news story / By Japhet Weeks

‘A Broken Vessel’ — Who was Martin Cotton, and what happened to him?

(Aug. 23, 2007)  Martin Frederick Cotton II was not homeless. The 26-year-old man, who died in the Humboldt County Jail on Aug. 9 shortly after a violent confrontation with the Eureka police, always knew that if he was in trouble, the only thing between him and shelter was a call to his father, Martin Fredrick Cotton, who lives in Loleta in a house overlooking the Humboldt Bay Wildlife Refuge.

But even the elder Cotton’s bucolic home can’t provide the kind of refuge the grieving father needs now.

Martin Cotton, father of Martin Cotton II who died in Police custody on Aug. 9, holds images of his son from a recent memorial service in Sacramento. Photo by Yulia Weeks.

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“Fred was a good friend,” Cotton said, using his son’s nickname. “He would give you the shirt off his back.”

Now, two weeks after his unexplained death, many residents, including those who witnessed his confrontation with the police, still have more questions than answers. And despite Eureka Police Chief Garr Nielsen’s promises of transparency in the subsequent investigation, some wonder if the EPD could have handled the arrest better.

On Aug. 9, the Eureka Police Department received a call about a disturbance at the Eureka Rescue Mission. Bryan Hall, house manager of the mission, phoned the police after an altercation involving Cotton broke out in “the cage,” a fenced, outdoor day-use area for the homeless. Hall ejected Cotton from the cage after he punched a man in the temple without provocation.

That’s when the police arrived on the scene. According to Nielsen, who held a town hall meeting on the incident last Thursday, officers initially used pepper spray to subdue Cottton. When that proved unsuccessful, they used hands, knees and nightsticks before finally getting him cuffed. All told, there were seven or eight officers involved, Nielsen said. After he was taken into custody, Cotton was given no medical attention because, according to Nielsen, he exhibited no signs of distress.

Cotton died about two hours after having been booked at the county jail. The autopsy report noted that he had suffered a subdural hematoma — bleeding between the dura (the outermost membrane of the brain) and the brain. As of Tuesday, the Humboldt County Coroner’s Office had not yet announced whether the hematoma was the cause of Cotton’s death. The police involvement in the case is being investigated by the county’s Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT).

At the Town Hall meeting Nielsen said that every indication was that Cotton’s death was not a result of his altercation with the EPD.

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