Family speaks out as police-involved death probe languishes – Spectrum News

*Editor’s note: This is part one of a two-part series on the ongoing state investigation into the death of Jason Jones and potential legislative action in local policing in New York.

Jason Jones’ family is ready for answers and calling for justice as the New York State Attorney General’s Office of Special Investigations continues to weigh criminal charges against the police officers involved in his death nearly two years later. 

Jones, a 29-year-old Catskill man, died in December 2021 after an encounter with Catskill police. Jones caught fire when an officer shot him with a Taser after he had doused himself with hand sanitizer in the lobby of the Main Street police department. 

Jones died 47 days later from injuries related to third-degree burns. The state attorney general’s office opened an investigation into the incident immediately after his death, but it’s been nearly 20 months without an update.

“I’m trying to move on, you know, but with the investigation still going on, it’s kind of hard,” said Mary Jo Snyder, Jones’s biological mother. “I’m angry about it. I don’t see why it’s taking so long — it seems like we’re all getting the runaround.”

Investigators with the state attorney general’s office met with a family member and their attorney last week without an update — only that thorough investigations take time, and the probe continues.

A lacking update on the languishing investigation is something Jones’s family says they’ve heard from state investigators several times before, which they say has made them lose faith in the AG’s investigatory process.

“Especially for my parents, the fact that there was nothing happening, they felt like things are in limbo,” said Justin Jones, Jason’s brother. “They just needed to try to move things forward and try to bring things in the direction of a conclusion of any legal matters and to a place where they could, hopefully, we all can, find some closure out of this.”

Jason Jones, who was unarmed, entered the Catskill police station the night of Oct. 30, 2021, in apparent distress. 

In security footage publicly released by the attorney general’s office, Jones is seen pacing around the lobby at times with his hands placed on top of his head. He eventually removes his clothes and covers himself in hand sanitizer in front of three police officers.

One fired a Taser minutes later, setting Jones on fire. The officers ran away, including two behind a closed door farther into the station leaving Jones on fire on the ground — working to squelch the flames covering his alcohol-soaked head with his hands.

The flames led to severe third-degree burns. Jones was treated at Clark Burn Center at SUNY Upstate Medical University Hospital until his death.

Snyder, Jason’s biological mother, says she doesn’t understand why the attorney general’s office continues to wait to press criminal charges against the officers involved.

Catskill police have updated its use-of-force policies and procedures since the incident, but Snyder wants the officers involved held accountable.

“I’m pretty sure they were taught that when you have alcohol base on your skin, don’t use a Taser,” she said. “Retraining is good, they should retrain everyone, but when this incident happened, they [the officers] were already trained. …They should be charged. I just hope Jason gets some justice for this because this should have never happened.”

The security footage was released shortly after Jones’ death. A citizen eyewitness also saw the incident take place.

“I’ve done this almost 40 years — I know things take time, but this is now at the almost 20-month mark with a video,” Luibrand said. “With a case that’s not real complicated, it’s fairly simple, and a decision has not even been made as to what to do with the case?”

Investigators with the AG’s office have met or spoken with the family several times since last fall. Each time, they’ve been improperly told the investigation would conclude in a matter of weeks. Months have continued to pass without word of when the probe will wrap up, or a decision will be made about potential criminal charges. 

“There’s no end in sight,” Luibrand said. “It’s created this sense of false hope for the family, and then a letdown for the family. …We’ve lost faith in the process at this point.”

Officials with the Catskill Police Department and the state attorney general’s office declined to comment Monday, citing the ongoing investigation. 

State law requires staff in the Office of Special Investigations within the attorney general’s office must investigate when an unarmed person dies at the hands of law enforcement. The length of each investigation can vary, taking several months or a few years, depending on the complicated nature of the legal analysis of the case. 

Kevin Luibrand, a lawyer with Luibrand Law Firm PLLC, represents Jones’ family argues many similar investigations often get resolved much more quickly with less evidence, and the delay doesn’t make sense.

“The possible offense is captured almost entirely on video, if not entirely, on video,” Luibrand said. “So, it’s not hard to make a decision as to whether to present it to a grand jury or not.”

The attorney sent the AG’s office a letter earlier this year demanding answers in the case, or an update on when the investigation would be concluded.

Luibrand questions if the investigation has moved more slowly because of a lack of publicity and public pressure demanding justice.

“It seems that groups, people, spokespersons, families that are loud in protests and wave signs, they seem to get resolution, if not justice, much quicker, and that’s really not right,” he said.

Sources say the AG’s office treats and investigates each case with equal priority and vigor, regardless of public or political influence. 

Justin says it’s apparent his brother was suffering a mental health crisis when he wandered into the Catskill police station in the fall of 2021. It’s spared conversation about the best way law enforcement can respond to a person in mental distress and when using force is appropriate.

“[Jason’s] certainly not the only person who’s been in that situation and either gone to the police for help or found themselves in a situation with police involvement, and it has come out that instead of getting help, they were harmed of killed,” Justin Jones said. “The answer to someone in my brother’s situation should not be, ‘Well, even if he wasn’t covered in a flammable substance, let’s Tase them and get them under control.’ It should be, ‘Let’s get someone in here who has the appropriate training and the appropriate skills to help someone in that in those circumstances.’”

Jones’ family filed a civil suit in federal district court in Albany. It remains stalled while the AG probe continues. 

The final decision in the AG probe does not preclude the family or another person from pursuing a criminal case.