Correspondence Regarding the Worst Day of My Life So Far
I wrote a much fuller account of the worst day of my life so far in a very long blog post, and a more readable and less vulgar account in a creative nonfiction essay for graduate school, but if you're short on time, these first few emails and police conduct complaint form should give you the basic idea. They get kind of tedious after that but I'm being thorough just for the sake of it. Basically, the Logan City Police Department and Logan Regional Hospital both get an F- in critical thinking and basic human decency.
To the Editor of the Salt Lake Tribune
(June 16, 2020)
My Experience with the Logan City Police
Like many, I have personal reasons for adding my voice to the well-deserved backlash against police practices in this country.
On January 14, 2020, police officers showed up at my apartment in Logan for two apparent purposes - to harass and threaten me over an abrupt and largely fabricated complaint from my neighbors, which they did without once asking about my side of the story, and to make me go to the hospital for psychological treatment, which they did even though I told them I had no health insurance.
The officers wrongly assumed that I knew exactly what I had done "wrong", and didn't bother to explain it before they commenced bullying me. Over the next ten minutes they dropped fragments of their inaccurate version of events which I was too shell-shocked to dispute. I cooperated throughout the ordeal, but their belligerence didn't lessen until they came to their second purpose, at which point they suddenly switched tactics and started pretending to be concerned about my emotional health.
It was unequivocally the worst day of my life. I had never felt so confused, frightened, humiliated, and lonely all at once. The only reason I didn't kill myself that night was so my friend who spent hours trying to comfort me wouldn't feel like she'd failed. Since then, the trauma has faded to a constant presence in the back of my mind and I haven't had a real chance at catharsis until these last couple weeks.
After this experience, I wasn't surprised to learn recently that almost half of the people killed by police in this country have a mental illness or disability, like me.
The Salt Lake Tribune didn't publish this letter, which was quite a disappointment, but of course they don't have to publish anything they don't want to publish.
Like many, I have personal reasons for adding my voice to the well-deserved backlash against police practices in this country.
On January 14, 2020, police officers showed up at my apartment in Logan for two apparent purposes - to harass and threaten me over an abrupt and largely fabricated complaint from my neighbors, which they did without once asking about my side of the story, and to make me go to the hospital for psychological treatment, which they did even though I told them I had no health insurance.
The officers wrongly assumed that I knew exactly what I had done "wrong", and didn't bother to explain it before they commenced bullying me. Over the next ten minutes they dropped fragments of their inaccurate version of events which I was too shell-shocked to dispute. I cooperated throughout the ordeal, but their belligerence didn't lessen until they came to their second purpose, at which point they suddenly switched tactics and started pretending to be concerned about my emotional health.
It was unequivocally the worst day of my life. I had never felt so confused, frightened, humiliated, and lonely all at once. The only reason I didn't kill myself that night was so my friend who spent hours trying to comfort me wouldn't feel like she'd failed. Since then, the trauma has faded to a constant presence in the back of my mind and I haven't had a real chance at catharsis until these last couple weeks.
After this experience, I wasn't surprised to learn recently that almost half of the people killed by police in this country have a mental illness or disability, like me.
The Salt Lake Tribune didn't publish this letter, which was quite a disappointment, but of course they don't have to publish anything they don't want to publish.
To Logan Regional Hospital
(August 8, 2020)
On January 14, 2020, I had a brief stay at your hospital. A few days later I took a phone survey with a robot about my experience and I basically said it was great. I lied because I wanted you to leave me alone and stop reminding me about the worst day of my life. However, I now realize that I denied you the opportunity to improve your services for future patients, and I don't want anyone else to ever be treated the way I was, and I feel guilty and I want to set the record straight. I'm not sure if this email address is the best place to direct this information but I'm really not interested in talking to anybody over the phone so it will have to do.
To refresh your memory, I was brought in by Officer Nelson of the Logan City Police Department for the suicidal feelings that he exacerbated a thousandfold by coming to my apartment and bullying me for ten minutes over things I didn't do. He never once asked about my side of the story and instead passed along to you the version he got from Officer Hansen who got it from my brain-damaged neighbor Talease who thinks she can read people's auras and see the future. I could write (and have written) several paragraphs about the nightmare he put me through but I'll forebear since your institution obviously had nothing to do with it. I just want to be clear that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and you may quote me on that. I have a crazy idea that maybe police officers who don't know how to do anything besides swagger and threaten people shouldn't be sent to deal with mental health crises. At least I survived the encounter because I'm white.
The social worker noted that I came to the hospital “voluntarily”. The only reason I came “voluntarily” is that after Officer Nelson refused to take “I don't have health insurance” as an answer, I was smart enough to realize he wasn't actually giving me a choice. The hospital staff suggested that I could sign up for Medicaid but until that was set in stone, staying for more than a few hours was completely off the table no matter what. If you had forced me to stay and miss work for a few weeks, then given me a bill for tens of thousands of dollars, I would have killed myself anyway and left a note explaining where you could stick it. What's the point of saving someone's life just to actively make it far worse than it already was? I know you have little control over this country's medieval healthcare system but I feel like that's a factor you should think about.
As you know, nobody at the hospital gave me a consent form or anything like that to do the things they did. After I left they realized their mistake and frantically called me five times to get my verbal consent over the phone. It actually seems kind of stupid to me that the police can force me to go to the hospital against my will, but then the hospital can't actually do anything unless I say so. I kind of wish I had refused and sued you instead.
I didn't particularly appreciate it when three or four people congregated in the corner of the room where I was being held and murmured among themselves about my alleged “stalking”. That was the only word I caught but it was plenty loud. Did Officer Nelson forget to tell you I'm not deaf? If your staff insisted on taking his false version of events as incontrovertible truth without discussing it with me at all, they could have at least had the decency to only talk about it behind my back.
I know the stupid hospital gown was just standard procedure for reasons that I'm sure make perfect sense, but it didn't help. At all. This may come as a surprise, but having my clothes taken away and being left half-naked in a cold white room in a building full of strangers where I don't want to be in the first place doesn't make me feel safe, comfortable, or relaxed in any way. I know, I'm so weird.
When the social worker came to talk to me, I thought, Ah, after this nightmare of being harassed and threatened and dragged around by bullies, finally someone is going to listen to my side of the story. Wrong! I tried to talk to her about it, but she was basically like “Yeah, whatever, I don't care, just let me ask the generic questions I'm assigned to ask as fast as possible so I can leave.” I don't know much about what social workers are actually supposed to do but I know she was trying to make me not be suicidal, and she did a spectacularly lame job of it. Her inability or refusal to consider that maybe, just maybe, my explanation of why I felt misunderstood, persecuted, alone and hopeless in that moment could possibly have some relevance to the task of helping me not want to end my life didn't impress me much.
She gave me a piece of paper and I wrote down the kind of things she wanted to see so that we could both leave like we obviously both wanted. The one helpful thing she did was make sure I arranged to spend the evening with a friend. Strangely, without the benefit of any law enforcement or medical training, this friend was the first person all day who treated me like a human being and made me feel like someone gave a crap about me. That night when I was too busy experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder to get one second of sleep, the only reason I didn't kill myself to escape the pain was that I didn't want her to blame herself and feel like she hadn't done enough for me.
Even though it's been several months, I get angrier the more I think about my experience. But I hope this feedback is useful and that your hospital can eventually move into the twenty-first century.
- Christopher Nicholson
I sent the first draft of this email to a generic "Contact Us" email address. It was blocked by an automatic filter. I let it go, but over a month later I got angry enough to edit out the swear words and send it again. A few weeks after that, I went to leave a one-star Google review and discovered an actual patient feedback email address, so I edited out pretty much every part that wasn't sarcastic or openly insulting and sent it a third time. Ten days later, someone sent a response on actual paper. The hospital was six blocks from my apartment, but thanks to the pandemic and Donald Trump's screwing with the postal service to thwart mail-in voting, the letter took more than two weeks to arrive.
To refresh your memory, I was brought in by Officer Nelson of the Logan City Police Department for the suicidal feelings that he exacerbated a thousandfold by coming to my apartment and bullying me for ten minutes over things I didn't do. He never once asked about my side of the story and instead passed along to you the version he got from Officer Hansen who got it from my brain-damaged neighbor Talease who thinks she can read people's auras and see the future. I could write (and have written) several paragraphs about the nightmare he put me through but I'll forebear since your institution obviously had nothing to do with it. I just want to be clear that he didn't know what the hell he was talking about, and you may quote me on that. I have a crazy idea that maybe police officers who don't know how to do anything besides swagger and threaten people shouldn't be sent to deal with mental health crises. At least I survived the encounter because I'm white.
The social worker noted that I came to the hospital “voluntarily”. The only reason I came “voluntarily” is that after Officer Nelson refused to take “I don't have health insurance” as an answer, I was smart enough to realize he wasn't actually giving me a choice. The hospital staff suggested that I could sign up for Medicaid but until that was set in stone, staying for more than a few hours was completely off the table no matter what. If you had forced me to stay and miss work for a few weeks, then given me a bill for tens of thousands of dollars, I would have killed myself anyway and left a note explaining where you could stick it. What's the point of saving someone's life just to actively make it far worse than it already was? I know you have little control over this country's medieval healthcare system but I feel like that's a factor you should think about.
As you know, nobody at the hospital gave me a consent form or anything like that to do the things they did. After I left they realized their mistake and frantically called me five times to get my verbal consent over the phone. It actually seems kind of stupid to me that the police can force me to go to the hospital against my will, but then the hospital can't actually do anything unless I say so. I kind of wish I had refused and sued you instead.
I didn't particularly appreciate it when three or four people congregated in the corner of the room where I was being held and murmured among themselves about my alleged “stalking”. That was the only word I caught but it was plenty loud. Did Officer Nelson forget to tell you I'm not deaf? If your staff insisted on taking his false version of events as incontrovertible truth without discussing it with me at all, they could have at least had the decency to only talk about it behind my back.
I know the stupid hospital gown was just standard procedure for reasons that I'm sure make perfect sense, but it didn't help. At all. This may come as a surprise, but having my clothes taken away and being left half-naked in a cold white room in a building full of strangers where I don't want to be in the first place doesn't make me feel safe, comfortable, or relaxed in any way. I know, I'm so weird.
When the social worker came to talk to me, I thought, Ah, after this nightmare of being harassed and threatened and dragged around by bullies, finally someone is going to listen to my side of the story. Wrong! I tried to talk to her about it, but she was basically like “Yeah, whatever, I don't care, just let me ask the generic questions I'm assigned to ask as fast as possible so I can leave.” I don't know much about what social workers are actually supposed to do but I know she was trying to make me not be suicidal, and she did a spectacularly lame job of it. Her inability or refusal to consider that maybe, just maybe, my explanation of why I felt misunderstood, persecuted, alone and hopeless in that moment could possibly have some relevance to the task of helping me not want to end my life didn't impress me much.
She gave me a piece of paper and I wrote down the kind of things she wanted to see so that we could both leave like we obviously both wanted. The one helpful thing she did was make sure I arranged to spend the evening with a friend. Strangely, without the benefit of any law enforcement or medical training, this friend was the first person all day who treated me like a human being and made me feel like someone gave a crap about me. That night when I was too busy experiencing post-traumatic stress disorder to get one second of sleep, the only reason I didn't kill myself to escape the pain was that I didn't want her to blame herself and feel like she hadn't done enough for me.
Even though it's been several months, I get angrier the more I think about my experience. But I hope this feedback is useful and that your hospital can eventually move into the twenty-first century.
- Christopher Nicholson
I sent the first draft of this email to a generic "Contact Us" email address. It was blocked by an automatic filter. I let it go, but over a month later I got angry enough to edit out the swear words and send it again. A few weeks after that, I went to leave a one-star Google review and discovered an actual patient feedback email address, so I edited out pretty much every part that wasn't sarcastic or openly insulting and sent it a third time. Ten days later, someone sent a response on actual paper. The hospital was six blocks from my apartment, but thanks to the pandemic and Donald Trump's screwing with the postal service to thwart mail-in voting, the letter took more than two weeks to arrive.
![August 18, 2020 Christopher Nicholson 457 E 800 N Apt 4 Logan, UT 84321 Dear Christopher, Thank you for your email about your care in our Emergency Department. I apologize for the lack of concern that was expressed by the staff during your Emergency Department stay. We take your experience very seriously, and we continually look for every opportunity to improve. At Intermountain Healthcare, we want to provide excellent care, and I can imagine this has been upsetting for you. Your email was shared with our Emergency Department and our Crises Department Manager. Since you were brought in by a law-enforcement officer, our Emergency Department goal is to provide an assessment and a safe environment to patients that are having suicidal thoughts. We are glad that you had a friend to help provide this safe environment and were able to be discharged home. Your feedback will be used to help educate our staff in providing a safe and healing environment. I understand that our hospital gowns are not comfortable for patients and may not provide the modesty patient's [sic] desire. These gowns do help provide safety to our patients and staff. Again, I apologize for your experience during your mental health crises. We welcome the opportunity to talk with you further, if you have any concerns, please contact me at 435 716-5995. I am very happy to help and will make sure your questions are addressed. Sincerely, [signed] Breck Rushton, RN, MPH Patient Advocacy Team Intermountain Healthcare, Cache Valley](/uploads/4/9/4/8/49486603/published/img-20200907-0005.jpg?1640133242)
To the Logan City Police Department
(August 20, 2020)
Because Google is apparently not publishing business reviews at this time, I decided to send this to you directly. I expect the only thing it will accomplish is to give me some small sliver of satisfaction from knowing that you know that one of your officers single-handedly erased all of my respect for law enforcement months before George Floyd's murder, but I'll take what I can get.
[Quote:]
In January a couple of officers abruptly showed up at my apartment, responding to a complaint from my neighbors. I had no idea what was going on. These neighbors had never once said anything to me themselves about real or perceived problems. The police never explained to me in plain English why they had come. They never asked me one single question about my side of the story. Instead, one of them said nothing while the other immediately launched into throwing his weight around and trying to scare me into compliance even though I never showed one iota of resistance or disrespect. For at least ten minutes he was nothing but belligerent while I was nothing but cooperative. He never explained what exactly the problem was but from the details he dropped here and there made it obvious that either my neighbors had straight-up lied about some things or he just hadn't bothered to get them straight himself. He told me to stop doing things that I had never done.
He told me not to talk to, call, or text my neighbors ever again. He said, "Consider this a warning." I would have complied with this "warning" if my neighbors had been adults and made this request themselves instead of pretending to be my friends for months, and I would have complied if the officer had just explained it to me without turning it into a threat. Despite this being my first time hearing any of this, he chose to assume from the moment I let him into my apartment that I knew exactly what I'd done wrong, wouldn't cooperate, and needed to be taught a lesson. And he knew that his uniform gave him impunity to treat me in a manner that would have gotten him fired from any other job.
When this officer was done verbally abusing me, he switched tactics and started pretending to be concerned about my emotional health and asking if I felt suicidal. Yes, he literally tried to play "bad cop good cop" by himself even though he had another cop with him. If he was really so concerned he could have maybe, I don't know, not prefaced it by deliberately confusing and scaring the crap out of me? He made me go to the hospital despite me explaining that I had no health insurance. He knew this was part of his purpose for showing up in the first place and still chose to first treat me in a manner that anyone over the age of three could have told him would only make me more suicidal (which it did, very much).
I was not arrested or accused of anything illegal, but before driving me to the hospital they frisked me for anything I could use to hurt myself (even though the hospital rendered this precaution entirely superfluous by taking my clothes away). For no legitimate reason that I can discern, they chose to do this after we had left my apartment, on the sidewalk in front of their police cars and in full view of the entire block. After the abusive officer dropped me off he said I could call the station and ask to talk to him if I wanted, because he apparently thought I was the stupidest person on the planet and would see him as something remotely resembling a friend or ally. The only reason I would ever want to talk to him would be to say some things unfit for publication in this review.
I forgave my neighbors after about a month because one of them was brain-damaged and delusional in the most literal sense of the word. All of our mutual acquaintances including their own roommate felt that their reaction to me was stupid, immature and uncalled for. But at least it wasn't malicious. I can't say the same for the police. I don't fault them at all for taking the complaint seriously and looking into it - they would have been criminally negligent in their duties if they didn't - but the way they went about it was wrong, full stop. I would feel safer entrusting my mental health to the first person I see on the sidewalk than the Logan Police Department. Their gross incompetence has traumatized me since then and probably for a very long time to come.
[Close quote]
It was a one-star review, of course, but only because zero-star reviews aren't an option for some reason.
- Christopher Nicholson
Much to my everlasting shock, they never responded. And after I was so polite by not mentioning Officer Hayden Nelson by name or explaining what he could go do to himself. Over a year later, after I filed a formal complaint, they shut down this email address that they had "forgotten" to check regularly. Was anyone ever held accountable for screwing me over with this staggering incompetence? Did anyone so much as apologize? Of course not.
[Quote:]
In January a couple of officers abruptly showed up at my apartment, responding to a complaint from my neighbors. I had no idea what was going on. These neighbors had never once said anything to me themselves about real or perceived problems. The police never explained to me in plain English why they had come. They never asked me one single question about my side of the story. Instead, one of them said nothing while the other immediately launched into throwing his weight around and trying to scare me into compliance even though I never showed one iota of resistance or disrespect. For at least ten minutes he was nothing but belligerent while I was nothing but cooperative. He never explained what exactly the problem was but from the details he dropped here and there made it obvious that either my neighbors had straight-up lied about some things or he just hadn't bothered to get them straight himself. He told me to stop doing things that I had never done.
He told me not to talk to, call, or text my neighbors ever again. He said, "Consider this a warning." I would have complied with this "warning" if my neighbors had been adults and made this request themselves instead of pretending to be my friends for months, and I would have complied if the officer had just explained it to me without turning it into a threat. Despite this being my first time hearing any of this, he chose to assume from the moment I let him into my apartment that I knew exactly what I'd done wrong, wouldn't cooperate, and needed to be taught a lesson. And he knew that his uniform gave him impunity to treat me in a manner that would have gotten him fired from any other job.
When this officer was done verbally abusing me, he switched tactics and started pretending to be concerned about my emotional health and asking if I felt suicidal. Yes, he literally tried to play "bad cop good cop" by himself even though he had another cop with him. If he was really so concerned he could have maybe, I don't know, not prefaced it by deliberately confusing and scaring the crap out of me? He made me go to the hospital despite me explaining that I had no health insurance. He knew this was part of his purpose for showing up in the first place and still chose to first treat me in a manner that anyone over the age of three could have told him would only make me more suicidal (which it did, very much).
I was not arrested or accused of anything illegal, but before driving me to the hospital they frisked me for anything I could use to hurt myself (even though the hospital rendered this precaution entirely superfluous by taking my clothes away). For no legitimate reason that I can discern, they chose to do this after we had left my apartment, on the sidewalk in front of their police cars and in full view of the entire block. After the abusive officer dropped me off he said I could call the station and ask to talk to him if I wanted, because he apparently thought I was the stupidest person on the planet and would see him as something remotely resembling a friend or ally. The only reason I would ever want to talk to him would be to say some things unfit for publication in this review.
I forgave my neighbors after about a month because one of them was brain-damaged and delusional in the most literal sense of the word. All of our mutual acquaintances including their own roommate felt that their reaction to me was stupid, immature and uncalled for. But at least it wasn't malicious. I can't say the same for the police. I don't fault them at all for taking the complaint seriously and looking into it - they would have been criminally negligent in their duties if they didn't - but the way they went about it was wrong, full stop. I would feel safer entrusting my mental health to the first person I see on the sidewalk than the Logan Police Department. Their gross incompetence has traumatized me since then and probably for a very long time to come.
[Close quote]
It was a one-star review, of course, but only because zero-star reviews aren't an option for some reason.
- Christopher Nicholson
Much to my everlasting shock, they never responded. And after I was so polite by not mentioning Officer Hayden Nelson by name or explaining what he could go do to himself. Over a year later, after I filed a formal complaint, they shut down this email address that they had "forgotten" to check regularly. Was anyone ever held accountable for screwing me over with this staggering incompetence? Did anyone so much as apologize? Of course not.
I appreciate very much the hospital's willingness to apologize for its failings and commit to doing better. I wish I could say the same for the police.
To the Logan City Police Department
(August 26, 2021)
Because the Logan City Police Department had ignored, I mean missed my email, Hayden Nelson's body camera footage was conveniently long gone by the time I stumbled on this complaint form by chance and filled it out, and of course he faced zero consequences for his treatment of me.
To the Herald Journal
(October 1, 2021)
The Logan City Police Department is quietly discontinuing its public relations email address [email protected]. Over a year ago, I used this address to complain to the department about an incident with one of its officers, after I saw that on Google Reviews the department had told everyone with negative feedback to contact this address. I had looked on the police department's website and couldn't find any other way to contact them with complaints. I never received a response and assumed I had been deliberately ignored. Just this past month, I met with Captain Curtis Hooley, the department's third-in-command, and he wasn't even aware of the email address's existence. He looked into it and now it's being discontinued. Because the department never responded to my email, by the time I stumbled on an actual complaint form by accident, too much time had elapsed and the body camera footage of the incident in question was long gone.
To Curtis Hooley of the Logan City Police Department
(October 5, 2021)
Captain Hooley,
You were the first authority figure who has listened to me or treated me like a human being with regard to this issue at all. The first two cops didn't, your department didn't, the hospital didn't, my bishop didn't. Being constantly ignored and dehumanized has only continued to compound what was already the worst day of my life. I'm still pissed off today about being denied justice and closure, and I'm still deeply prejudiced against cops in general, but I think you're one of the good ones. I hope you are. I hope it wasn't all an act. I wanted to trust you, but I also knew that cops lie to civilians and cover up each other's misconduct all the time, so I didn't dare fully relax.
I do have to say, your department's staggering incompetence in forgetting to check the public relations email address they told everyone with negative Google Reviews to contact was very convenient for them - assuming they really did forget, and didn't just ignore me as I had originally assumed, which is a possibility I'm still not ruling out - since it robbed me of the body camera footage that might have persuaded you to take me seriously. And I'm actually not sure what funding has to do with being able to check an email account more than once a year, but I admit I don't know everything. Is anyone going to be held accountable for this in any way whatsoever? Is anyone going to so much as apologize for screwing me over like that?
The form I filled out says that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision. The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." It doesn't mention any exceptions. It doesn't say "unless the body camera footage is gone." As I mentioned, I was not informed of any official disposition, but did you at least submit findings to the Chief? Does he even know my complaint exists? I recognize that seeking further recourse from one of the agencies listed on the form won't change the outcome, since your department conveniently ignored me for a year and deleted the body camera footage, but maybe I should do it anyway if you didn't even follow the investigation procedures I was promised.
I realize that without the body camera footage that your department conveniently no longer has, my side of the story means nothing, but for my own satisfaction I want this to be part of the written record: I still maintain that Officer Nelson is an imbecile and that virtually everything he said and did was wrong. Anyone in any other profession would be fired for treating me the way he did. You downplayed and disregarded the trauma I told you I experience to this day because of how he treated me. Today you shifted the issue back to my neighbors and their right to request no more contact with me, even though from the beginning I explicitly said that fulfilling this assignment wasn't the reason for my complaint against him. He shouldn't have accepted their lies and half-truths as the definitive story, he shouldn't have followed a double standard of ignoring their obvious mental illnesses and deciding based on no evidence whatsoever that mine made me dangerous, he shouldn't have assumed I knew what the hell he was talking about, he shouldn't have immediately tried to frighten me into compliance based on his position (which, thanks to him, I no longer respect and never will), he shouldn't have yelled at me for complying with him, he shouldn't have continued to yell at me for ten minutes, he shouldn't have tried to play bad cop good cop by himself even though he literally had another cop with him, he shouldn't have forced me to go to the hospital just so they could also treat me like shit and traumatize me some more, and he shouldn't have frisked me like a criminal in a spot that was visible from literally everywhere on the block. Somehow you distilled that down to pretending he only did one or two things wrong. Pointing out that in the midst of all this rampant stupidity he did manage to fulfill his basic assignment of telling me not to talk to my neighbors - even though he actually didn't, because he couldn't be bothered to tell me which neighbors, and thus made me needlessly afraid of all of them - did not improve my opinion of him. Nor does it comfort me much to know that his rampant stupidity resulted from him only being an officer for a year at that time. First of all, police officers shouldn't have to be trained on how not to be mindless assholes, especially to people they believe are already suicidal. Second, it basically means that police calls are a game of roulette, and I just had the bad luck of not getting someone more experienced who knew what he was doing and wouldn't have left me with permanent emotional scars that I don't deserve while he went on with the rest of his life like he didn't do anything.
Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. I do hope that at a minimum you showed Officer Nelson the complaint, the email, and the essay. Feel free to show him this email too.
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
You were the first authority figure who has listened to me or treated me like a human being with regard to this issue at all. The first two cops didn't, your department didn't, the hospital didn't, my bishop didn't. Being constantly ignored and dehumanized has only continued to compound what was already the worst day of my life. I'm still pissed off today about being denied justice and closure, and I'm still deeply prejudiced against cops in general, but I think you're one of the good ones. I hope you are. I hope it wasn't all an act. I wanted to trust you, but I also knew that cops lie to civilians and cover up each other's misconduct all the time, so I didn't dare fully relax.
I do have to say, your department's staggering incompetence in forgetting to check the public relations email address they told everyone with negative Google Reviews to contact was very convenient for them - assuming they really did forget, and didn't just ignore me as I had originally assumed, which is a possibility I'm still not ruling out - since it robbed me of the body camera footage that might have persuaded you to take me seriously. And I'm actually not sure what funding has to do with being able to check an email account more than once a year, but I admit I don't know everything. Is anyone going to be held accountable for this in any way whatsoever? Is anyone going to so much as apologize for screwing me over like that?
The form I filled out says that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision. The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." It doesn't mention any exceptions. It doesn't say "unless the body camera footage is gone." As I mentioned, I was not informed of any official disposition, but did you at least submit findings to the Chief? Does he even know my complaint exists? I recognize that seeking further recourse from one of the agencies listed on the form won't change the outcome, since your department conveniently ignored me for a year and deleted the body camera footage, but maybe I should do it anyway if you didn't even follow the investigation procedures I was promised.
I realize that without the body camera footage that your department conveniently no longer has, my side of the story means nothing, but for my own satisfaction I want this to be part of the written record: I still maintain that Officer Nelson is an imbecile and that virtually everything he said and did was wrong. Anyone in any other profession would be fired for treating me the way he did. You downplayed and disregarded the trauma I told you I experience to this day because of how he treated me. Today you shifted the issue back to my neighbors and their right to request no more contact with me, even though from the beginning I explicitly said that fulfilling this assignment wasn't the reason for my complaint against him. He shouldn't have accepted their lies and half-truths as the definitive story, he shouldn't have followed a double standard of ignoring their obvious mental illnesses and deciding based on no evidence whatsoever that mine made me dangerous, he shouldn't have assumed I knew what the hell he was talking about, he shouldn't have immediately tried to frighten me into compliance based on his position (which, thanks to him, I no longer respect and never will), he shouldn't have yelled at me for complying with him, he shouldn't have continued to yell at me for ten minutes, he shouldn't have tried to play bad cop good cop by himself even though he literally had another cop with him, he shouldn't have forced me to go to the hospital just so they could also treat me like shit and traumatize me some more, and he shouldn't have frisked me like a criminal in a spot that was visible from literally everywhere on the block. Somehow you distilled that down to pretending he only did one or two things wrong. Pointing out that in the midst of all this rampant stupidity he did manage to fulfill his basic assignment of telling me not to talk to my neighbors - even though he actually didn't, because he couldn't be bothered to tell me which neighbors, and thus made me needlessly afraid of all of them - did not improve my opinion of him. Nor does it comfort me much to know that his rampant stupidity resulted from him only being an officer for a year at that time. First of all, police officers shouldn't have to be trained on how not to be mindless assholes, especially to people they believe are already suicidal. Second, it basically means that police calls are a game of roulette, and I just had the bad luck of not getting someone more experienced who knew what he was doing and wouldn't have left me with permanent emotional scars that I don't deserve while he went on with the rest of his life like he didn't do anything.
Sorry, I had to get that off my chest. I do hope that at a minimum you showed Officer Nelson the complaint, the email, and the essay. Feel free to show him this email too.
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
To the Cache County Attorney's Office
The Logan City Police Department did not follow the procedures it promised me in its recent investigation. The form I filled out states, “Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision.” To my knowledge, Captain Curtis Hooley never gave the Chief any findings or got a decision from the Chief at all. I believe all he did after interviewing me was talk to the officer briefly in private. The form also states, “The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation.” This did not happen. I waited a couple weeks after the interview and didn’t even know if the investigation was completed or not. I reached out to Captain Hooley and he just said he had talked to the officer in private. He did mention after our interview that he would do this, but I didn’t know that would be an “official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation,” and I was not informed that it had taken place.
The department did nothing about most of the issues in my complaint because they couldn’t be verified because the incident was too long ago and the body camera footage was gone. I had, in fact, emailed the department about it over a year earlier, at a time when they could have checked the footage. I emailed [email protected] because when I looked on Google Reviews, that was the address that the department was telling negative reviewers to contact with their concerns. (I didn’t know a better way to get their attention. I looked at their website and never saw the complaint form. I found it recently by accident while looking for something else.) They never responded, and I assumed they had deliberately ignored me and there was nothing I could do about it. When I met with Captain Hooley, he had never even heard of this email address and said he would look into it, and he didn’t inform me of the outcome of that until I asked him about it either. He said it’s now being discontinued because they don’t have the resources to check it. The police department’s incompetence conveniently cheated me out of crucial evidence and rendered my complaint almost pointless, and they haven’t so much as acknowledged that fact, let alone apologized for it, let alone indicated that anyone will be held accountable. (And I’m still not entirely convinced that they didn’t ignore me on purpose.)
This is a related but separate subject that I may as well bring up since I’m contacting you anyway. What are the prospects for taking action against Logan Regional Hospital for “treating” me (I use the term loosely because a monkey with a clipboard could have provided higher-quality care) without remembering to first have me sign a consent form, then frantically calling me five times after I left to have me say “Yes” into the phone instead, which I only did so they would leave me alone? After it occurred to me that I should be able to sue them for this, because retroactive consent is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard and shouldn’t be legal, I didn’t have the slightest idea where to even begin looking for help investigating that possibility. (The terrible care they provided and the trauma it caused me is the main reason I want to sue them, but since that’s a lot harder to quantify, I’m focused on the one thing that I know for a fact they objectively did wrong.) Friends assured me that the hospital was in the wrong but would still win a lawsuit because it has a lot of money for fancy lawyers and I don’t. That’s America for you. But what’s your take on it?
The department did nothing about most of the issues in my complaint because they couldn’t be verified because the incident was too long ago and the body camera footage was gone. I had, in fact, emailed the department about it over a year earlier, at a time when they could have checked the footage. I emailed [email protected] because when I looked on Google Reviews, that was the address that the department was telling negative reviewers to contact with their concerns. (I didn’t know a better way to get their attention. I looked at their website and never saw the complaint form. I found it recently by accident while looking for something else.) They never responded, and I assumed they had deliberately ignored me and there was nothing I could do about it. When I met with Captain Hooley, he had never even heard of this email address and said he would look into it, and he didn’t inform me of the outcome of that until I asked him about it either. He said it’s now being discontinued because they don’t have the resources to check it. The police department’s incompetence conveniently cheated me out of crucial evidence and rendered my complaint almost pointless, and they haven’t so much as acknowledged that fact, let alone apologized for it, let alone indicated that anyone will be held accountable. (And I’m still not entirely convinced that they didn’t ignore me on purpose.)
This is a related but separate subject that I may as well bring up since I’m contacting you anyway. What are the prospects for taking action against Logan Regional Hospital for “treating” me (I use the term loosely because a monkey with a clipboard could have provided higher-quality care) without remembering to first have me sign a consent form, then frantically calling me five times after I left to have me say “Yes” into the phone instead, which I only did so they would leave me alone? After it occurred to me that I should be able to sue them for this, because retroactive consent is one of the stupidest things I’ve ever heard and shouldn’t be legal, I didn’t have the slightest idea where to even begin looking for help investigating that possibility. (The terrible care they provided and the trauma it caused me is the main reason I want to sue them, but since that’s a lot harder to quantify, I’m focused on the one thing that I know for a fact they objectively did wrong.) Friends assured me that the hospital was in the wrong but would still win a lawsuit because it has a lot of money for fancy lawyers and I don’t. That’s America for you. But what’s your take on it?
To the Office of the Utah Attorney General
(October 8, 2021)
Hello,
Recently I filed a complaint against an officer of the Logan City Police Department who left me with long-term psychological trauma, and the department subsequently declined to conduct "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation" according to the criteria they promised me on the complaint form. Captain Curtis Hooley made no effort to collect any statements or evidence beyond an interview with me. He didn't even bother to read in its entirety the longer account of the incident that I had offered due to space constraints on the form. He never even spoke to the other officer who was present at the time. The form states that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." The Chief did not make any final decision and to my knowledge, Captain Hooley never submitted anything to him. The form states that "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." They did not. I waited a couple weeks after my interview and didn't even know if the investigation was over, and finally I had to call Captain Hooley and ask about it.
By the time I filled out the form, the body camera footage was gone because too much time had elapsed since the incident. For the first few months I was afraid of retaliation from the police if I complained, and then I didn't know how to file a complaint and couldn't find anything about it on their website, and then I thought the statute of limitations had run out. But I did, in fact, contact them about it within seven months, at a time when they could have checked the footage. I had gone to leave a negative Google Review, and saw that the police department was telling everyone who left negative Google Reviews to contact [email protected]. I did so and never received a response. When I talked to Captain Hooley over a year later, he had never even heard of that email address. He looked into it and then the department decided to quietly shut it down. He didn't tell me about this outcome, of course, until I specifically asked him about it. Even though this incredible bungling conveniently ruined my chance of getting any justice, as Captain Hooley simply chose to disregard most aspects of my complaint because he couldn't verify them, I have not so much as received an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the department. Of course, the lack of body camera footage is not an excuse for his refusal to conduct the investigation properly. The complaint form does not list exceptions. It does not say "unless the body camera footage is gone."
Captain Hooley gave me his card, but is now ignoring my emails and calls and refusing to explain why he didn't carry out the investigation correctly or whether anyone will be held accountable for the staggering incompetence that robbed me of crucial evidence. I forwarded the email to Chief Gary Jensen and Assistant Chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I contacted the Logan Herald Journal, which also ignored me. I contacted the Cache County Attorney's Office, listed on the complaint form as an option for further recourse, and they also ignored me. This last one is particularly rich. They don't even know or care what the complaint was about. I could have been beaten half to death for all they know, but they've decided without comment or inquiry that my case is unworthy of their attention. (I also asked, since I was talking to them anyway, about my prospects for suing Logan Regional Hospital for treating me without a consent form, but they decided I'm unworthy of an answer because reasons.) I am a tax-paying citizen, I am a human being, and neither the police department nor the attorney's office has a right to pretend I don't exist. If you ignore me too, my last resort according to the form is the FBI, which seems pretty absurd, but I'll have nothing to lose by trying it.
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
Ten days later Aaron Jones, section chief of the Special Investigation Unit, responded, "Mr. Nicholson,
"The Attorney General’s Office received your request regarding the Logan City Police Department. We have reviewed your request and determined there will be no investigation nor involvement into the matter by our office. This decision was carefully made in accordance with our office policy and guidelines.
"The Attorney General’s investigation division only investigates criminal complaints on a selective basis based on our protocol which is multi-jurisdictional, conflict, or by request from a governmental agency. Our office does not become involved in these types of issues and encourage you to obtain private legal counsel."
Private legal counsel? I wonder why I never, ever thought of that. Silly me.
Recently I filed a complaint against an officer of the Logan City Police Department who left me with long-term psychological trauma, and the department subsequently declined to conduct "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation" according to the criteria they promised me on the complaint form. Captain Curtis Hooley made no effort to collect any statements or evidence beyond an interview with me. He didn't even bother to read in its entirety the longer account of the incident that I had offered due to space constraints on the form. He never even spoke to the other officer who was present at the time. The form states that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." The Chief did not make any final decision and to my knowledge, Captain Hooley never submitted anything to him. The form states that "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." They did not. I waited a couple weeks after my interview and didn't even know if the investigation was over, and finally I had to call Captain Hooley and ask about it.
By the time I filled out the form, the body camera footage was gone because too much time had elapsed since the incident. For the first few months I was afraid of retaliation from the police if I complained, and then I didn't know how to file a complaint and couldn't find anything about it on their website, and then I thought the statute of limitations had run out. But I did, in fact, contact them about it within seven months, at a time when they could have checked the footage. I had gone to leave a negative Google Review, and saw that the police department was telling everyone who left negative Google Reviews to contact [email protected]. I did so and never received a response. When I talked to Captain Hooley over a year later, he had never even heard of that email address. He looked into it and then the department decided to quietly shut it down. He didn't tell me about this outcome, of course, until I specifically asked him about it. Even though this incredible bungling conveniently ruined my chance of getting any justice, as Captain Hooley simply chose to disregard most aspects of my complaint because he couldn't verify them, I have not so much as received an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the department. Of course, the lack of body camera footage is not an excuse for his refusal to conduct the investigation properly. The complaint form does not list exceptions. It does not say "unless the body camera footage is gone."
Captain Hooley gave me his card, but is now ignoring my emails and calls and refusing to explain why he didn't carry out the investigation correctly or whether anyone will be held accountable for the staggering incompetence that robbed me of crucial evidence. I forwarded the email to Chief Gary Jensen and Assistant Chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I contacted the Logan Herald Journal, which also ignored me. I contacted the Cache County Attorney's Office, listed on the complaint form as an option for further recourse, and they also ignored me. This last one is particularly rich. They don't even know or care what the complaint was about. I could have been beaten half to death for all they know, but they've decided without comment or inquiry that my case is unworthy of their attention. (I also asked, since I was talking to them anyway, about my prospects for suing Logan Regional Hospital for treating me without a consent form, but they decided I'm unworthy of an answer because reasons.) I am a tax-paying citizen, I am a human being, and neither the police department nor the attorney's office has a right to pretend I don't exist. If you ignore me too, my last resort according to the form is the FBI, which seems pretty absurd, but I'll have nothing to lose by trying it.
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
Ten days later Aaron Jones, section chief of the Special Investigation Unit, responded, "Mr. Nicholson,
"The Attorney General’s Office received your request regarding the Logan City Police Department. We have reviewed your request and determined there will be no investigation nor involvement into the matter by our office. This decision was carefully made in accordance with our office policy and guidelines.
"The Attorney General’s investigation division only investigates criminal complaints on a selective basis based on our protocol which is multi-jurisdictional, conflict, or by request from a governmental agency. Our office does not become involved in these types of issues and encourage you to obtain private legal counsel."
Private legal counsel? I wonder why I never, ever thought of that. Silly me.
To Gary Jensen, Jeff Simmons, and Curtis Hooley of the Logan City Police Department
(December 14, 2021)
Gary Jensen
|
Jeff Simmons
|
Curtis Hooley
|
Hello,
I was just reading this delightful little article in the Tribune this evening. I'm so glad to know that while you felt the need to send officers to yell at me for being in my own front yard too often, you're out doing nothing whatsoever about actual sexual misconduct. Unlike some people who may find that appalling, I know I can't judge you too harshly, because it isn't your fault that your department and the one at USU collectively have the IQ of a moldy sock. And I understand now that if I wanted your officers to treat me like a human being, I should have been a football player. My bad.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/12/14/usu-police-chief-told/?fbclid=IwAR1DZMvUM9n3x_KAkbkXrKHfxiz_kXIUxXBnRqQDxkglhaAmBCcgpYo7pa8
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
I was just reading this delightful little article in the Tribune this evening. I'm so glad to know that while you felt the need to send officers to yell at me for being in my own front yard too often, you're out doing nothing whatsoever about actual sexual misconduct. Unlike some people who may find that appalling, I know I can't judge you too harshly, because it isn't your fault that your department and the one at USU collectively have the IQ of a moldy sock. And I understand now that if I wanted your officers to treat me like a human being, I should have been a football player. My bad.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/education/2021/12/14/usu-police-chief-told/?fbclid=IwAR1DZMvUM9n3x_KAkbkXrKHfxiz_kXIUxXBnRqQDxkglhaAmBCcgpYo7pa8
Thanks,
Christopher Nicholson
To Gary Jensen of the Logan City Police Department
(December 16, 2021)
Well, I'm glad to see that your buddy here has resign had the decency to resign: https://www.sltrib.com/news/2021/12/16/usu-police-chief-leave/
Are you going to do the same, since you were there and stood by his indefensible comments, or do you have even less integrity than he does?
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
Are you going to do the same, since you were there and stood by his indefensible comments, or do you have even less integrity than he does?
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
To Gary Jensen of the Logan City Police Department
(December 21, 2021)
Hi Gary,
I read with interest your recent statement to the media in which you lied your ass off about the police department's willingness to work with civilians and address their concerns. You know perfectly well that after straight-up abusing me, your department has consistently blown off my concerns and ignored me, and blatantly refused to follow the investigation procedure it promised me on its complaint form. I realize that if you had integrity you would never have gotten where you are today in such a pathologically dishonest industry as law enforcement, but someday you will stand accountable before God and have to decide if it was worth it.
With a heartfelt "Fuck the police,"
Christopher Nicholson
http://www.christopherrandallnicholson.com/
I read with interest your recent statement to the media in which you lied your ass off about the police department's willingness to work with civilians and address their concerns. You know perfectly well that after straight-up abusing me, your department has consistently blown off my concerns and ignored me, and blatantly refused to follow the investigation procedure it promised me on its complaint form. I realize that if you had integrity you would never have gotten where you are today in such a pathologically dishonest industry as law enforcement, but someday you will stand accountable before God and have to decide if it was worth it.
With a heartfelt "Fuck the police,"
Christopher Nicholson
http://www.christopherrandallnicholson.com/
To the YouTube Channel "Cache Valley Transparency"
(February 20, 2022)
Sir,
I've just discovered your channel. Thank you for exposing the Logan City Police Department's true colors. I have my own experience with their lack of transparency, competence, and basic human decency that I would like to share. I would be most grateful if you could share it with the public and teach them a lesson. I've done my best, but I don't have nearly the reach that you do, and I'm so very, very tired of being ignored.
In January 2020, a loud and stupid pig named officer Nelson verbally abused and traumatized me. In August of that year, I went to leave a nasty Google Review and found that Google wasn't publishing reviews at the time, but in response to other negative reviews, the department had told people to email [email protected]. So I did. I never got a response. Spoiler alert: nobody was checking the email account, and as a result, by the time I stumbled by chance upon the official complaint-filing procedure a year later, the body camera footage of officer Nelson yelling and threatening me was long gone. How convenient for them. Nobody from the department ever apologized to me for this.
I have attached my scans of the complaint form, and I give you permission to share or reproduce them anywhere and with anyone you want. After I filed it, I met with captain Curtis Hooley, who made a bunch of excuses for the indefensible behavior and said officer Nelson is a different cop now than he was back then. He did not follow the procedure I was promised in the complaint form. As you know, it states that "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation will be conducted." It was not. He never even spoke to the other officer who was on the scene or the officer from USU Police who sent both of them, and he didn't even bother to read the essay I had cited that went into greater detail about the events in the complaint. The form states, "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." It was not. The Chief of Police made no decision and to my knowledge there was no written report either. The form states, "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." It did not. I waited a couple weeks, having no idea if the farce of an investigation was still ongoing or not, and finally followed up with Curtis, who hadn't done anything since we talked and didn't plan on it.
I pointed out that he had not followed the procedures I was promised. He ignored that and all subsequent emails. I emailed chief Gary Jensen and assistant chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I emailed the Cache County Attorney's office, which ignored me. I emailed the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which responded that they wouldn't do anything about it and encouraged me to obtain private legal counsel, because obviously every college student can afford that.
Please don't stop creating headaches for these assholes.
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
I've just discovered your channel. Thank you for exposing the Logan City Police Department's true colors. I have my own experience with their lack of transparency, competence, and basic human decency that I would like to share. I would be most grateful if you could share it with the public and teach them a lesson. I've done my best, but I don't have nearly the reach that you do, and I'm so very, very tired of being ignored.
In January 2020, a loud and stupid pig named officer Nelson verbally abused and traumatized me. In August of that year, I went to leave a nasty Google Review and found that Google wasn't publishing reviews at the time, but in response to other negative reviews, the department had told people to email [email protected]. So I did. I never got a response. Spoiler alert: nobody was checking the email account, and as a result, by the time I stumbled by chance upon the official complaint-filing procedure a year later, the body camera footage of officer Nelson yelling and threatening me was long gone. How convenient for them. Nobody from the department ever apologized to me for this.
I have attached my scans of the complaint form, and I give you permission to share or reproduce them anywhere and with anyone you want. After I filed it, I met with captain Curtis Hooley, who made a bunch of excuses for the indefensible behavior and said officer Nelson is a different cop now than he was back then. He did not follow the procedure I was promised in the complaint form. As you know, it states that "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation will be conducted." It was not. He never even spoke to the other officer who was on the scene or the officer from USU Police who sent both of them, and he didn't even bother to read the essay I had cited that went into greater detail about the events in the complaint. The form states, "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." It was not. The Chief of Police made no decision and to my knowledge there was no written report either. The form states, "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." It did not. I waited a couple weeks, having no idea if the farce of an investigation was still ongoing or not, and finally followed up with Curtis, who hadn't done anything since we talked and didn't plan on it.
I pointed out that he had not followed the procedures I was promised. He ignored that and all subsequent emails. I emailed chief Gary Jensen and assistant chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I emailed the Cache County Attorney's office, which ignored me. I emailed the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which responded that they wouldn't do anything about it and encouraged me to obtain private legal counsel, because obviously every college student can afford that.
Please don't stop creating headaches for these assholes.
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
To Gary Jensen, Jeff Simmons, and Curtis Hooley of the Logan City Police Department
(June 18, 2022)
Well, it looks like I'm not the only civilian who's been abused by Hayden Nelson. Reading this article was like deja vu. Was he always a mindless bully, or does he have your "training" to thank for that? I guess this lawsuit will be a little harder for you to ignore than my complaint, huh? Oh, I'm sure the body camera footage is conveniently long gone and I'm sure all these officers will be protected by qualified immunity because our "justice" system fully expects and authorizes them to be absolute fuckwits who don't understand basic rights, but at least I'll sleep a little better at night knowing that this is causing you a bit of well-deserved stress.
https://www.hjnews.com/news/crime_courts/lawsuit-alleges-police-violated-cache-valley-man-s-civil-rights-following-911-call/article_e3681e54-2775-53fd-b56b-20fab99337a7.html
Cache Valley Transparency brought this to my attention, because it turns out your illegal attempts to make him go away have not, in fact, made him go away. Boo hoo.
Fuck the police,
Christopher Nicholson
P.S. I recently had the pleasure of calling out the Nelson bastard by name in my Masters thesis. I guess I ought to thank him for helping to inspire my work. The critical introduction is available online - it's way above your reading level, but if you have a little free time, maybe you can find an elementary school student to read it to you. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/8496/
https://www.hjnews.com/news/crime_courts/lawsuit-alleges-police-violated-cache-valley-man-s-civil-rights-following-911-call/article_e3681e54-2775-53fd-b56b-20fab99337a7.html
Cache Valley Transparency brought this to my attention, because it turns out your illegal attempts to make him go away have not, in fact, made him go away. Boo hoo.
Fuck the police,
Christopher Nicholson
P.S. I recently had the pleasure of calling out the Nelson bastard by name in my Masters thesis. I guess I ought to thank him for helping to inspire my work. The critical introduction is available online - it's way above your reading level, but if you have a little free time, maybe you can find an elementary school student to read it to you. https://digitalcommons.usu.edu/etd/8496/
To Logan City Attorney Craig Carlston
(June 18, 2022)
Hi Craig,
I read with interest your recent comments on the lawsuit against Logan City Police Department: "I know that the police department, and all the officers, take these things very seriously. My experience with the police department is they've been really diligent about complying with the constitution and state code, and they care deeply about those things."
That hasn't been my experience at all. I was abused by one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Hayden Nelson, earlier the same year. Attached is my complaint form describing that incident (slightly redacted because it's posted to my public website). After I filed it, the department declined to conduct "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation" according to the criteria they promised me on the form. Curtis Hooley made no effort to collect any statements or evidence beyond an interview with me. He didn't read the longer account of the incident that I had offered due to space constraints on the form. He never even spoke to Hayden's partner. The form states that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." The chief did not make any final decision and to my knowledge, Curtis never submitted anything to him. The form states that "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." They did not. I waited a couple weeks after my interview and didn't even know if the investigation was over, and finally I had to call Curtis and ask about it.
By this time the body camera footage was conveniently gone, and Curtis chose to disregard most aspects of my complaint because he couldn't verify them. Of course, the lack of footage is not an excuse for his refusal to conduct a real investigation. The complaint form does not say "unless the body camera footage is gone." I never received an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the department. Curtis gave me his card, then ignored all my subsequent calls and emails. I forwarded the email to chief Gary Jensen and assistant chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I contacted the Cache County Attorney's Office and they also ignored me. I contacted the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which encouraged me to "obtain private legal counsel," as if I could afford that.
Needless to say, I'm rooting for you to lose this lawsuit. I have no reason to believe the other eleven officers aren't massive pieces of shit just like Hayden Nelson is.
Regards,
Christopher Nicholson
I read with interest your recent comments on the lawsuit against Logan City Police Department: "I know that the police department, and all the officers, take these things very seriously. My experience with the police department is they've been really diligent about complying with the constitution and state code, and they care deeply about those things."
That hasn't been my experience at all. I was abused by one of the defendants in the lawsuit, Hayden Nelson, earlier the same year. Attached is my complaint form describing that incident (slightly redacted because it's posted to my public website). After I filed it, the department declined to conduct "a thorough, accurate and objective investigation" according to the criteria they promised me on the form. Curtis Hooley made no effort to collect any statements or evidence beyond an interview with me. He didn't read the longer account of the incident that I had offered due to space constraints on the form. He never even spoke to Hayden's partner. The form states that "Upon completion of an investigation a written report, with all findings will be submitted to the Chief of Police for his final decision." The chief did not make any final decision and to my knowledge, Curtis never submitted anything to him. The form states that "The department will inform the complainant of the official disposition at the conclusion of the investigation." They did not. I waited a couple weeks after my interview and didn't even know if the investigation was over, and finally I had to call Curtis and ask about it.
By this time the body camera footage was conveniently gone, and Curtis chose to disregard most aspects of my complaint because he couldn't verify them. Of course, the lack of footage is not an excuse for his refusal to conduct a real investigation. The complaint form does not say "unless the body camera footage is gone." I never received an apology or acknowledgement of wrongdoing from the department. Curtis gave me his card, then ignored all my subsequent calls and emails. I forwarded the email to chief Gary Jensen and assistant chief Jeff Simmons, who also ignored me. I contacted the Cache County Attorney's Office and they also ignored me. I contacted the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which encouraged me to "obtain private legal counsel," as if I could afford that.
Needless to say, I'm rooting for you to lose this lawsuit. I have no reason to believe the other eleven officers aren't massive pieces of shit just like Hayden Nelson is.
Regards,
Christopher Nicholson
To the U.S. District Court for Utah
Hello,
I just read about Angel Echevarria's civil rights lawsuit against Logan City Police Department, and I would love to know if it's possible for me to join or help with the lawsuit in some capacity. I don't need any of the money, but I have also been abused by Hayden Nelson, one of the officers named as a defendant, and I have also had the police department sweep my complaint under the rug and refuse to conduct the investigation it promised. My situation wasn't nearly as egregious but it did violate my rights, traumatize me, and demonstrate Officer Nelson's gross incompetence and maliciousness. I would love the chance to testify in court about the kind of person he is and about the department leaders' refusal to do their jobs.
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
I just read about Angel Echevarria's civil rights lawsuit against Logan City Police Department, and I would love to know if it's possible for me to join or help with the lawsuit in some capacity. I don't need any of the money, but I have also been abused by Hayden Nelson, one of the officers named as a defendant, and I have also had the police department sweep my complaint under the rug and refuse to conduct the investigation it promised. My situation wasn't nearly as egregious but it did violate my rights, traumatize me, and demonstrate Officer Nelson's gross incompetence and maliciousness. I would love the chance to testify in court about the kind of person he is and about the department leaders' refusal to do their jobs.
Sincerely,
Christopher Nicholson
To USU Professor Jennifer Sinor
(June 19, 2022)
Hi Jennifer,
I wanted to pass along the fact that the villain of my essay is being sued with a bunch of other pigs for abusing someone else the same year. This incident was far worse than mine but the incompetence, maliciousness, and subsequent cover-up by the police department are very familiar. It was extremely validating to read about and know that it wasn't just my persecution complex painting Officer Nelson as a bully with the IQ of a dust mite. Too bad I can't get excited about the lawsuit because it will just get thrown out due to qualified immunity.
Best,
Christopher
https://www.hjnews.com/news/crime_courts/lawsuit-alleges-police-violated-cache-valley-man-s-civil-rights-following-911-call/article_e3681e54-2775-53fd-b56b-20fab99337a7.html
She responded: "I just read the article. It does sound so similar just to a higher degree. So often little comes from these lawsuits but we can hope it gets attention in the press. The one who wrote the servile [Autocorrect, I assume] is a former creative writing student:)"
I wanted to pass along the fact that the villain of my essay is being sued with a bunch of other pigs for abusing someone else the same year. This incident was far worse than mine but the incompetence, maliciousness, and subsequent cover-up by the police department are very familiar. It was extremely validating to read about and know that it wasn't just my persecution complex painting Officer Nelson as a bully with the IQ of a dust mite. Too bad I can't get excited about the lawsuit because it will just get thrown out due to qualified immunity.
Best,
Christopher
https://www.hjnews.com/news/crime_courts/lawsuit-alleges-police-violated-cache-valley-man-s-civil-rights-following-911-call/article_e3681e54-2775-53fd-b56b-20fab99337a7.html
She responded: "I just read the article. It does sound so similar just to a higher degree. So often little comes from these lawsuits but we can hope it gets attention in the press. The one who wrote the servile [Autocorrect, I assume] is a former creative writing student:)"
To the Herald Journal (Again)
(June 20, 2022)
I read with great interest about Angel Echevarria's $500,000 civil rights lawsuit against several Logan City police officers and Logan City itself. (Shoutout to Cache Valley Transparency's YouTube channel for bringing it to my attention.) I believe every word of his accusations because his experience, though far more severe, resonated with mine. The incompetence and maliciousness outlined in the lawsuit describe my unwelcome interaction with LCPD perfectly.
I was verbally abused by Hayden Nelson, the first officer listed as a defendant, earlier that same year. He came into my home and yelled and threatened me for ten minutes without once explaining why. He just made vague allusions to a complaint from my neighbors that I was hearing about for the first time and never even bothered to mention which neighbors, so that for months I was afraid of all of them. He had no warrant and I was never charged with anything. After bullying me for ten minutes he switched tactics, started pretending to be concerned about my mental health, and "asked" if I wanted to go to the hospital for the suicidal feelings he had just created. Yes, he tried to play "bad cop good cop" by himself even though he had a partner with him (who was silent and useless throughout). For no reason at all, he took me outside of the apartment before frisking me in full view of the entire block.
Curtis Hooley and other police department leaders swept my formal complaint under the rug, made excuses for Nelson's inexcusable behavior, refused to conduct the investigation they promised, and ignored all of my subsequent calls and emails. I'm absolutely baffled by city attorney Carl Carlston's claim that they "take these things very seriously" and "care deeply about those things." I don't want to accuse him of lying, but I'm hard-pressed to imagine that someone in his position doesn't know better. I escalated my complaint to the Cache County Attorney's Office, which also ignored me. I escalated my complaint to the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which advised me to "obtain private legal counsel." Because obviously every college student in this country can afford that.
The incident and subsequent cover-up have left me with unresolved trauma, occasional nightmares, and a deep prejudice against law enforcement. But I realize I got off very lucky compared to Mr. Echevarria and countless others who are abused or killed by American police officers every day. I wish him the best, though I imagine his lawsuit will just be thrown out due to qualified immunity, the asinine legal doctrine that empowers police to violate our constitutional rights with impunity and goes a long way toward explaining why they keep doing so.
I was verbally abused by Hayden Nelson, the first officer listed as a defendant, earlier that same year. He came into my home and yelled and threatened me for ten minutes without once explaining why. He just made vague allusions to a complaint from my neighbors that I was hearing about for the first time and never even bothered to mention which neighbors, so that for months I was afraid of all of them. He had no warrant and I was never charged with anything. After bullying me for ten minutes he switched tactics, started pretending to be concerned about my mental health, and "asked" if I wanted to go to the hospital for the suicidal feelings he had just created. Yes, he tried to play "bad cop good cop" by himself even though he had a partner with him (who was silent and useless throughout). For no reason at all, he took me outside of the apartment before frisking me in full view of the entire block.
Curtis Hooley and other police department leaders swept my formal complaint under the rug, made excuses for Nelson's inexcusable behavior, refused to conduct the investigation they promised, and ignored all of my subsequent calls and emails. I'm absolutely baffled by city attorney Carl Carlston's claim that they "take these things very seriously" and "care deeply about those things." I don't want to accuse him of lying, but I'm hard-pressed to imagine that someone in his position doesn't know better. I escalated my complaint to the Cache County Attorney's Office, which also ignored me. I escalated my complaint to the Office of the Utah Attorney General, which advised me to "obtain private legal counsel." Because obviously every college student in this country can afford that.
The incident and subsequent cover-up have left me with unresolved trauma, occasional nightmares, and a deep prejudice against law enforcement. But I realize I got off very lucky compared to Mr. Echevarria and countless others who are abused or killed by American police officers every day. I wish him the best, though I imagine his lawsuit will just be thrown out due to qualified immunity, the asinine legal doctrine that empowers police to violate our constitutional rights with impunity and goes a long way toward explaining why they keep doing so.
