Video footage from inside the Erie County work-release center showed Felix Manus on May 30, after his family’s lawyer charges that he suffered an asthma attack during a detail.

Felix L. Manus’ family members have seen the newly released surveillance video footage that shows Manus at the Erie County work-release center on May 30.

At a news conference on Monday, they shared their views on the footage for the first time.

“It’s hard to watch,” said Bryhanna Manus, the oldest daughter of Felix Manus.

The videos show Manus after the asthma attack the Manus family’s lawyer says Manus suffered during a work-release detail near Edinboro. Manus, 48, died June 11 at UPMC Hamot.

Bryhanna Manus and Amanda Tucholski, Felix Manus’ longtime girlfriend, both raised questions about how Manus was treated by a corrections officer who transported Manus back from the work-release shift.

The family’s lawyer, John Mizner, has charged that the officer failed to promptly call 911 when Manus suffered the asthma attack, and instead transported Manus back to the work-release center in the city.

“The guard that transported Felix clearly shows that he does not care at all about Felix’s asthma attack,” Tucholski said, referring to the video footage.

Mizner on Monday said that he believes Manus was transported from the work-release site at about 4:15 p.m. on May 30. The video footage from inside the work-release center, which was first published by the Erie Times-News on Friday, shows that emergency personnel arrived at the work-release center at 5:05 p.m.

Erie County released the videos to the Times-News last week.

“If he said that he needed help at this point an hour before he makes it to Hamot, ... he wouldn’t have a lack of oxygen at all,” Bryhanna Manus said.

The family previously said that Manus never regained consciousness after he suffered cardiac arrest caused by a lack of oxygen. Family members are awaiting the results of a June 13 autopsy, which are pending the completion of microscopic studies, before deciding whether to file a lawsuit, Mizner said.

Mizner also faulted Erie County Executive Kathy Dahlkemper’s administration for not meeting with Manus’ family members, though he also said he has not reached out to the county about a meeting.

Erie County disciplined two officers in connection with its internal investigation into the incident. The county has declined to name the officers or describe the nature of the discipline they received.

Mizner also repeated his previous correction of information contained in a June 4 letter to Dahlkemper, in which he wrote that Manus needed to be carried into the work-release center because his condition had deteriorated so rapidly during the asthma attack. The videos show Manus walking into the center on his own.

Mizner reiterated that while that information in his letter was not correct, he remains confident in the other information presented in the letter.

 

Mizner credited a female corrections officer who is seen on the footage helping Manus into a holding cell while he awaited emergency medical care, but criticized the actions of the officer who transported Manus.

“The central premise of the letter is that Felix Manus had a serious medical condition that required immediate medical attention, which he was wrongfully denied,” Mizner said.

Original Article By: Madeleine O’Neill can be reached at 870-1728 or by email. Follow her on Twitter at twitter.com/ETNoneill.