Multnomah County Sheiff's Office (MCSO) Deputy Curt Bull could and should be more forthcoming about the events of June 28, 2017 at the Multnomah County Detention Center (MCDC). That night my left humerus bone was snapped in two by Deputy Timothy Barker while other deputies including Phillip Hubert were present. Bull did not come into the picture until I was taken to the booking area to be placed in an ambulance for transport to a local emergency room. Bull accompanied me as the escort deputy for my hospital visit. Bull has never as far as I know given any sort of official statement to anyone regarding that night.
If he did give a statement I hope that he would provide an honest account of everything he had seen and heard. For instance, I witnessed him talking to Phillip Hubert about what happened to me. I recall Hubert describing to him how I had reached into a bag of chips, grabbed a hand full, and sort of flicked it at Deputy Barker with a forward flipping of the wrist motion. I also seem to recall hearing a deputy that may or may not have been Hubert saying that Barker had fallen on me and that was why my arm was broken. That is not true, Barker twisted it intentionally until and after the humerus bone broke. Had Bull came forward with the truth it would have been material to my defense in the subsequent criminal case brought by Barker, Hubert, and other deputies. It would have been material because Bull had heard statements by parties in the case about what happened and what Bull was told contradicted the incident reports later written by Hubert, Barker, Wendy Muth, Matthew Ingram, and others. Those reports accused me of grinding spicy chips into a powder, trying to throw the powder into their eyes knowing that the seasoning would cause painful burning, and that I resisted cuffing on the Fifth Floor. The truth is I threw a hand full of chips, submitted to cuffing on the Fifth Floor, and my arm was not broken while being cuffed on the Fifth Floor. It was broken on the fourth floor. Had Bull come forward and told the truth it would have added more inconsistent statements made by the deputies involved.
Why wouldn't someone in Bull's position come forward? Because there is a code/custom of silence within the MCSO. That code requires deputies to support each other first and foremost if they want their fellow deputies to support them. Deputies that have blown the whistle in the past have been retaliated against and at times forced out of a job. Those are significant pressures. What would he have to gain by coming forward? Not much, he would risk a lot and in return the best he could hope for would be a future just as good as the one he could secure for himself by keeping his mouth shut. Some might say that the integrity of the MCSO and the safety of those in their custody are at stake, so he would have everything to gain by being the one to expose these problems and hopefully take the first step towards fixing them. The problem with that is one guy in Bull's position is not likely to change anything, so the best thing for him to do is stay silent. If he came forward it would make the MCSO look bad, make him hated by his colleagues, and what little change it might lead to would not change much. Honesty, integrity, and the truth are insignificant when compared to livelihood.
Bull is not a bad deputy as far as I know. My experiences with him as an inmate at MCDC have all been positive. He has a good rapport with inmates and staff a like. He treats inmates with respect, talks to them like they are real people, and I have never known him to use excessive for or harass inmates. He just does his job. If the other deputies were more like Bull MCDC would be a better place.
So, if he is a good deputy then why post him on this website? He is an example of the banality of evil in action at MCDC. The banality of evil being the normalization of human wickedness in a society thus causing people to perpetrate or take part in evil activity without evil intentions. Bull, like Adolf Eichmann, is just a cog in a wheel. He does what he thinks he is supposed to do. People in those positions often don't realize the wrongs their actions enable because almost everything looks normal to them. The so called "Good German" was the same way. A "Good German" that volunteered for the military because his country was at war and that is what was expected of men of fighting age. Just like the "Good German" that was ordered to put people on trains and followed orders because following orders was normal for people in the military to do. Such people are not doing what they do for the purpose of hurting anyone but at the same time are part of evils that would not be possible without all of the people in their positions doing what they think they should do.