The records reveal troubling new details about the July 5 incident that left Jonathan Rounds — an Air Force veteran with mental health issues — seriously injured. Rounds went into cardiac arrest and suffered a brain injury shortly after he was tased by guards in the 4th Avenue Jail in downtown Phoenix, according to court documents.
Rounds' attorney, Bernardo Garcia, said in a phone interview that Rounds "may never recover from the coma that he is in." Garcia called the incident "truly tragic."
After New Times first contacted Maricopa County Sheriff's Office about the incident, the agency released a brief public statement about what took place and said Rounds was hospitalized and receiving "further medical attention."
MCSO also said on July 5 that Sheriff Paul Penzone asked the Arizona Department of Public Safety to investigate — a departure from typical protocol for the agency after a use of force incident. The internal affairs bureau at the sheriff's office will also review the incident.
"Due to the complexities of the investigation, and his commitment to accountability and transparency, Sheriff Penzone has requested that AZDPS deploy their Major Incidents Division to assume the investigation," according to the July 5 statement from the sheriff's office.
Raul Garcia, a spokesperson for AZDPS, said its investigation is underway. "We have initiated the investigation and will provide more information upon conclusion of the investigation," he said.
Detention officers for the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office tased Jonathan Rounds during an incident on July 5.
James Deak
From ‘belly chain’ to cardiac arrest in minutes
A sheriff's office report obtained by New Times provided additional details about what happened during the incident.Rounds was being housed at the 4th Avenue Jail's Special Management Unit, according to the document. The unit is meant for people who pose security threats but, in practice, largely holds people incarcerated with acute mental illness.
At approximately 7:20 a.m. on July 5, detention officers arrived at Rounds' cell to transport him to a court hearing in Scottsdale. Records in his two recent criminal cases show that for weeks, jail staff had failed to bring him to court hearings, and a judge had ordered that they do so.
But Scottsdale police officers refused to escort Rounds to court "due to his behavior," according to the incident report. The detention officers returned Rounds to his cell. At the time, he was wearing handcuffs, leg chains and a "belly chain," a waist restraint to which handcuffs are attached.
"As inmate Rounds stepped into the cell, he attempted to pull away and turn toward us," according to the incident report. "Inmate Rounds was taken to the ground, and we attempted to unchain and uncuff inmate Rounds [sic] but he refused to let us do so."
During the struggle, at least one detention officer tased Rounds. At 7:39 a.m., officers found that "Inmate Rounds did not have a pulse" and attempted to revive him with a defibrillator. It is unclear how many officers were involved, and the report did not contain their names. Paramedics arrived at 7:45 a.m. and took Rounds to a hospital eight minutes later, as noted in the incident report.
According to a July 6 court pleading, Rounds was in cardiac arrest for at least six minutes and has a grim prognosis for recovery.
Prosecutors dropped charges against Jonathan Rounds after he was seriously injured while being detained in the 4th Avenue Jail.
Matt Hennie
‘Immeasurable’ loss
Rounds was honorably discharged from the Air Force in August 2010, according to his attorney. Court documents in two recent criminal cases show that the veteran faced serious mental health concerns, including a bipolar disorder diagnosis and symptoms of schizoaffective disorder, and was unable to work with his attorney."Undersigned counsel has observed Mr. Rounds' mental state deteriorate to the extent of being unable to communicate with counsel," Garcia wrote in an April 2022 court pleading. He requested that a court evaluate whether Rounds had the capacity to stand trial.
Rounds was in jail awaiting trial after being indicted on charges of aggravated assault on a police officer and resisting arrest. A probable cause statement obtained by New Times shows that the case stemmed from a traffic stop on March 28, during which Rounds allegedly fought with Mesa police officers as they tried to arrest him. One officer suffered a minor hand injury, according to court documents. The Mesa officers tased Rounds during the incident.
Garcia emphasized that Rounds had not yet been convicted of any crime in that incident, as is the case with many people incarcerated in county jails. "These are people who have not been convicted of a crime. They are simply awaiting resolution of their cases," he said.
Rounds also faced charges of assault on an officer and resisting arrest stemming from an incident on Aug. 6, 2022. Rounds allegedly refused to leave a Pizza Hut in downtown Phoenix. When Phoenix police responded, Rounds fled and then struggled and spat at the officers as they tried to arrest him, according to a probable cause statement.
"He stated that he did nothing wrong and had signs of mental illness," one officer recalled in the statement.
On July 11 — six days after Rounds was seriously injured and hospitalized — county prosecutors filed a motion to dismiss charges in both of his criminal cases. A judge granted the order on July 12.
Garcia, a criminal defense attorney who focuses on representing people with mental illness, said that Rounds was his second client in a three-week span to suffer serious injuries while in a Maricopa County jail. "The burden on families, the loss of life, the vicarious loss to my team — it is just immeasurable," Garcia said.
Yet the sheriff's office provides little information to the public about deaths and injuries in its six jails. The agency generally does not proactively release information about jail deaths.
In January, New Times used the Arizona Public Records Law to request that the sheriff's office provide documents detailing all deaths in the jails in 2022. Despite multiple inquiries over the last several months, the agency has still not produced any documents.
