Federal review of DEATH sought [HERE]
Two Pennsylvania state troopers intentionally shot an unarmed 12-year-old Uniontown boy in the back, and his family deserves more than $28 million in damages, a federal jury found Tuesday.

The verdict in the civil rights case capped three weeks of court proceedings and nearly four days of jury deliberations. It was the first wrongful death verdict against the state police in recent memory and the largest payment ever imposed against the agency.

"This was not slipping on a banana peel. This is an American child who was shot in the back in broad daylight, and it was covered up," said Michigan civil rights lawyer Geoffrey Fieger.

The jury's findings were a dramatic departure from previous criminal inquiries that found the shooting of Michael Ellerbe on Christmas Eve 2002 was justified.

The verdict prompted U.S. Attorney Mary Beth Buchanan, who oversaw the initial federal criminal probe, to take another look at the case.

"I will review the transcript of the civil trial to determine whether reopening the federal criminal investigation is warranted," she said.

Fieger, who led the legal team for Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, applauded the jury's decision.
"It means that justice still exists, and this justice is intended to stop the police from shooting people in the back and lying about it," he said.

A Prince George’s County jury last month awarded more than $2.4 million to a Laurel resident who sued the county after he was shot by a police officer in 2006. 

Darron M. Shaw, 32, was shot by Officer David Coleman around 5 a.m. Jan. 1, 2006, in District Heights. According to court documents, police were in the area responding to calls about gunshots and people fighting, and saw Shaw and his girlfriend arguing near a car.

Suddenly, Darron Shaw said, a car pulled up, and someone ordered him to put his arms in the air. Shaw said he did so, and as he turned toward the voice, shots rang out.

Coleman fired five times, striking Shaw once in the right bicep and once in the right side of his chest. Coleman believed Shaw had a weapon and shot him in his upper body and arm, according to court reports. A gun was found in a nearby driveway, but lawyers argued over whether it belonged to Shaw.

Shaw and his wife said he never had a gun.

Shaw and his attorney said at the trial that Coleman fired without adequate warning and that Shaw’s large belt buckle was mistaken for a gun.

The eight-member jury took less than a day to come back with the verdict, which includes $2.4 million in punitive damages, $5,000 for Shaw’s lost wages as a construction worker and $31,000 for medical bills.

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- A grand jury has voted not to indict the four policemen involved in the fatal shooting of an off-duty officer who was making an arrest on a downtown street, a police union official said Wednesday.
The officer's mother, however, said she still believes her son was "executed."
"I feel in my heart he was executed by the Westchester County Police Department," said Felita Bouche, after she was notified of the grand jury's decision.

Sgt. Michael Hagan, president of the county police union, said he was told by the district attorney's office that none of the officers were indicted in the killing of Mount Vernon Officer Christopher Ridley.
Lucian Chalfen, a spokesman for District Attorney Janet DiFiore, would not comment pending a news conference later in the day.

Ridley, 23, was killed Jan. 25 after he saw a beating under way and tried to arrest a suspect.
As he chased the man, he ducked into the Westchester County office building and called for help. Four county officers emerged, apparently unaware that Ridley was a policeman, and saw him holding a gun on the suspect.

They may also have heard the gun go off during a struggle between Ridley and the suspect.
Witnesses said the four officers shouted at Ridley to drop his gun, but he did not obey, possibly because he did not hear them. The officers fired several shots and Ridley was killed.

Ridley was promoted to detective after his death.

  It seems that for the 2nd time in 15 months members of the Buffalo Police department physically assaulted the same man who was beaten in his home and possibly saved from being strangled to death by a black female officer. I use the word allegedly because this is a news report and not the op-ed column I generally do. There is nothing whatsoever alleged about the bruises and cuts this writer saw on the face of Neal David Mack on the night of 2/6/08. Following up on a call I received from Police Officer Cariol Horne-the principle officer who intervened when Mack; an African American, was already pummeled and was being strangled by white police officer Gregory Kwiatkowski- I accompanied their attorney Anthony Pendergrass to the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) to inquire if he was there. Pendergrass was already out searching for Mack's whereabouts since there evidently was no record of his being in custody.

  Understanding the close relationship between hospitals and police still didn't prepare me for what would transpire in the next few seconds. While Pendergrass was at the front desk, a black woman sitting on a bench behind me indicated that the man we were looking for was just escorted in. I walked into the emergency room area and looked around until I saw a man's head lying in a bed in one of the patient rooms. The head seemed to be of a dark-skinned black man and I knew Mack was light skinned but I went to get a closer look and it was him. Mr. Mack was lying down moving seemingly semi-consciously and his head was black and blue from the bumps and bruises of the beating he took. He recognized me as I approached him and I was then intercepted and arrested by officers, some who no-doubt brought him there.

                            
  For legal purposes I will not go into the details of my arrest and of course my mission was for all intent and purposes to find a missing person. I would find out later what Horne, Pendergrass and I suspected; that not only did they physically abuse Mack, but there was a long period of time between when the officers encountered him and the time he was admitted to ECMC. I interviewed Mack days after our release: "I was on Edison and Weston at the store, I went to the store and I came out and these guys was in the car and they said 'you look familiar' and I said 'you look familiar too.' The police kept going (driving) back and forth, I seen them before they seen me. The next thing I know they was going toward the car, they told them to come here. The kids got out the car, then all of a sudden they went towards the car and they ran. The cops took out a gun, they (the kids) took off running, so then they grabbed me.

A federal jury was unable to reach a verdict on Monday in the wrongful death lawsuit against two state police troopers linked to the fatal shooting of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe. Deliberations will pick up again on Tuesday.
Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, filed the suit accusing troopers Samuel Nassan and Juan Curry of excessive force and other offenses, after a coroner's inquest cleared the two men of criminal wrongdoing.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is asking the jury for more than $50 million in damages to punish troopers for allegedly covering up how the shooting occurred.

Ellerbe was shot in the back while running from the police, who had stopped him in a stolen SUV in Uniontown on Dec. 24, 2002.

In his closing argument on Thursday morning, Fieger described the boy as "target acquisition" and said he was "dehumanized" by the troopers.

"We give power to police, and in this case they abused it," Fieger said. "We will never tolerate this behavior. It's unacceptable in a civilized society. You can never shoot a child. He was no danger to them. You chased a little boy into a back yard and you shot him."

Though Ellerbe was unarmed, Nassan said he thought the boy had a weapon, because he was running with one hand in his pocket.

Fieger told jurors, "All of his life ultimately came down to a minute to two minutes of agony of being drowned in his own blood, paralyzed from the waist down."

Minutes before he was shot and killed by two Modesto police officers, Sammy Galvan was asleep in his bed or lying on his bed with his arms crossed on his chest, a knife in each hand. In the final moments of his life, Galvan may have reacted to beams of light shining into his darkened cottage by jumping out of bed, assuming a fighting stance while advancing slowly toward officers Lyndon Yates and Miri Morse, and yelling, "Shoot me, m------------."

Or Galvan, 22, may have been shot eight times before he had a chance to comply with the officers' commands, posing no threat as he leaped out of bed and grabbed a knife to protect himself from intruders.

One version of the story, proffered by a city attorney, has Galvan holding a blade by its tip and raising his hand to throw the knife at Yates or Morse. The other, from an attorney seeking $3 million for Galvan's parents, says Galvan's wounds show that he could not have been taking aim.

Twelve jurors will decide after they hear from all involved when the wrongful death case comes to trial today in U.S. District Court in Fresno. An attorney representing the Galvans said a trial is the only way to get justice for a young man who died at police hands but committed no crime.

Jury says race was factor in cop's treatment of suspect
 
Albany police officer William Bonanni was found guilty by a federal jury in Utica on Wednesday of brutalizing a black suspect during an arrest in Arbor Hill six years ago.

Bonanni, a 17-year veteran of the force, has been the target of numerous civilian complaints for using excessive force against minorities, but there is no indication he was ever disciplined as a result, according to departmental records filed in the lawsuit.

The civil verdict by the federal jury concluded that race was a factor when Bonanni stood on the handcuffed man's head, grinding the victim's face into the asphalt in front of numerous police officers. The victim, Phillip Lewis, 43, also claimed that Bonanni pulled down Lewis' pants on Livingston Avenue and separated his buttocks to look for contraband as onlookers screamed for the police to stop.

The jury deliberated just three hours following a two-day trial before handing up a decision that found both Bonanni and the city of Albany equally liable for compensatory damages totaling $65,000.

The city is responsible for what happened to Lewis because the police department has a history of not properly training, supervising or disciplining Bonanni, according to the verdict.

The federal jury will reconvene next week to determine how much in punitive damages Bonanni should pay to the victim, who was convicted of weapons charges and served a four-year prison sentence in connection with his arrest on Nov. 23, 2002.

Three undercover police detectives on trial in the death of an unarmed man killed in a hail of gunfire on his wedding day were reckless and trigger happy, prosecutors argued Monday. They also said police were careless and desperate to make an arrest because their vice unit was about to be disbanded, a prosecutor said on Monday.

Sean Bell, 23, who had been at a bachelor party on the night before his wedding, was killed outside a Queens strip club in the early hours of Nov. 25. Two of his friends were wounded.

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton sat next to the fiance, Nicole Paultre, in a gallery packed with Bell's friends and relatives and police sympathetic to the defendants. Protesters outside, many of whom wanted the officers to face murder charges, held up signs numbered 1 to 50, chanting each number.

Demonstrators have called the case an example of police brutality toward blacks. One of the defendants is a black, one is black Hispanic and the third is white.

The case will be decided by a State Supreme Court judge because the officers waived their right to a jury trial, saying any jury in the borough of Queens would be biased against police due to intense media coverage.

Prosecutor Charles Testagrossa told the judge in opening arguments that once the evidence is heard, "It will be clear that what happened cannot be explained away as a mere accident or mistake. It can only be characterized as criminal."

June 6, 2007

Leaders of east Austin's African-American community call for an independent investigation into the police shooting of Kevin Brown.

The East Austin Social Action Coalition calls for an independent autopsy on Kevin Brown's body and for an independent investigation of the events leading up to the shots that killed Brown Sunday morning.

The Reverend Sterling Lands also says Police Sergeant Michael Olsen should have been, to use his term, "released" from all duties pending that independent investigation. He calls the shooting an "act of apparent unprovoked violence against an Austin citizen."

"Killing Blacks and Browns in Austin, Travis County, Texas will not be tolerated or accepted as standard APD operating procedure," Lands says.

The family of an unarmed man who was shot and killed by an off-duty NYPD officer met with the Bronx district attorney today.

Authorities say 41-year-old Fermin Arzu was shot after crashing his vehicle into a row of cars in the Bronx last month.

Police say officer Raphael Lora fired five shots when Arzu tried to leave the scene. His family is wants the officer to be indicted.

Despite autopsy tests showing Arzu's blood-alcohol level was double the legal limit, his fiance doesn't believe he was drunk the night police allege he tried to leave the scene of an accident.

The family met for over an hour an half with Bronx DA Robert Johnson, saying they are satisfied his office will investigate the fatal shooting thoroughly.

• Officer Had been Sued for Assaulting Another Black Man in 2002 [HERE] 

AUSTIN Police shot and killed Kevin Brown, 25, during a pursuit Sunday. The shooting sparked upset and distrust in the East Austin community where it happened. The Travis County medical examiner's report says the victim of Sunday's officer shooting was shot several times. Officials said that the preliminary cause of Kevin Brown's death is homicide. The shooting happened just after 4 a.m. Sunday at the Elm Ridge Apartments on East 12th street. Investigators say Brown ran from officers after a confrontation at nearby Chester's Lounge. Officers chased him to the apartment complex where the shooting happened. The officer who fired the fatal shots, Sgt. Michael Olsen, has been an Austin police officer for 12 years. He's on restricted duty pending the investigation. That's customary when an officer fires his gun while on duty. Austin Police confirmed this afternoon that detectives did recover a gun at the scene of the fatal shooting of 25-year-old Kevin Brown by an Austin Police Officer on Sunday. Brown had fled from officers when they approached him outside of Chester’s Lounge on East 12th Street. An officer on patrol in the area had been told that Brown had a weapon.  “We are processing the weapon, the handgun, that we actually found located at the site,” Assistant Police Chief David Carter said Monday afternoon. “We continue to find witnesses and locate witnesses.”  Austin Community Access TV video shows Brown running from police as two officers try and approach him outside Chester's Club, near 12th Street.  Brown tore through the chain link fence on the backside of Chester’s. Police officers followed him. “Nowadays it's scary, especially in East Austin” George Jett said. “Being a black man, it is scary. I have to watch my back and watch what I do.”  The department is already under investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice. [MORE] and [MORE] and [MORE]

Thirty-two young people, including several high school students, who were arrested last month as they headed from the Bushwick neighborhood of Brooklyn to a friend’s wake in Coney Island are organizing to demand that the police treat minority residents – themselves included – with respect.

They say the police targeted them unfairly on May 21, held them for 13 hours without food or water, then booked them on trumped-up charges. Most of them were held for almost 36 hours before being released or posting bail. They missed their friend’s wake. Now they’re seeking some way to mourn with dignity, instead of from inside a jail cell.

The youths, with the backing of Bushwick community group Make the Road by Walking, started leafleting on Thursday outside the 83rd Precinct in Bushwick, calling for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Mayor Michael Bloomberg to respond to the incident. Oona Chatterjee, co-director of Make the Road by Walking, said the group would hand out fliers in front of the police station every weekday afternoon until the city responds. But Chatterjee said the leafleting is just the beginning. She said those who were arrested and their families and supporters are organized and committed to fighting for respectful law enforcement in their community.

The Pearland woman who told reporters that a Houston police officer shot a man after he was handcuffed did not waver from that account when she testified before a grand jury, Harris County District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal said Friday.

However, he said, Yolanda Perry's testimony "was refuted or contradicted by a number of other people."

A grand jury decided not to indict officer L.D. Smith in the Jan. 8 death of 23-year-old Robert McIntosh. Smith shot McIntosh during a violent struggle after a traffic stop in the 8700 block of Cullen near Knoxville.

Perry, who is married to Greater Lighthouse Baptist Church minister George Perry, has declined interview requests since she testified before the grand jury last winter.

A lawyer for McIntosh's family said Perry's account of the shooting is a major factor in a wrongful-death lawsuit they plan to file against the city.

"Mrs. Perry, she's been pretty staunch about the whole deal and what she saw," said Derek Merman, the McIntosh family's lawyer.

Seeking justice

"They are disappointed justice was miscarried, so they are going to try to bring the responsible parties to justice through the civil court system," he said.

Perry has said she saw Smith handcuff McIntosh before shooting him in a ditch.

SAN BERNARDINO - The former San Bernardino County sheriff's deputy on trial for shooting an unarmed man at the end of a high-speed car chase repeatedly gave his colleagues wrong information about his whereabouts, making it difficult for backup officers to find and assist him, according to a recording of police-radio traffic played in court Thursday morning.

On the recording, Webb is heard giving dispatchers at least three wrong locations as he held Carrion at gunpoint.

"Ivory, you have to give us a better (location)," a colleague called out to him over the radio.

Webb is on trial in San Bernardino Superior Court charged with attempted voluntary manslaughter and assault with a firearm in connection with the shooting of Carrion on Jan. 29, 2006.

Webb, 46, shot Carrion at the end of a dangerous, high-speed car chase in Chino.

Carrion was a passenger in the car, which was driven by his friend, Luis Fernando Escobedo. The chase ended when Escobedo lost control and crashed into a wall at Francis Street and Benson Avenue.

A nearby resident videotaped the shooting. Prosecutors said the tape shows Webb shooting Carrion as Carrion complied with the deputy's orders to surrender.