Civil rights cases rarely get to court

Civil rights laws have been used for decades to rein in the Ku Klux Klan, to protect civil rights marchers and to punish police who abuse their power. But in the past five years, federal records show, prosecutors in southern Ohio and across the country have rarely sought charges under those laws. Nationally, 95 percent of the civil rights cases that the FBI investigated and referred to prosecutors never made it to court. Drug offenders, immigration violators, white-collar criminals and environmental polluters all are prosecuted at higher rates than those investigated for breaking civil rights laws. Civil rights activists say the numbers prove that federal authorities are not aggressive enough, especially in Cincinnati and other cities where complaints about racial inequity and police misconduct have triggered protests and unrest. "I really don't see evidence that the feds are carrying their weight," said Al Gerhardstein, a Cincinnati civil rights lawyer. "It's a problem when the federal government isn't doing this important work."

• Pictured above: Roger Owensby Sr. is still waiting for federal prosecutors to decide whether to seek civil rights charges against officers involved in the death of his son, Roger Owensby Jr., who died while in Cincinnati police custody Nov. 7, 2000. [more]