Last December 29, someone left a note on Virginia Stephens’ doorstep. It had a case number on it and a phone number for her to call. She said she had a hard time tracking anyone down, but finally got a phone number for Juneau police.
“I was told my son was dead and the one thing I asked is, did he suffer pain as he died. I wasn’t given any particulars of the incident and the guy told me that he didn’t have that information,” Virginia Stephens said. “I have since found out that he didn’t die easily, I mean he was in pain. Which hurts my heart.”
Virginia Stephens’ son, Kelly Stephens was shot and killed by Juneau police officer James Esbenshade during an confrontation near the Chinook Apartments in Juneau’s Mendenhall Valley.
Virginia and Kevin Stephens, Kelly Stephens’ parents, have filed a wrongful death lawsuit in federal court. They’ve named Esbenshade, Juneau’s Chief of Police Ed Mercer and the City and Borough of Juneau. In it, they say that Kelly Stephens’ civil rights were violated and that he didn’t have to die.
They announced the lawsuit during a press conference with their attorneys on Wednesday. Those attorneys said they’ve been trying to get information from Juneau police for three months.
“The Juneau police department, the authorities, are moving at glacier speed compared to the rest of the country in releasing this information” said one of the family’s attorneys, Los Angeles-based John Sweeney. “It’s very simple, if the parents have a question about how their son was killed, to release the bodycam video.”
Anchorage attorney Ben Crittenden said that has left the family without any closure.
“The video does not lie, it would tell us everything that happened,” he said.
KTOO has asked for audio and video from that night as well. Juneau police denied that request in January, saying the case was still being investigated.
But they later released several minutes of body camera video (Warning: This video includes video and audio of Kelly Stephens being shot. He later died of his wounds.) and dashcam from Esbenshade’s response to the 911 call late Thursday evening.
The video tracks closely with a description laid out by the state in a report released in March.
Chief Assistant Attorney General Jack McKenna with the state’s Office of Special Prosecutions described body-cam video, written reports, audio recordings, photos of the altercation and listened to recorded witness interviews. He also laid out why it would not be charging Officer Esbenshade with a crime.
McKenna’s report is based on his review of an investigation that Juneau Police did themselves.
The report starts with a description of an encounter at a local grocery store that happened hours before Stephens died. It describes Stephens approaching someone in the parking lot of the store, swinging what witnesses described as a grappling hook and shouting that he was going to kill the man.
Another witness is detailed in the report saying that Kelly Stephens told her to call the cops because he wanted to “commit suicide by police.”
Officer Esbenshade responded to that incident at the grocery store, but didn’t see Stephens. Later that night, he responded to a 911 call reporting that there had been a shot fired near an apartment complex on Cinema Drive.
In the video, it’s dark and difficult to see but there is clear audio from Esbenshade’s body camera. The video shows a shadowed figure walking quickly toward officer Esbenshade, followed by a dog.
Witnesses told KTOO after the shooting that Kelly Stephens had gone to walk his puppy, walking up Cinema Drive with a dog leash.
The video shows Stephens advancing on Esbenshade, yelling that he was going to kill the officer — he also tells Esbenshade to shoot him. Officer Esbenshade told Stephens to stop three times. He asks what Stephens is carrying in his hands. Stephens keeps yelling “I will kill you,” at him.
Then, there’s a single gunshot and Stephens screams and falls down.
As officer Esbenshade steps toward him, Kelly Stephens comes into view, curled up, screaming on the ground. He keeps asking officers to kill him.
The state investigator goes on to conclude that officer Esbenshade was justified in his use of deadly force — that he was defending himself against the threat of serious physical injury. And that Esbenshade “could have subjectively believed that Mr. Stephens was going to assault him with the chain.”
Officer Esbenshade didn’t say that he believed he was in danger. Through his attorney, he declined to be interviewed during the investigation.
But even with the video, Crittenden said they would have sued anyway.
“We’re not going to depend on them to give us what they want to give us,” he said. “We’re entitled to get everything under the federal rules of civil procedure. We want to get everything so we can do our own independent investigation.”
The family asserts in the lawsuit that Stephens wasn’t armed. That the dog leash he was carrying wasn’t a threat to the officer.
One of the family’s attorneys, Steven Glickman, says Juneau police haven’t been forthcoming with information, so it has been hard for the family to piece together what happened.
He said because the family lives in Las Vegas, they had to rely on news reports to find out what happened. First, they hired a private investigator, who also wasn’t able to get much information. And, eventually they hired lawyers.
“The only way to get to the truth is to find out what happened,” Glickman said. “And the lawsuit’s filed so we can get to the truth and get the Stephens’ the answer that they deserve for what happened to their only son.”
Juneau police have not yet responded to the lawsuit.
Editor’s note: A previous version of this story stated that Juneau police hadn’t yet responded to the lawsuit. They responded late Thursday, releasing several minutes of video and photos of the dog leash that Kelly Michael Stephens was carrying the night he died. This story has been updated with those details. A previous version of this story also misattributed a quote to Anchorage attorney Ben Crittenden — it was one of the family’s Los Angeles-based attorneys, John Sweeney.
