' I said 'he's not that kind of guy. He's been married 60 years to the same woman,'" Nins said.
The Ramsey County attorney declined to pursue felony assault charges against Nins. Police officials say they're looking into filing lesser assault charges.
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