Sonoma County sheriff releases video footage from fatal Guerneville altercation

A Sacramento man who died two weeks ago after being tased multiple times during a scuffle with Sonoma County sheriff’s deputies struggled with them for three minutes, until being handcuffed and his body fell limp.

Donald Timothy Miller, 49, died at the scene of the Aug. 15 altercation outside a business in Guerneville, where he and his wife had stopped en route to a hospital because of a mental breakdown he was having, Miller’s family told the Santa Rosa Police Department, which is investigating the matter.

Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office this week released video of the altercation taken by body-worn cameras of deputies Bryan Jensen and Michael Matelli.

The video and the department’s explanation of the incident can be viewed here:

The footage shows Miller coming out of a River Road business around 8:20 a.m. holding his wife from behind, while she pleaded for help.

“Thank you. Please help me, get him off of me,” she said to Jensen, sobbing, clutching a phone in her right hand as her husband grabbed at it.

“He’s having a psychotic break,” she said.

Jensen tried to get Miller to put his hands behind his back, while Matelli arrived from behind and reached for Miller’s right hand. But Jensen and Miller struggled and fell to the sidewalk. Miller had the phone in one hand and a bag of medicine bottles in the other.

Miller started to get up and Matelli fired his taser at Miller, who fell to the ground and rolled toward a van parked at the curb, lying face down on the pavement with both hands under his chest.

The deputies yelled: “Hands behind your back, now,” and one tased him.

“In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you. In the name of Jesus Christ, I command you to stop,” Miller said, as he continued struggling with Jensen.

“You’re going to get it again,” a deputy told him, and tased him again. “Get on your belly.”

Miller continued to talk about Jesus and a reference to an unclear Bible verse, while he kept his hands under his body.

“You’re going to get tased again, man,” a deputy said.

“That’s all right. Do it,” Miller replied.

He got tased again for several seconds. The deputies again ordered Miller to show his hands, and when he didn’t, he was tased for several more seconds.

It appeared Matelli fired the taser at least four times.

At one point, Miller appeared to try to roll underneath the van and Jensen told Matelli to stop tasing.

“Hold on a sec. Stop. No more deployments,” Jensen said.

“I know, I know,” Matelli responded.

Jensen told Miller it’s OK, and Miller said it’s not and again talked of Jesus.

As Jensen pinned Miller’s torso, Matelli grabbed Miller’s ankles and held down his lower body.

Now handcuffed after about three minutes of struggling with deputies, Miller’s fingers moved behind his back and he was mostly still and stopped speaking.

The deputies asked his wife about Miller’s condition, and she told them he is schizophrenic and had been recently trying to change his medications.

“He just had some sort of a break,” she said, sobbing.

Deputies say they want to help and told bystanders they will need their names later. Miller appeared to be silent.

Jensen held down Miller with his partial weight, one knee on the center of his back and the other below his left buttock, his toes on the ground.

Twenty-six seconds later — 1 minute and 32 seconds after he was handcuffed — one of the deputies checked on Miller.

Miller was unresponsive.

The deputies quickly got off of him, rolled Miller onto his side and confirmed an ambulance was on the way. Santa Rosa police said Jensen had requested an ambulance after handcuffing Miller.

Matelli began chest compressions. The video stopped there.

Matelli continued life-saving measures for more than three minutes, according to the Sheriff’s Office and Santa Rosa police, before medical crew took over.

Miller never regained consciousness and was pronounced dead at 9:02 a.m.

Santa Rosa Police Lt. Dan Marincik said his investigation hasn’t determined how many times the taser was fired and how many times the weapon’s barbs connected with Miller’s body.

“It was multiple times, and both taser cartridges on the taser were deployed, which means that two different sets of taser probes were fired,” Marincik said. “We are still in the process of analyzing some of the data from the tasers to determine how many deployments actually occurred on Miller.”

The Sheriff’s Office is conducting an internal review to determine if the deputies followed department policies. They were placed on standard leave.

Marin County officials continue an examination into the cause of Miller’s death. An autopsy was performed Aug. 19, but no details have been released.

“The case remains a very active and open investigation,” Chief Deputy Coroner Roger Fielding said. “Cause of death will not be available, pending the ongoing additional investigation and the receipt of toxicology and other microbiology testing.”

He said those results could take as long as two months.

Jensen has been a deputy with the Sonoma Sheriff’s Office for 15 years after four years as a correctional deputy at the jail.

Matelli has been with the Sheriff’s Office for six years following a two-year stint at Rohnert Park.

You can reach Staff Writer Lori A. Carter at 707-521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.