The Holland Family Alliance has issued a statement in reaction to KSBY News’ 90-minute, exclusive sit-down interview with San Luis Obispo County Sheriff Ian Parkinson regarding the death of inmate Andrew Holland at the county jail in January 2017:
In a recently televised interview with KSBY on the jailhouse death of Andrew Holland, San Luis Obispo Sheriff Ian Parkinson suggested that important portions of the recently released jail video have been omitted by The Tribune and that he would be vindicated if the public could only view the video footage of Andrew’s death in its entirety. For nearly a year, San Luis Obispo County and Sheriff Ian Parkinson have resisted pressure to release all video footage from the last two days of Andrew Holland’s life, where he was cruelly left in a restraint chair for over 46 straight hours without relief. Local media aired portions of the jailhouse video footage showing that the Sheriff and the County had not been honest with the public about the circumstances surrounding Holland’s death. Thereafter, while in the midst of a re-election bid, Sheriff Parkinson agreed to discuss the details of his and his department’s role in Andrew’s death. Now that the Sheriff has claimed that there are portions of the video footage that the public hasn’t seen and that these unaired segments tend to support his version of events, we call on Sheriff Ian Parkinson and San Luis Obispo County to release the video footage in its entirety. J. Tavener Holland, the Executive Officer of the Holland Family Alliance stated: “San Luis Obispo County deserves elected officials who are honest and transparent. If Sheriff Parkinson shares our desire for open and transparent government, then he should immediately release every minute of Jail video footage related to Andrew Holland’s death. Sheriff Parkinson is asking to be returned to office for a third term—the voters and citizens of our county deserve to know if Parkinson is telling the truth. The public has the right to view the video in its entirety and decide for themselves who is accountable for this needless and tragic death, as well as whether the real facts have been covered up or suppressed. Sheriff Parkinson and this County need to be completely transparent, and they need to do it right now.
The Holland Family Alliance says it "seeks to bring transparency, accountability and reform to San Luis Obispo County’s broken mental health and criminal justice systems."
Exclusive: SLO County Sheriff Ian Parkinson talks about the death of jail inmate Andrew Holland
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