DC fire lieutenant at center of controversy makes first public comments about failure to help dying man
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DC news media fights closing of trial board hearing
As she left her trial board hearing today (Friday), DC Fire & EMS Department Lt. Kellene Davis spoke briefly, for the first time, with reporters, but did not answer questions.
Amy Brittain & Hamil Harris, The Washington Post:
“I haven’t had the opportunity to express my heartfelt and deepest condolences to the Mills family and also in no way did refuse to help Mr. Mills in any way,”she said. “By the time I was aware he was having difficulty, help was on the way.”
Donna Rucker, who represented Davis during the proceedings, told reporters as she left that Davis “had to come here to defend these charges. . . . It was very critical for her to present her case to the trial board and to make them aware of what she understood at the time.”
Also, the daughter of Cecil Mills, Marie Mills, and her attorney, Karen Evans, were barred from the hearing as the news media was on Wednesday. From Brittain and Harris:
“I am frustrated, angry and disappointed that no one is being held accountable,” Mills said. “I don’t understand why the hearing is being held in secret. My family is following the rules and trying to allow the process to work but we have lost confidence in the process.”
The trial board hearing for the District of Columbia fire lieutenant who was in charge of a station when no one went to help a dying man across the street continues Friday — and the daughter of victim Cecil Mills said she has been kicked out of the proceedings.
Marie Mills told ABC7 News that members of the disciplinary panel kicked her out of attending and listening to the proceedings Friday.
The hearing takes place nearly two months after Medric “Cecil Mills” Jr. went into cardiac arrest in a parking lot across from a fire station from Engine 26 on Rhode Island Avenue in Northeast D.C. on Jan. 25.
According to members of the Mills family, a number of people went across the street to Engine 26 to ask for help, but none provided any assistance, and directed the people to call 911.
Ultimately, a police officer flagged down a passing ambulance, which officials said was initially dispatched to the wrong address before showing up at the scene. However, Mills later died at a hospital.
Lt. Kellene Davis, who was in charge of the station on Jan. 25, is now the subject of a four-member internal disciplinary panel, which began Wednesday and continued Friday. Davis faces possible discipline for her role in the incident.
The department said that in regards to the incident, Davis did not respond when she became aware that people had approached the station and asked for help, and as a result, faced a list of neglect -of-duty charges — from violating the patient’s bill of rights, to making false statements, to failing to document the incident on Jan. 25.
Though a total of five firefighters were on duty at Engine 26 at the time of the incident, Davis was reportedly the only one asked to testify before the panel
It is being reported that Lt. Davis has applied for retirement.
