BUFFALO, N.Y. -- More than four years after Richard Metcalf Jr. died in the custody of the Erie County Sheriff's Office, a judge ruled Wednesday the criminal investigation into his death will continue in an adjoining county.
Metcalf was in the custody of the Erie County Sheriff's Office in Nov. 2012 after his arrest on burglary charges when he died. Metcalf was 35.
While his death was ruled a homicide, there's been conflicting reports about the cause, and no charges were filed.
"You had medical examination reports that were done a few years ago, and then, in my opinion, once the New York State Commission did their report, and that report came out last fall, it was important to take another look at it," said District Attorney John Flynn, D-Erie County.
Flynn, a few weeks into his time as district attorney, says he started looking at the case not long after he took the job, then realized one of the deputies that could be involved in the incident was related to someone in his office.
"Therefore, I did the right thing in my opinion, where I immediately stopped my investigation, I immediately put myself on halt where I didn't look at another sheet of paper at all, and I then made a motion to Judge (Christopher) Burns to have a special prosecutor appointed under New York State law," said Flynn.
State Supreme Court Justice Burns did that Wednesday, appointing Cattaraugus County District Attorney Lori Pettit Rieman to review the case.
"On behalf of the family, I'm very relieved to see that the investigation has been picked up again," said Thomas Casey, the Metcalf family's attorney.
The family's attorneys received a video from the state Commission of Correction showing Metcalf taken out of the Erie County Holding Center to an ambulance.
"He's clearly unconscious at that time. He's strapped to the gurney, he's covered, he's got a pillowcase tied tightly around his neck, his head and his neck, he's unable to breathe. Whether he had gone into cardiac arrest at that moment, we don't know. The EMTs were unable to evaluate him. When they finally did evaluate him in the ambulance, he was in cardiac arrest," said Jim Brown, another attorney for the Metcalf family.
The Sheriff's Office has denied wrong-doing in the case, but the Commission of Correction released a report in September saying its Medical Review Board determined Metcalf's death was caused by restraint methods used by deputies.
"The deputies' testimony was that he was resisting the entire time, and you can see from the video, he was unable to do so," said Brown.
Casey and Brown say they'll do whatever they can to help the criminal investigation.
The Erie County Sheriff's Office released a statement in October regarding the Commission of Correction report saying it believes critical evidence was mischaracterized and misinterpreted, which led to flawed conclusions. It said it looks forward to defending itself and the actions of its deputies in court.