Burlington Police Chief Brandon del Pozo has depicted Douglas Kilburn as an irate man who picked a fistfight with an officer outside the University of Vermont Medical Center and received “a few” punches in return. The cop, Cory Campbell, handcuffed Kilburn within seconds and took him into the emergency room, where he was treated overnight for what del Pozo described as “small, non-displaced” skull fractures.
Kilburn’s sister, Lisa Webber, took a cellphone photo of her 54-year-old brother in a hospital bed about an hour after the altercation. Kilburn’s right eye looks like bruised fruit; his nose is swollen, and there’s dried blood along his brow. His jaw was broken in several places, and his eye socket was fractured, according to his sister.
She wants the world to see that photo. In her mind, Kilburn’s battered face shows that police haven’t been entirely forthcoming about what happened on March 11.
“I don’t understand why they had to beat him so bad,” she said.
Kilburn died two days later, on March 14. It was the day before he was scheduled to return to the hospital for surgery to stabilize his eye socket with a titanium plate, his sister said. Police found him dead in bed at home in Burlington’s Northgate Apartments. The television was still on.
Del Pozo placed Campbell on administrative duty and asked the Vermont State Police to independently investigate circumstances around the death. But the chief has not stayed out of their way.
On April 10, the state’s chief medical examiner, Steven Shapiro, officially linked Kilburn’s death to Campbell’s fist by ruling his manner of death a homicide. Shapiro’s determination was not a simple one: He was unable to identify the immediate cause of death but attributed it to several underlying factors, including hypertension, obesity, diabetes, vascular disease and skull fractures due to blunt-force trauma.
Shapiro explained the findings to del Pozo by phone before releasing them publicly, but the chief was not satisfied. Emails obtained by Seven Days revealed that del Pozo contacted Shapiro’s boss, Vermont Health Commissioner Mark Levine, to say he and Burlington Mayor Miro Weinberger believed the medical examiner’s homicide finding was wrong. When that didn’t work, Weinberger tried to convince the governor’s office to delay public release of the autopsy results until the city could press its argument.
Those efforts backfired, instead raising questions about why a chief with a reputation for progressive policing would try to flex political muscle over an independent investigation.
“The more that we hear about how much the chief has tried to intervene in the investigation, the more uncomfortable we have become,” said Jason Gibbs, chief of staff to Gov. Phil Scott. “It’s just not appropriate for the representative of an organization that is the subject of an investigation to influence it. This is something that is instilled in law enforcement officers at the introductory level.”
Gibbs continued: “It really, at our level, seems to be a poor choice, and as I indicated in my response to the mayor’s office, we have concerns that this type of activity borders on unethical.”
Del Pozo insisted that he was not trying to strong-arm the state, just to ensure that it hadn’t screwed up. He intervened, he said, because news of the “homicide” classification, while not a criminal finding, threatened to negatively affect public perception.
“The allegation that we were seeking to influence the manner of death says that we were merely acting out of self-interest or to protect our liability,” del Pozo told Seven Days. “It’s to offer a clear and correct picture to our community that we serve.”
Del Pozo’s version of events begins with Campbell responding to a call about a disorderly man. Kilburn was at the emergency room arguing with hospital security staff about visiting a family member who was a patient. Campbell successfully negotiated Kilburn’s entrance before moving on to another matter. While arranging transportation for another person to a wet shelter, Campbell encountered Kilburn in the parking lot, again arguing with hospital security. Kilburn’s car was parked in the ambulance bay.
Kilburn punched Campbell in the face, and Campbell threw a few punches back, del Pozo said. He quickly subdued the man, cuffed him and took him inside for treatment. Campbell cited Kilburn for disorderly conduct, trespassing and assaulting an officer. Campbell was uninjured.
Webber said she struggles to understand how her brother, a tall, heavyset man whom she called “Boog,” could have been an attacker who had to be subdued violently.
She knew Kilburn not as a hulking threat but as a bighearted former softball star physically compromised by health issues. Kilburn’s occupation was listed on his death certificate as pipe fitter, but he’d been out of work and on disability for years. Diabetes had forced the amputation of three toes on his right foot.
A stroke about 18 months ago had left him with limited use of his left side and a noticeable limp. He had seizures. He could be inappropriately loud.
Webber said Kilburn went to the hospital on March 11 for two reasons: to see his wife, who was in the hospital, and to intercept her brother, who would likely be visiting. The brother-in-law owed Kilburn money. Webber was concerned about a potential conflict, so she followed Kilburn there in a separate car. She said Kilburn found the relative smoking outside the emergency room and confronted him. They argued loudly, drawing a security guard’s attention. Eventually Kilburn calmed down enough that Webber decided she could keep a dinner date with her daughter. She left as Kilburn walked inside to visit his wife. She never saw Campbell.
About an hour later, Webber got a call from Kilburn. Through tears, he told her to come to the ER. She almost couldn’t recognize his swollen face. “He said, ‘That cop punched me, and the cop told me to shut my fat effing mouth,'” she recalled. “That’s the thing that stuck in Doug’s mind.”
Del Pozo’s summary was based on evidence that isn’t publicly available while the incident is under investigation. The detail about the size of Kilburn’s skull fractures — small — was culled from the medical examiner’s autopsy report, which has not been released. The description of the number of punches Campbell threw — a few — was based on unreleased bodycam and surveillance footage.
As investigators, state police control what evidence gets released and when. They tend to reveal very little in the process. By contrast, del Pozo’s general inclination is “to say as much as we can to the public” without harming the case, the chief said. So while del Pozo is quick to call state police to investigate cases involving his officers, he hasn’t fully recused himself from shaping the narrative that emerges — even when the state asks him not to talk.
“The state police would prefer that we just not make any comments at all about anything. We just don’t think that’s appropriate to our community,” del Pozo said. “To say somebody has died as the result of police activity [without] even saying anything about what happened and why? I think that tips the balance a little too far, to say we’re going to be silent for the sake of an investigation.”
In this case, del Pozo took a step further, seeking to maintain control over what facts to release while also challenging an unflattering medical conclusion.
Del Pozo appears to have conducted his own mini-investigation into the autopsy findings, even soliciting second opinions from medical examiners in New York and California, whom he declined to identify. In an email to Levine, del Pozo said both backed his view that Shapiro’s homicide finding was in error. However, del Pozo was mistaken in a key piece of his argument to the health commissioner, a national expert told Seven Days last week. The chief said medical examiners must be certain “beyond a reasonable doubt” when classifying a death as a homicide. “‘Beyond a reasonable doubt’ shouldn’t be brought into this,” said Dr. Jonathan Arden, president of the National Association of Medical Examiners, a private accrediting body.
Vermont’s medical examiner office has been fully accredited by NAME since 1978. Levine said he has “complete faith” in the office, which Shapiro has led since 2006. The Vermont Department of Health said Shapiro would not comment, but he’s been quoted rather bluntly in the past on the topic of cops’ understanding of his profession.
“Police make terrible death investigators,” Shapiro told the Charlotte Observer in 2014 for that newspaper’s series about flaws in North Carolina’s coroner system.
Thomas Anderson, Vermont’s public safety commissioner, saw the city’s autopsy meddling as merely the latest in a “very troubling” pattern of del Pozo “inserting himself” into the Kilburn investigation, according to his April 10 email to the governor’s staff. Through a spokesperson, Anderson declined to elaborate.
Del Pozo said Anderson might have been referring to a disagreement over whether Campbell should be allowed to view police bodycam video of the incident before giving a statement to investigators. State police instructed the chief not to hand it over, and del Pozo complied, denying last Friday a public records request by Campbell’s attorney, Rich Cassidy, to provide the video.
On Monday, the Burlington Police Officers Association sued in state court to force release of the bodycam footage and other video, presumably the hospital’s, that captured the incident.
“I cannot recommend that Officer Campbell voluntarily submit to an interview unless I first have an opportunity to review the video camera recording, in the presence of a qualified use of force instructor,” Cassidy wrote to the city attorney’s office in an April 3 email filed with the court record.
Cassidy did not return a call for comment.
Critics say the practice of allowing police to review video evidence can taint officer testimony, though some departments, including Burlington’s, allow it. Vermont State Police policy does not.
The bodycam footage and autopsy dispute underscore how friction can arise when an investigation involves law enforcement agencies with differing policies and practices.
State police don’t have written policies that govern the handover of cases from local police departments, nor does the agency communicate expectations to the investigated agency. “We conduct investigations of law enforcement officers as we would any other criminal investigation,” public information officer Adam Silverman told Seven Days in an email. Vermont State Police’s major crimes unit is handling the Kilburn investigation, he said.
But cases involving police officers aren’t like most others, said American Civil Liberties Union of Vermont staff attorney Lia Ernst.
“Almost by definition, when an independent investigation is taking place, it’s a high visibility or politically controversial subject,” she said. “That’s where real guidance and restrictions and protocols are needed most.”
Explicit policies that clarify expectations could help prevent the appearance or actual exercise of undue influence by an investigated agency. What is particularly harmful, Ernst said, is to selectively release information that supports one side of the story.
That’s how it feels to Webber, who is frustrated that the accounts of the incident she sees in the news haven’t explained — or fully described — the injuries to Kilburn’s face.
“I want justice for him,” she said.
The police union supports how del Pozo has challenged the medical examiner’s office.
Its president, Dan Gilligan, was the first to publicly challenge the autopsy findings that del Pozo disputed behind the scenes. And even if Kilburn did die as a result of Campbell’s punches, Gilligan wrote in an April 10 press release, it’s a “sad but unfortunate consequence of Kilburn’s own conduct.”
“I think it is reasonable and prudent to be asking questions this way,” he said, referring to the chief. “It’s appreciated by our members.”
Related Stories
Redacted: How the City of Burlington Keeps the Public in the Dark
Cut the Police: The Bid to Slash Law Enforcement Funding in Vermont
This article appears in Apr 24-28, 2019.
Got something to say?
Send a letter to the editor and we'll publish your feedback in print!
That is not a very flattering picture of the man who got punched and whose death was ruled a homicide while the mayor and chief of police try to downplay what happened and stifle the ensuing investigation.
And I’m surprised by looking at the picture that the hospital let him go home
“stifle the ensuing investigation.”
I haven’t seen or heard a single thing about “stifling” an investigation. Did you not read this in the article:
“Del Pozo placed Campbell on administrative duty and asked the Vermont State Police to independently investigate circumstances around the death.”
Del Pozo is the one who asked the state police to investigate. That is not “stifling” an investigation.
Why is the city of Burlington is trying so hard to influence this investigation, bury the incident and control the narrative ? Its an easy answer….they know they are in the wrong and this thing is about to get ugly. If there isnt any wrongdoing let the State Police complete their investigation and the facts of the case will speak the truth. Instead you see the Chief and the Mayor flailing about and failing miserably to exert control over public perception. The end result is quite opposite of their intentions. They look like a guilty person trying to get away with something because theres a different set of rules that applies to them. They look like guilty clowns.
Del Pozo tried to play the Blue Wall of Silence ticket and discovered that he’s no longer in New York City. Kudos to the VSP for rebuffing his and Miro’s coverup attempts. Mr. Del Pozo: Learn Vermont’s expectations of integrity and transparency or move back to Brooklyn.
This is a horrifying example of police overreach and covering their own butts to the detriment of the populace.
I smell a high 6 figure settlement with Kilburn’s Estate coming.
Get your City Checkbook out Miro
Miro and Del Pozo are behaving and sounding more like former NYC mayor and current Trump propagandist Rudy Giuliani and disgraced NYPD Chief Bernie Kerik. Both should just shut up for now. In these Trumpian times when those who are supposed to enforce the law act like they are above and beyond it, the actions of both mayor and Chief are troubling at best.
Any BPD body-cam footage and hospital security cam footage should be made public in the future. If it comes to it, then Officer Campbell should be removed from BPD and suffer any legal consequences for his actions, as should anyone who tries either publicly or privately to obstruct , influence, or interfere with any investigation into this matter, including Miro and Del Pozo.
This photo is truly heartbreaking.
And no, Dan Gilligan, Kilburn’s injuries and subsequent death are NOT a “sad but unfortunate consequence of Kilburn’s own conduct.” Given the lengths to which Miro and del Pozo are going to shape the narrative and influence opinion, it seems fairly certain that body cam footage will show that Kilburn did nothing to warrant being that seriously battered in the face.
Deepest condolences to his sister and the rest of the family. So tragic.
Just to be clear; he assaulted a police officer. It was the officer’s choice not to use purposefully lethal force and instead subdue his attacker physically. The assailant, already in chronic poor health, later died as a result of his choice to attack a cop. It’s fortunate the officer was able to recover from the initial assault in order to defend himself, which may not have been the case with a smaller statured or less fit officer attacked in this manner.
Aren’t police trained in defensive tactics, specifically how to apply holds and use techniques to subdue an attacker without brutally beating the attacker in the face and/or killing the attacker? I imagine it couldn’t have been too hard to gain control of an older, out of shape man who had limited use of his body following a stroke.
On the plus, I’m glad the officer at least told Kilburn of his right to remain silent. “That cop punched me, and the cop told me to shut my fat effing mouth,'”
This mans skull fractures were serious injuries. He should never have been discharged from the ER.
Faux-supporters of Chief Wiggum do him no favors by trivializing his arrogant incompetence, ignorance of and plain disregard for the law, among the myriad character flaws that endear him to legions of fans.
According to Wikepedia – an unimpeachable repository of things Wiggum:
While [Chief Wiggum] pretentiously feigns authority, he has little regard for individual rights or even public safety. He is disturbingly uninformed and flaunts his power, albeit with good intentions most of the time …. He is completely ignorant of Springfield’s laws and even makes up his own laws on the fly, and often quotes sayings from the police handbook which cannot actually be found in the book .
Fortunately for long-time fans, Chief Wiggum steadfastly remains true to character, and as the boorish, self-appointed Chief Medical Examiner in this latest tragedy – the most recent of a string of citizen deaths by the hands of responding officers – has ignored entreaties to stray off-script.
Someone made the statement that “just to be clear, he assaulted a police officer”.
The reality is that we don’t know that to be true. That is only what the police officer stated, and given the conduct of his chief and the Mayor of Bumbletown, we should be seriously questioning the accuracy of that claim. Hopefully, an honest investigation will determine that.
A man has died as a result of his interaction with a Bumbletown police officer, and the only thing his Union President can come up with is – “sad but unfortunate consequence of Kilburn’s own conduct.”
Be careful when you trust the police to be honest.
Am I mistaken or did you not recently report on goings on at the Police Academy where “qualified force instructors” were punching cops in the head and in some cases causing serious injury ? And was not the Director of the Academy defending the use of blows to the head ? And was it not Chief Del Pozo who challenged the practice ?
I would suggest that those are very relevant facts to be considered in the current context.
There is no way this police officer did not use excessive force. I am sorry that this happens to both. The officer responded to this incident once already by himself and why didn’t another officer accompanied him on the second call there?
Articles state that Mr. Kilburn “assaulted Officer Campbell”. Articles also mentioned “no injuries were reported” nor did he receive any treatment (Campbell).
I’m curious to know who performed the wellness check on Mr. Kilburn, that information will probably come out at the hearing. Wondering if protocols will be amended now.
There’s a lot to be said for transparency, BTown is far from Mayberry and the days of the Andy Griffith show are a thing of the past.
I’m surprised Chief del Pozo hasn’t piped in on this thread as he has on other articles relating to this scandal here on SEVEN DAYS. I have never seen such a control freak try to micromanage his own publicity while holding such an important job. Mayor Weinberger hand picked this egomaniac. There wasn’t anyone in law enforcement from inside the borders of Vermont who could have taken the job and done it at least as well as this Brandon del Pozo character? (Have you seen his bizarre cameos on STUCK IN VERMONT?) He seems more and more unhinged every day.
https://www.vnews.com/Officer-sues-Vermont…
I would love to know exactly what qualifications both Del Pozo & Mayor Miro Weinberger think they have to determine the medical examiner’s findings must have been in error? What exactly did they base their [findings] on? Anything other than hot air?
Also, what business does the Policeman’s Union have making any determinations about anything here? Is anyone there operating under an oath of office?
And now the cop doesn’t want to make any statements about what he did until he sees if the video footage is going to contradict his story?
Do or do not the police have tazers now to help in incidents. I assume not by looking at this mans face. This is totally out of control. If the man punched the police officer and no signs of that showing on his face, then again I say he was totally out of control. I too am baffled why the ER let this man go. I agree the city will probably have to get their checkbook out. Just sayin!
Why not show the officers injuries in a photo too? It seems unfair to show a file photo of a healthy officer before he was assaulted and place it next to the injury photo of the man who died.
Burlington police like hiding evidence. They did it to my ex back years ago. I hope they fry that pos cop. This disguises me, the are showing a picture of my ex brother in law laying in a hospital bed and a picture of a cop smiling. Very sad, I hope Doug’s wife and family get the justice they deserve even know it wont bring him back. My heart goes out to my ex sister in law.
In Japan, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, South Korea, among other countries, police officers are trained in advanced martial arts which both protects themselves, the public, and people dealing with mental health/substance intoxication issues that may render them out of control. Incidents are resolved without injuries resulting in surgery or permanent disability. And definitely not death. The hospital is also completely incompetent for releasing this injured man. The ER is packed with people dealing with mental health crisis and they have let folks home just to make enough room. Both the mayor and police chief who forget they are employed and paid by the residents of Burlington, never accept criticism, are extremely defensive, and are overseeing the city during a tenure when distraught folks are being injured and killed by our police force, If this was a bar fight, the murderer would be in jail facing at least manslaughter. Both the hospital personnel and officer involved need to go to criminal court. The police chief and mayor should tend their resignation . We Burlingtonians both as taxpayers and humans with a conscience, are going to pay a price.
Seven Days has reported in the past on the issues with UVM Med Centers overcrowded and poorly run emergency room. I hope they investigate and press the hospital on why this man who required a steel plate in his face was sent home. Seems like in the rush to free up E.R. space they also contributed to this mans death. It really is time to overhall the hospital.
The er is poorly run and sometimes you have to wait for hours to be seen by someone. I have waited for 10 hours just to have a simple process done. Half of the time they have residents working instead of real doctors. I won’t go back there unless I’m dying and even then I’ll have my doubts. They should reorganize that place and get some real doctors that know what they are doing instead of rookies that just guess what to do!!
“they have residents working instead of real doctors.”
OMG, no! Not “residents”! Say it ain’t so! How could they do that?! How could they allow people who have graduated from medical school and who in some cases have been practicing medicine for several years, to pretend to be doctors?! To see sick people?! To treat patients who need help?! How could they allow young doctors to train?! I agree, that’s really disgusting!
KNOW.. The residents that I have seen at the ER have NOT Graduated from medical school yet! They are more like physicians assistants and have to find a real doctor if needed to have them write a prescription or see the patient if they’re not sure what to do. Either way the ER needs to be overhauled and make it so there is less of a wait time. 10 hours is rediculous to have a person see you after you get in an exam room and they aren’t busy at all.
Resident: a physician who has finished medical school and is receiving training in a specialized area, such as surgery, internal medicine, pathology, or radiology.
https://www.medicinenet.com/script/main/ar…