RICHMOND, Va. -- Caroline Ouko and her attorney Mark Krudys spoke out again Monday urging the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate the death of Ouko's son Irvo Otieno.
Earlier this month, a jury found a former Central State Hospital employee not guilty of involuntary manslaughter in connection to Otieno's March 2023 death at the public psychiatric facility where he was taken during a mental health crisis. Surveillance video showed hospital staff and the Henrico County deputies who transported him there restraining Otieno on the floor of a hospital admission room for more than 10 minutes.
Otieno's family said Irvo died due to their actions. A jury disagreed.
"All we wanted was a fair trial where the resources on each side would be the same and there'd be similar vigor going forward so that the truth would percolate the surface. That did not occur," Krudys said at a Monday press conference outside the U.S. Courthouse in downtown Richmond. "We just feel that this case requires a far more aggressive, appropriately resourced response than the Dinwiddie County Commonwealth's Attorney is able to provide."
On March 13, 2023, one week after Otieno's death, now former Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Ann Baskervill made a highly unusual decision to charge ten deputies and hospital staff member with second-degree murder without first obtaining an indictment from a grand jury. At the time, Baskervill said she took that action after watching surveillance video from Central State Hospital that she believed showed officers and workers smothering Otieno to death.
Baskervill ultimately resigned in June 2023 just three months after bringing the murder charges, leaving the cases in the hands of a different prosecutor.
Newly-appointed Dinwiddie Commonwealth's Attorney Amanda Mann led the prosecution in court and continued to argue that hospital worker Wavie Jones and others forcefully pressed down on Otieno's body while he was in a prone position until he could no longer breathe.
But prosecutors struggled to get a majority of witnesses to testify in support of that claim and Jones was found not guilty.
As for the remaining two defendants, what happens next isn't entirely clear.
Otieno's mother Caroline Ouko appeared unsatisfied with the prosecution's performance throughout the trial.
During the commonwealth's questioning of the defendant, she called prosecutors' cross-examination "weak."
Moments after the verdict was read aloud, Ouko shouted the words "miscarriage of justice" causing her to be removed from the courtroom by the judge.
"This is really our final cry to [the Justice Department]. This is our third letter to them. We think that it requires a response," Krudys said. "The time to get involved was 18 months ago, and then when five individuals were nolle prose we again said that is the time to get involved. The time is now, and it's quickly fleeting."
Following the not-guilty verdict earlier this month, CBS 6 asked Mann whether she still planned to proceed with the remaining trials.
"This is not the outcome we sought and while we are disappointed, we respect the jury's decision," Mann wrote in a statement to CBS 6. "Given there are additional cases stemming from Mr. Otieno's death pending, it is not appropriate for me to comment further. It's important right now for information in these cases to be addressed in court, not the media and beyond."
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TIMELINE: What we know about the events leading up to Irvo Otieno's death
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