NEW YORK
We'd just beat people in general....to show who was in charge.
- Former NYPD officer Bernard Cawley (nicknamed "The Mechanic" for tuning people up, or beating them, frequently) at Mollen Commission hearings.
Case of Abner Louima: In the early morning hours of August 9, 1997, police officers arrested Abner Louima, a legal Haitian immigrant, outside a Brooklyn nightclub following altercations between police and clubgoers. During the trip to the station house, officers allegedly stopped twice to beat Louima, who was handcuffed. At the 70th Precinct station house, two officers, Justin Volpe and Charles Schwarz, allegedly shouted racial slurs and Volpe allegedly shoved a wooden stick (believed to be the handle of a toilet plunger or broom) into Louima's rectum and mouth. Volpe reportedly borrowed gloves from another officer and walked through the station house with the wooden stick, which was covered with blood and excrement; the gloves were recovered, but the wooden stick was not found on the scene. Louima was placed in a holding cell, where other inmates complained that he was bleeding. An ambulance was eventually requested to take him to a hospital, but he was held for three hours in the cell bleeding following thealleged beating and torture. Once at the hospital, doctors confirmed Louima's serious internal injuries were consistent with his allegations; internal organs were ruptured, and his front teeth had been broken. For the first three days of his two-month hospitalization, Louima was reportedly handcuffed to his bed.
It appears that no officer at the station formally reported the alleged attack, and in the months following the incident, only two officers came forward to provide useful information. One of the officers who provided information was transferred out of the 70th Precinct and reportedly provided with security in case of retaliation by fellow officers. According to reports, eleven NYPD members of various ranks were facing disciplinary sanctions for failing to provide information, or lying, to investigators.
A nurse at the hospital where Louima was treated reportedly called the Internal Affairs Bureau to report the serious injuries later on the day he was hospitalized - the same day the incident took place - yet her complaint was not logged properly or submitted to the district attorney's office, as required. The first officially logged complaint was thirty-six hours later, when Louima's family reported the alleged attack to the IAB. IAB reportedly did not go to the 70th Precinct station house until more than forty-eight hours after the alleged attack.
After the incident, the commanding and executive officers of the 70th Precinct were reassigned, and another fourteen officers reportedly were placed on modified assignment or suspended. According to the NYCLU, the fourteen officers who were either arrested, suspended, transferred or placed on desk duty in the week following the alleged torture of Louima had been accused, among them, of eleven prior unsubstantiated excessive force complaints and of another five misconduct complaints that had been ruled inconclusive or resolved through conciliation.
On August 18, 1997, U.S. Attorney Zachary W. Carter announced that the Justice Department would initiate a preliminary "pattern or practice" civil investigation of the police force. Carter described the incident: "...[O]ne or more officers are alleged to have committed an act of almost incomprehensible depravity within the police precinct and with the apparent expectation that they could get away with it." One of Louima's attorneys initially filed a $55 million lawsuit against the city, which was later reportedly amended to seek $155 million.
Volpe and another officer were charged in state court with aggravated sexual abuse and first-degree assault. Two other officers were charged with beating Louima during the drive to the police precinct, and racial bias charges were subsequently added against all four.
In February 1998, federal prosecutors took over the case, indicting the four officers named in the state indictments and a sergeant accused of attempting to coverup the incident. The sergeant and Volpe were also indicted on charges relating to the alleged beating of another Haitian immigrant who was a bystander near the nightclub on the same night; the sergeant was accused of attempting to cover up the beating. Federal control of the case makes longer sentences possible, but if the federal case is unsuccessful, the New York constitution does not allow the state to retry the implicated officers.
Officer Francis X. Livoti: On December 22, 1994, Anthony Baez, age twenty-nine, was playing football with family members at the Baez home in the Bronx. When the ball hit a parked police car more than once, one of the officers in the car, Francis X. Livoti, reportedly became angry and arrested Anthony's brother, David Baez, for disorderly conduct. When Anthony Baez told Livoti to calm down (Livoti later claimed Anthony pushed him), Livoti allegedly used a chokehold, resulting in Baez's death. During his administrative disciplinary hearing, Livoti admitted becoming annoyed with the way David Baez was standing, "daring me to take some action."Also in his administrative hearing, Livoti claimed that he attempted to handcuff Anthony Baez and they fell to the ground together. Asked if his arm ever touched Anthony Baez's neck, Livoti replied, "I'm sure that it must have at some brief period of time."The city's chief medical examiner, Dr. Charles S. Hirsch, found that Baez died of asphyxiation and suffered large bruises on his neck and burst blood vessels around his eyes and larynx. Hirsch found Baez's asthma a minor contributing factor to his death and noted that his case was a textbook example of a death cause by a chokehold. Of the fourteen city police departments examined byHuman Rights Watch, only four (San Francisco, Washington, D.C., Los Angeles, and Minneapolis) still allow chokeholds.
Livoti reportedly had been the subject of at least eleven brutality complaints over an eleven-year period. He had been in the force's monitoring program because of these complaints, but then was removed from the program. Livoti was the PBA union delegate for the 46th Precinct. A PBA lawyer said of Livoti, he is "what you want more of in the Police Department: an honest, dedicated, decent young man."
Livoti was acquitted of "criminally negligent homicide" charges in a judge-only trial ending in October 1996. Acting State Supreme Court Justice Gerald Sheindlin explained, "I do not find that the defendant is innocent," but he believed that the prosecution had not proven its case. In referring to conflicting officer testimony, the judge referred to a "nest of perjury" within the department. In September 1997, the Bronx District Attorney's office announced it would reopen its perjury inquiry involving fifteen officers of the 46th Precinct; the inquiry was to focus on what took place at the station house after Baez died.
After his acquittal on criminal charges in the Baez case, Livoti was prosecuted administratively to ascertain whether he broke departmental rules by applying achokehold and whether he falsely arrested David Baez. In February 1997, Livoti was fired for breaking department rules by using a chokehold, which is prohibited. In discussing the dismissal, Police Commissioner Safir stated, "[T]his department will never tolerate an officer who is abusive or brutal," but also stated he would "certainly not pretend that there are not others [officers] out there who might act inappropriately." The dismissal reportedly stripped Livoti of his pension benefits.
In January 1998, Livoti was indicted by a federal grand jury on charges of assault and causing bodily harm in the Baez case. Baez's family reportedly filed a $48 million lawsuit against the city.
One complaint against Livoti that eventually was substantiated by the CCRB involved the September 1993 non-lethal choking of a sixteen- year-old, Steven Resto, who was allegedly detained for riding a go-cart recklessly. On October 1, 1997, Livoti was convicted on charges of reckless endangerment and assault in the Resto case and sentenced to seven and half months in prison. According toResto's mother, the CCRB did not contact her or her son until the Baez case received press attention some fifteen months after the Resto incident involving Livoti.
Transit Officer Paolo Colecchia: On July 4, 1996, Nathaniel Levi Gaines, Jr., was shot in the back and killed by Officer Colecchia on a Bronx subway platform after Gaines had been frisked and Colecchia knew he carried no weapons. The victim was black, the officer was white. Colecchia waited two days before providing his account of what had taken place. For example, after the December 25, 1997, fatal shooting of William Whitfield by a Brooklyn police officer, investigators did not immediately request an interview and the officer was to be interviewed at least six days after the shooting. Robert D. McFadden, "Police officer has yet to give his account of fatal shooting," New York Times, December 28, 1997. Colecchia had a history of complaints - three for excessive force in 1994; all had been found unsubstantiated, though he was found to have given false statements to superiors investigating the complaints.
He was indicted on August 15, 1996 on charges of first-degree manslaughter and was suspended from the force while the case was pending. Even Mayor Giuliani, who generally has defended police officers when they have been accused of brutality, stated, "There does not appear to be an explanation for it."
On May 29, 1997, Colecchia was convicted on second-degree manslaughter charges, and on July 21, 1997, he was sentenced to one and one-half to four and one-half years in prison; his attorney said he planned to appeal the conviction.
Officer Francisco Rodríguez: In April 1993, Edward Domínguez was the passenger in a friend's car that broke down in the Bronx as a police squad car followed it. Officers reportedly suspected Domínguez and his friends had stolen the car. Domínguez was arrested though never charged. During the arrest, Officer Rodríguez allegedly kicked Domínguez in the testicles; later, one testicle had to be surgically removed due to the injury. At the station house, Domínguez repeatedly complained to a sergeant that he had been injured, and the sergeant, while placing his hand on his gun, reportedly responded by telling him that he had fallen down and had not been hurt by an officer.
After the case received attention, when the district attorney's office brought charges against Rodríguez, police officials all expressed outrage over his conduct. Yet, before the case was noticed by the district attorney, a departmental disciplinary trial in 1994 showed a much more lenient attitude. The same officials had recommended only a loss of thirty days' pay and departmental probation after he was found guilty of using physical force.
When the Bronx district attorney learned of the case, he prosecuted Rodríguez for second-degree assault and the sergeant for intimidating a witness. Rodríguez was acquitted in a non-jury trial on March 10, 1998, and the sergeant, who has since retired, was acquitted by the same judge.It was expected that Rodríguez would be reinstated.
Detectives Patrick Brosnan and James Crowe: The killings of Antonio Rosario (age eighteen) and Hilton Vega (age twenty-two) undermined the reputation of the CCRB when its findings were repudiated by the police department. On January 12,1995, Rosario and Vega were shot dead by 46th Precinct plainclothes detectives inside a Bronx apartment. A third target, Freddie Bonilla (age eighteen) was shot by the detectives and survived. There are several accounts of what transpired prior to the shootings. The police were reportedly called to the home of a couple because the couple stated that they feared they would be robbed, while the young men were reportedly attempting to obtain payment in relation to a marriage scam involving illegal immigrants.
The detectives reportedly shot at the men between twenty-three and twenty-eight times. Rosario, Vega and Bonilla were armed but there were conflicting reports about whether any of them drew their weapons. According to reports citing the Medical Examiner's report, Vega was hit with eight bullets - in his back, buttocks, back of the head and front left forearm. Rosario was hit with fourteen bullets - eight in his back or buttocks, two in his side, two in his right arm, one in his hip, and one in his armpit. Bonilla's left ankle was shot. According to a pathologist hired by one of the victims' families, the men were lying on the floor as they were shot. And according to the account provided by Bonilla to a newspaper columnist, the men had followed the officers' instructions to surrender and lie prone on the ground when the officers shot them.
The CCRB found that the detectives had used excessive force, but when its report was sent to the police commissioner, he ignored the CCRB's substantiation of the charges. This undermined the CCRB by exposing its lack of power. Detective Brosnan was allowed to retire - without facing departmental charges - with benefits, including a disability pension after he claimed hearing damagesuffered during the shooting of the young men. The CCRB's executive director, Hector Soto, resigned soon after this and another disputed case. The families filed a civil lawsuit, a grand jury declined to indict the detectives, and federal investigators reportedly reviewed the case.
Officer Michael J. Davitt: The shooting of William Whitfield on December 25, 1997 by Officer Michael J. Davitt uncovered the disturbing fact that an officers' records on shooting incidents had not previously been tracked or subject to review. Officer Davitt reportedly shot and killed Whitfield, who was unarmed. Officers were responding to a report of shots being fired when Whitfield, who reportedly was uninvolved in the incident to which the officers were responding, did not obey the officers' orders to stop and entered a store. Officer Davitt claims he believed the keys or hat Whitfield was holding were a gun and shot him.
After the incident, it was discovered that Davitt had been involved in more shootings than any other officer on the city's force, shooting nine times in fourteen years. Davitt reportedly had also been the subject of twelve unsubstantiated complaints. After Davitt's shooting record was made public, Commissioner Safir announced that officers' shooting incidents would now be tracked and reviewed, surprising police abuse monitors and others who assumed such tracking was routine. At the time of this writing, the shooting was being investigated by IAB, and the district attorney's office and was under review by federal prosecutors.
CHICAGO
In Chicago, as in most cities, abuse cases often have racial components. The local National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) reports that its office receives, on average, two complaints of police misconduct a week involving African-American victims. The NAACP notes that race data are not collected by the Office of Professional Standards (OPS) - data that could help identify trends in the treatment of minorities. </SPAN>
Case of Jeremiah Mearday: Racial tensions between minority communities and the police most recently came to a head in September 1997, when eighteen-year-old Jeremiah Mearday alleged brutality on the part of officers from the city's West Side. On September 26, Mearday, who is black, was with friends when two white officers, James Comito and Matthew Thiel of the Grand Central District, emerged from their patrol car, one of them reportedly with his gun drawn. Mearday and his friends claimed the officers started kicking and beating Mearday with flashlights. Mearday was hospitalized with a broken jaw and head injuries. For their part, theofficers claimed Mearday resisted arrest and punched Comito. Mearday was charged with resisting arrest and battery; there were no reports of injuries to the officers who were allegedly attacked by Mearday.
In response to community outrage over this and other incidents of perceived police abuse and harassment in the city's West Side, and following the intervention of state and national legislators, the U.S. Justice Department announced it would review the Mearday incident to ascertain whether federal criminal civil rights violations had occurred. And in an unusually rapid response, the police superintendent suspended the two officers involved in the Mearday beating and sought to have them fired. The department filed disciplinary charges against the officers and claimed that the officers had filed false reports about the altercation. It was reported that Officer Comito was involved in at least one other incident involving the use of excessive force on April 20, 1997, but was not disciplined until the Mearday case attracted attention; the superintendent reportedly was seeking to dismiss him in relation to the April 1997 incident. Fraternal Order of Police officials denied wrongdoing on the part of the officers, with the union's president, William Nolan, telling reporters, "I'm sick and tired of our police officers getting punched and pummeled and kicked," Nolan said. "Some punk gets cracked because he resists arrest, and everybody makes him out to be a hero." In the meantime, the attorney representing Mearday claimed difficulty in obtaining even basic information about the incident from the police department, telling reporters, "The city has taken the position that they don't have to provide anything."
After reports of a disorganized and contentious police board disciplinary hearing, featuring conflicting witness accounts and an apparently substandard OPS investigation, the police board found the officers guilty on administrative charges of using excessive force and of trying to cover it up by filing "blatantly false reports." The police board president reportedly stated the officers' version of events was "simply unbelievable." The officers were fired, but their attorney reportedly planned to appeal the decision. In April 1998, resisting arrest and battery charges against Mearday were dropped.
Following the Mearday case and other incidents of brutality, Mayor Richard Daley stated, "[A]ny officer who commits police brutality will be looking at penitentiary time, and he or she will lose their job. That's plain and simple right there." Then- Police Supt. Matt Rodriguez stated that the department would have a "zero tolerance" policy toward misconduct and reportedly sent a department-wide memo expressing his concern over "serious allegations of excessive use of force and criminal acts [that] have been leveled against members of the department."Andthe mandate of a task force created in February 1997 to investigate police corruption was expanded to include brutality.
Case of Eric Holder: In another racially charged case, Eric Holder, a Chicago police officer who is African-American, alleged that he was beaten while off duty on July 10, 1997 by white officers at the scene of a shooting, and that the beating took place despite Holder's identifying himself as an officer. Holder also alleged the officers, from the West Side's Austin District, yelled racial epithets at him. Holder claims that he was attempting to calm the shooting victim's brother when officers told him to leave the scene; when he responded that he was an officer and was taking the man to see his brother at the hospital, the officers reportedly took offense, pushed him to the hood of a patrol car, and hit him. When he fell to the ground, Holder claims he was dragged nearby and beaten with batons and flashlights. The officers reportedly told him, "You're not one of us." Several neighborhood residents reportedly confirmed Holder's account. Holder was arrested and charged with battery and resisting arrest; he told reporters that he was not surprised by the charges, since officers involved in altercations usually charge the individual involved, even when the officers are the aggressors.
In March 1998, Holder was convicted of resisting arrest and sentenced to a form of probation and a work program. He was also stripped of his police duties. According to an OPS investigator, an investigation into Holder's allegations was opened, but she could not disclose additional information about its status. In January 1998, the Justice Department announced that it would open an investigation into Holder's allegations.
Case of Joseph Carl Gould: In another high-profile case, Joseph Carl Gould, an African-American homeless man, was shot and killed on July 30, 1995, by an off-duty white police officer, Gregory Becker. Gould, who washed windshields at red lights and asked for payment from drivers, got into an altercation with Becker. According to press reports, Becker went to his car to retrieve his gun, shot Gould, and drove away; he did not report the shooting.Becker was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter, but that charge was dismissed by a Cook County Circuit Court judge because of conflicting witness accounts, including Becker's companion's defense of him. A witness who knew neither of the men reportedly said Becker grabbed Gould and shot him. Community activists alleged a weak effort by the Cook County state's attorney, who is a former police officer. Because of sustained community pressure, former officer Becker was subsequently charged with involuntary manslaughter and armed violence, and was convicted in April 1997. In May he was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. Gould's family filed a civil lawsuit against the city that is pending.
Case of Jorge Guillen: On October 3, 1995, Jorge Guillen, who had a history of mental illness and was reportedly threatening his family, died after officers tackled him and one knelt on his back, apparently causing asphyxiation. OPS investigated the case and found that Guillen had been asphyxiated by one officer and that other officers allegedly hit him with a flashlight while he was handcuffed. The officers claimed that Guillen attacked them with a board. After the OPS reportedly recommended that three of the involved officers be suspended, police Superintendent Rodriguez vacated one of the suspensions; the Police Boardeventually vacated the remaining two suspensions. The decision was met with community protests, with some calling for the resignation of the Police Board's members and the police superintendent. No criminal charges were brought against the officers following federal and state's attorneys' investigations.
In February 1998, the city reportedly agreed to a settlement of $637,000 for Guillen's family, one of the largest settlement amounts involving police in recent city history. The settlement required City Council and court approval, which were pending at the time of this writing.
Sexual assaults: In August 1993, a Chicago police detective was arrested and charged with kidnaping, criminal sexual abuse, and official misconduct following a twenty-hour standoff with officers attempting to arrest him. Harrison Area Det. John Summerville was accused of committing three sexual assaults over a month and a half beginning in July 1993. He allegedly ordered women into his car at gunpoint, showing his police identification. Summerville had reportedly been the subject of three complaints of alleged brutality, none of which were sustained by IAD. In July 1995, he pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting several women during traffic stops and was sentenced to four years in prison. At least one of the women reportedly filed a lawsuit against the city.
Case of David Arana: On April 29, 1988, off-duty officer Johnny Martin got into an altercation after a fender-bender with David Arana. Arana spoke no English, and Martin did not speak Spanish. After Arana failed to produce his license and appeared drunk, Martin fatally shot Arana in the right side of the neck as he drove slowly and as Martin leaned into the car's passenger side window. Arana's autopsy showed bruises on Arana's face and right arm. While Arana was being operated on after the shooting, police charged him with battery, leaving the scene of an accident and negligent driving. A friend of Martin's who witnessed the incident, however, stated that Arana never posed a threat to Martin.
Martin reportedly told the OPS three different stories about what had happened, witness statements taken by a plainclothes officer on the scene were not found in the investigators' files, and relevant tests were not done. Arana's attorney told the press that the OPS investigator never questioned Martin, or any witnesses, or other police officers because, as the investigator explained to the attorney, he knew there was a code of silence. The OPS report said "the shot fired by Officer Johnny Martin was accidental. Officer Martin was justified in having his gun drawn. Officer Martin was in fear of his life because the victim/offender refused to stop his vehicle while a part of Officer Martin's body was hanging out of the car and while the victim/offender punched Officer Martin in the face." Martin, reportedly, was never treated for wounds allegedly received during the confrontation.
The attorney representing Arana's family filed a civil suit against Martin and the city. As the civil trial approached in January 1993, the city settled the case by offering Arana's family about $1 million.
Martin was shot and killed during another off-duty altercation two years later. The Chicago police department gave Martin a hero's funeral, and the City Council proclaimed a "Johnny Martin Day," rather than the typical practice of passing a resolution in honor of the slain officer.
The case of Shirley Alejos: On June 10, 1994, Shirley Alejos was arrested by Chicago police officers after she and others reportedly refused to leave an area near Alejos's home. Alejos was taken to the police station, where officers claimed she was uncooperative and would not answer questions about an alleged gang-related disturbance in her neighborhood. Alejos alleges that, once she was at the station house and handcuffed, two Foster Avenue District officers, Ross Takaki and Robert Knieling, beat her; her eyes reportedly were swollen shut afterward, and she was bruised on her face and body. The officers claimed that Alejos injured herself, yet witnesses reported hearing her scream during the beating, and a doctor found that her injuries were consistent with her allegations.
Officers Takaki and Knieling were found guilty of the beating in administrative hearings and were suspended for fifty-five days; they reportedly remained on the force as of October 1997. Alejos also won a $200,000 settlement of a lawsuit against the city. In April 1997, Alejos and her attorney renewed their calls for criminal prosecution of the officers. A spokesmen for the State's Attorney office and the U.S. Attorney's office told reporters that prosecutors would consider the case if Alejos's attorney would provide them with information. It was unclear why the prosecutors were seemingly unaware of a three-year-old case that had resulted in relatively serious disciplinary action against the officers or why the burden to provide information was placed on the victim and her representative when the Police Board had deliberated on the case already and would have key information. The prosecutors' reactions also pointed to a lack of communication between the policedepartment and prosecutors, since this type of case - involving apparent criminal behavior on the part of officers - should have been brought to prosecutors' attention much earlier.
Corruption scandal: As in other cities' police departments, there is often a link between brutality and corruption on Chicago's police force. On December 20, 1996, seven Chicago police officers were indicted in federal court on charges of extortion after they allegedly stole money from drug dealers. The officers were part of an elite tactical unit, members of which robbed or extorted money from undercover officers posing as drug dealers. The sting operation followed months of complaints by residents of the Austin neighborhood in the city's West Side about the officers, who would also rough up drug addicts and steal their money. Said a community leader, "[M]aybe they thought they were doing some kind of street justice....But that's no excuse. If you can't trust the police, who can you trust?"
Following this police corruption scandal and another in Gresham District, the Commission on Police Integrity (hereinafter "the Commission") was created to examine misconduct in the Chicago police force and ways to avoid future scandals; in November 1997, the commission published its findings and recommendations. While the focus of the report was police corruption, it also described general problems with recruitment, training, oversight and disciplinary systems that are relevant to the issue of police brutality.
DETROIT
Detroit has a history of racial unrest, expressed in race riots in the 1960s. In the 1990s, racial tensions have been exacerbated by the case of African-American Malice Green, who was reportedly brutally beaten by white officers in 1992 and later died en route to a hospital. Still, police abuse monitors in Detroit report that police brutality within the city is less pronounced than in surrounding, majority white, suburbs where African-Americans are reportedly harassed and mistreated more regularly by the police
. Malice Green: On November 5, 1992, Malice Green was questioned by Detroit police officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn, who suspected Green of possessing drugs, as he sat in a parked car. Green allegedly failed to comply with the officers' order to drop something in his hand (which, although disputed, may have been drugs). Budzyn reportedly hit Green's fist and wrestled with him in the front seat of the car. Nevers allegedly hit Green in the head repeatedly with his flashlight during the incident. Another officer placed him on the ground and allegedly kicked him. An Emergency Medical Service (EMS) worker arrived on the scene and sent a computer message to his superiors asking, "[W]hat should I do, if I witness police brutality/murder?" Other officers and a supervisor arrived but did not intervene to stop the beating. Green had a seizure and died en route to the hospital. After the beating, officers reportedly washed blood from their hands with peroxide and wiped blood from their flashlights and Green's car. Then-Police Chief Stanley Knox quickly labeled Green's death a murder and dismissed seven officers who were involved in the incident because of their actions or inaction.
Officer Nevers had reportedly been the subject of twenty-five citizen complaints, and Officer Budzyn was the subject of nineteen; none was substantiatedby investigators. Nevers was also reportedly the subject of three lawsuits the city settled with plaintiffs. In one lawsuit, the city settled for $275,000 in the shooting of a robbery suspect. Green's family was awarded $5.25 million in a civil lawsuit.
In 1993, Nevers and Budzyn were convicted of second-degree murder in the Green case and began serving their sentences at a federal prison in Fort Worth, Texas; Nevers received a twelve- to twenty-five-year sentence, and Budzyn was sentenced to eight to eighteen years in prison.7 Nevers and Budzyn appealed their convictions, alleging jury tainting, jury bias, erroneous jury instruction, insufficient evidence, and improper denial of a change of venue to lessen pre-trial media impact.8 In July 1997, the Michigan Supreme Court overturned Budzyn's conviction, finding that the jury had been tainted but that only Budzyn's conviction was affected because the evidence against him was not as compelling as the evidence against Nevers. Budzyn was subsequently freed on bond. Then, in December 1997,Nevers was released from prison. Prosecutors appealed the decision by a federal judge to overturn Nevers' conviction.
In August, the Wayne County prosecutor announced plans to retry Budzyn. In April 1998, Budzyn was convicted of involuntary manslaughter in the Green case and sentenced to four to fifteen years in prison. It appeared that he would not serve additional time in prison because of time already served.
Officer Vernon Gentry: In a case that was developing at the time of this writing, Vernon Gentry, a 5th District officer, was charged along with two other officers in federal court with conspiracy to rob a citizen of $1 million. Gentry reportedly had a troubled history on the force. He was suspended twice and was the subject of brutality lawsuits that were settled by the city. The suspensions stemmed from alleged attacks against his girlfriends. He was acquitted on charges related to fires he had been accused of setting at one girlfriend's house in 1994, but he was suspended for approximately two years while the charges were pending. In 1997 he was again reportedly involved in an assault on a girlfriend, during which he reportedly put a gun to the woman's head and beat her hands with the gun's handle; he was charged with felonious assault, but the charges were dropped when the woman failed to appear in court. Gentry was suspended for two months in the second case.
At least two lawsuits alleging brutality were filed against Gentry. In 1993, a man filed a lawsuit over a reported beating incident. In 1995 a man sued the city and Gentry, after Gentry allegedly shot the man in the leg; at the time of the incident, Gentry was on suspension in relation to the arson charges but was reportedly carrying his badge and gun when the shooting occurred. The city settled this case for $32,500, according to press reports.
Freddie Vela: Freddie Vela, age eleven, was shot and killed by off-duty Detroit police officer Glenn Price on July 22, 1995.Vela was riding his bicycle near a dispute between Price and another man outside a bar. Price shot twice at the man, but missed and hit Vela, who was riding his bicycle nearby. Price was convicted of second-degree murder charges and sentenced to ten to fifteen years in prison. The Vela killing led the city's Latino minority to decry mistreatment by officers and lack of attention by the media and civil rights groups. Vela's family reportedly filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police department.
Bobby Fortune: On June 29, 1995, Bobby Fortune was walking in the area of Rangoon and Tireman in Detroit when a police squad car approached and two officers emerged.The officers questioned Fortune, who pleaded with them not to arrest him; Fortune claims that one of the officers told him, "You look like you want to run; go ahead, run. Fortune ran, and the officer chased him, punched him in the face, and knocked him to the ground. Both officers then reportedly proceeded to punch, kick, and stomp Fortune about his head, face, chest, and body and legs. Witnesses to the alleged beating told the officers to stop, and the officers threatened the witnesses and told them to leave. Other officers arrived on the scene, and they brought Fortune to Detroit Receiving Hospital where he was treated for broken ribs, facial lacerations requiring stitches, a fractured nose, and an eye injury, along withvarious contusions and abrasions. He was released the next day and was not charged with any crime.
On September 20, 1995, Fortune, through his attorney, requested copies of records pertaining to his arrest and injuries. On October 4, 1995, a complaint and warrant were issued against Fortune, resulting in his being charged with resisting and obstructing a police officer, stemming from the June 29 incident.It appeared that charges were only filed against Fortune after his attorney requested records to support a possible civil lawsuit against the officers.
INDIANAPOLIS
Michael Taylor: The recent police encounters have exacerbated tensions between the African-American community and the predominantly white police force stemming from earlier cases that were not resolved to the community's satisfaction. In one, sixteen-year-old Michael Taylor was shot in the head while he was handcuffed with his hands behind his back in a police patrol car in September 1987; the police and a coroner contended that it was a suicide. Nonetheless, in a civillawsuit a jury awarded Taylor's family approximately $3 million dollars; as of September 1997, the city was appealing the case. After the jury found against the city, the Justice Department said that it would reconsider the case. Because the explanation provided by the police seemed so absurd, many African-Americans were outraged and cited it as an example of impunity, even ten years later.
The case of Leonard R. Barnett: When a white police officer fatally shot an unarmed African-American robbery suspect in July 1990 and then was awarded the police department's medal of valor for his handling of the robbery suspect, some minority residents expressed outrage that the police department would display such insensitivity. On July 9, 1990, Officer Scott L. Haslar shot and killed Leonard R. Barnett after a long car chase that ended in a crash. Barnett's leg reportedly was broken during the crash, yet Officer Haslar claimed Barnett moved quickly from the crashed car and then returned to it, Haslar said he believed, to get a gun; Barnett was then shot, and no gun was found.Haslar was later promoted to sergeant A federal grand jury that examined the case declined to indict Haslar.
The case of Edmund Powell: In an incident that led to one of the largest civil jury awards against the police department, Officer Wayne Sharp, white, shot andkilled Edmund Powell, black in June 1991. Powell had allegedly stolen something from a department store, and Sharp chased him into an alley with his gun drawn. Sharp, a veteran officer, claimed the shooting was accidental and that Powell had swung a nail-studded board at him, but according to at least one witness, Powell was lying on the pavement when Sharp shot him at close range.
The Marion County prosecutor brought the case before a grand jury, which declined to indict Sharp. Community activists claimed the shooting was racially motivated, based on Sharp's personal history; Sharp had killed an African-American burglary suspect ten years earlier and was cleared by a grand jury. At that time, Sharp had been removed from street duty because of his alleged "flirtation" with the National Socialist White People's Party, a neo-Nazi group.
Powell's grandmother, Gertrude Jackson, alleged Sharp intentionally shot
Powell, and filed a civil lawsuit in 1992; the jury found in favor of Jackson and awarded $465,000 to Powell's family. After the award, the chief litigator for the city, Mary Ann Oldham, stated, "Obviously, we are disappointed by the verdict....Officer Sharp did not do anything wrong;" the city was considering anappeal. Jackson's attorney asked that Sharp be ordered to pay $50 each week from his paycheck "to make him think about it." According to a public affairs officer with the police department, Sharp was neither disciplined nor retrained following the Powell shooting. In January 1998, in response to a written question posed about Officer Sharp, Police Chief Michael Zunk replied that Sharp had been thoroughly investigated and was subsequently returned to street duty as a detective. According to Chief Zunk, Sharp "has received high accolades and several awards for superior work."
Fatal shooting: On March 24, 1992, a narcotics officer shot a drug suspect in the head, killing him. Working undercover, the officer had just completed a drug buy and started to arrest the suspect and his friend. The officer claims that the suspect reached for his waistband and a gun, so the officer shot him once in the head. According to an attorney for the victim's family in a civil lawsuit, the officer's gun went off accidentally (and the story about the suspect reaching for a gun was made up later to cover the error). Key evidence about the incident was lost when another officer allegedly erased part of an audiotape made during the encounter that, according to the victim's attorney, reportedly recorded the narcotics officer apologizing to the victim's friend for the accidental shooting. A Marion County grand jury declined to indict the officer on criminal charges in 1993. The officer who allegedly erased the tape was suspended for thirty days, but was not charged with obstruction of justice because he had limited immunity for testifyingbefore the grand jury in the shooting officer's case. As of late 1997, both officers were sergeants on the force
MINNEAPOLIS
There was a problem and continues to be a problem of excessive force in this community. I'm not going to deny that. I grew up here.
- Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton, 1994
Officers Marvin Schumer and Michael Lardy: On April 17, 1993, Officers Michael Lardy and his partner Officer Marvin Schumer of the 4th Precinct encountered Charles Lone Eagle and John Boney, Native Americans who were apparently intoxicated and sleeping in front of an apartment building. According to the plaintiffs' civil complaint, the officers called for an ambulance and then canceled their request and dragged the men to the squad car. The men were then allegedly handcuffed and thrown in the trunk of the squad car; the trunk was closedon Lone Eagle's leg, injuring it. The two men in the trunk claimed that the ride to the hospital, which was only three blocks from where the men were picked up, took an unreasonably long time, and that the car's driver drove erratically, causing injuries. The officers later claimed that they used the squad car because they were worried about the well-being of the men and wanted to get to the hospital quickly, yet the dangerous and menacing confinement in the vehicle's trunk undermines this claim.
At the time of this incident, Officer Schumer had reportedly been the subject of thirteen complaints, and at least two were sustained. He was accused of picking people up and taking them to deserted areas near the Mississippi River, where he would allegedly beat and question them. Schumer reportedly told internal affairs investigators that it was his practice to take "troublemakers" out of downtown areas to secluded spots. In 1989, Schumer was reportedly suspended for six days for taking two men to the river to intimidate them, and an internal affairs investigator warned him that similar misconduct in the future would be grounds for further discipline, including dismissal. The incident of Charles Lone Eagle and John Boney involved serious misconduct. Officer Schumer, nonetheless, remains a member of the Minneapolis police force.
Charles Lone Eagle and John Boney filed a lawsuit against the city of Minneapolis, alleging civil rights violations, and the city paid approximately $100,000 each to Charles Lone Eagle and John Boney as the result of a civil trial jury verdict in October 1995.
Officer Michael Ray Parent: In the early morning hours of August 5, 1994, a woman motorist was stopped by Officer Parent, who asked her whether she had been drinking. She acknowledged she had been drinking, and he put her in the back seat of his squad car and told her she was under arrest for driving under the influence. He then stood over her, with his waist at her eye level, and asked her if she could think of anything she could do to avoid being arrested. She did not respond, so he tried again, this time warning her that the arrest would cost her $1,500 and three days in jail. Then he said, "You mean a pretty girl like you doesn't know what to do?" while stroking her arm. He started fondling one of her breasts, then took her to a more remote area. She began crying. He reportedly forced her to have oral sex with him, and he told her this was better than going to jail and having some woman have her way with her. He also let her know there was no record of his having pulled her over. Indeed, there was no record, but his notes contained her phone number and address, and his clothing tested positive for sperm.
After the incident was reported, investigators reportedly found several complaints about Parent involving inappropriate sexual conduct while on duty, even though he had only been on the force for a year and a half prior to the August 1994 case; he was accused of a sexual incident during his probationary period on the force, when dismissals of officers who commit abuses are much easier, but was not dismissed. In learning about Parent's behavior, Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton stated "as a woman who lives in the city of Minneapolis, I am horrified." She wanted Parent fired immediately, but the county prosecutor convinced her to hold off until the criminal proceedings were completed. In April 1995, Parent was convicted in state court on kidnaping and rape charges and sentenced to four years in prison.
Lt. Mike Sauro: After midnight on January 1, 1991, Lt. Mike Sauro was working off duty in uniform, at a club for a New Year's Eve party, when he arrested and handcuffed Craig Mische, then a twenty-one-year-old student at the College of St. Thomas, during a rowdy event. Mische claims he was kicked and beaten by Sauro in the club's kitchen while his hands were cuffed behind his back. Witnessestestified that they saw Mische being hit by Sauro, while officers contended that Mische was the aggressor.
In September 1992, federal prosecutors decided not to pursue the case, explaining, "We do not believe there's a reasonable likelihood that a jury would find [Sauro] guilty beyond a reasonable doubt." Local prosecutors also reportedly decided not to prosecute Sauro in relation to the alleged Mische beating. Mische filed a police misconduct civil lawsuit, and the city council decided against settling with Mische for $415,000, and instead went to trial. Their decision followed Sauro's campaign on television and radio news shows, defending his record and convincing the public and the council that the city would win if they went to court.
Sauro was wrong, and his conduct and the department's indifference cost the city $700,000, the largest civil award in a police misconduct case in the city's history; with attorneys' fees the case would cost the city over $1 million. The jury found the city liable for "maintaining a custom of deliberate indifference to complaints about excessive force in the department." At the time of the civil trial, Sauro had in his nineteen-year career reportedly been the subject of thirty-two internal affairs complaints, many alleging excessive force; none were sustained, and he was promoted through the ranks. In the Mische case, the department reportedlydecided not conduct an internal affairs investigation at all because its findings could have had a detrimental effect on the city's attempts to defend itself in the civil trial.
Sauro had been the defendant in an excessive force lawsuit that was settled for $350,000 in 1991. And in 1996, the city agreed to pay $300,000 to another plaintiff in relation to an alleged beating by Sauro on the same night as the Mische incident. In December 1996, the city settled for $25,000 with yet another plaintiff alleging excessive force used by Sauro in a September 1992 incident. While a sergeant, Sauro led the 1989 mistaken raid on the home of an elderly couple who were killed in a fire set off by the officers' use of a "flash bang" grenade - an incident that reinforced distrust of the police in the black community and led to the creation of the CRA. (See above.)
Despite the large civil jury award and two attempts to fire him, Lieutenant Sauro has successfully fought efforts to have him removed from the force. In July 1997, an appellate court upheld an arbitrator's ruling that Sauro had been fired improperly in 1995 and should be reinstated with seniority and back pay. Sauro's lawyers had argued that the complainant's injuries were not consistent with his testimony and that the mayor's attempt to rescind a suspension ordered by the police chief and to instead dismiss Sauro constituted double jeopardy. Sauro was fired a second time by Chief Olson in July 1996 after an internal investigation into another incident. Chief Olson reportedly found Sauro's conduct, "incompetent, unprofessional andinappropriate, at best. At worst it constituted criminal assault." The dismissal was subsequently reversed by an arbitrator who cited the alleged victim's inconsistencies and lack of credibility. Lieutenant Sauro was again reinstated with rank and back pay. In an interview with Human Rights Watch, Chief Olson stated that the arbitration system was perhaps the greatest barrier he faces in his efforts to hold police officers accountable for misconduct.
Sgt. William Hannan: In January 1995, Sgt. William Hannan's ex-girlfriend accused him of throwing her down two flights of stairs, banging her head into a concrete wall, and sexually assaulting her while he held her captive in his home in Olmstead County. He faced criminal sexual conduct, kidnaping and assault charges, but the charges were dismissed in June 1995 after the alleged victim refused to cooperate with prosecutors. Hannan had a history of complaints; he had been suspended from the force three times and fired once (the firing was later reversed by the Civil Service Commission). In April 1992, he was charged with fifth-degree assault and other charges when he called his estranged wife and threatened her and her boyfriend. Former Chief Laux suspended him after he was convicted.
NEW ORLEANS
After a white officer was killed in November 1980, mobs of police officers went on a rampage in Algiers, a black section of town, killing four and injuring as many as fifty residents. Some of the victims were tortured, including two who were dragged to swamps where the officers carried out mock executions. The violence led to the resignation of the police superintendent, an outsider hired to reform the department - a departure welcomed by many department insiders opposed to reform. Three homicide detectives were convicted on federal criminal civil rights charges.
History repeated itself on March 22, 1990, when Adolph Archie, an African-American, was accused of killing a white officer, Earl Hauck, during a shootout downtown. On the way from the scene of the shooting to the hospital, the police transporting Archie, who had been injured during the incident, took twelve minutes to travel seven blocks. When they arrived at the hospital, approximately one hundred officers were waiting for them after hearing that Hauck had died. During this period, officers were broadcasting death threats against Archie over police radios. Those transporting Archie, including a close friend of Hauck's, stated later that they thought there could be a lynching at the hospital where the officers continued to threaten Archie. The officers transporting Archie decided not to enter the hospital, but instead of following department policy and taking him to another hospital, they drove him to Hauck's police station. At the station, officers claimed there was a scuffle with Archie, and that he slipped and fell. The station's sergeant denied ever seeing the officers or Archie and did not raise questions about the bloodstains that appeared on the floor; instead he simply ordered a trusty to clean them up.
By the time Archie got to a doctor, he had been beaten severely, yet no officer was held accountable then or later. Once they got to the hospital, events became more confused. Some of Archie's hospital x-rays, showing his injuries, reportedly vanished. Medical staff were unable to determine Archie's name or his background (even though officers knew his name) and injected him with iodine for a medical test, to which he was allegedly allergic, leading some to conclude this had killed him. Two pathologists said he was beaten to death, and it was reported that he had exacerbated his condition by pulling out tubes in his throat at some point and that the injuries to his throat prevented breathing without them. His death was ultimately called a "homicide by police intervention" by the coroner's office.
Officer Len Davis: Former Officer Len Davis, reportedly known in the Desire housing project as "Robocop," ordered the October 13, 1994 murder of Kim Groves, after he learned she had filed a brutality complaint against him. Federal agents had Davis under surveillance for alleged drug-dealing and recorded Davis ordering the killing, apparently without realizing what they had heard until it was too late. Davis mumbled to himself about the "30" he would be taking care of (the police code for homicide) and, in communicating with the killer, described Groves's standing on the street and demanded he "get that whore!" Afterward, he confirmed the slaying by saying "N.A.T.", police jargon for "necessary action taken." Community activists reported a chilling effect on potential witnesses or victims of brutality considering coming forward to complain following Groves's murder.
According to a partial list of complaints and disciplinary action against Davis, obtained by an attorney, he was the subject of at least twenty complaints between 1987 and 1992, most involving brutality and physical intimidation; in most cases the complaints were not sustained, but in one case he was suspended for fifty-one days for hitting a woman in the head with his flashlight. One officer told a reporter,"He's got an internal affairs jacket as thick as a telephone book, but supervisors have swept his dirt under the rug for so long that it's coming back to haunt them."
On November 6, 1996, Davis was sentenced to death in federal court, on federal criminal civil rights charges, for ordering Groves's slaying. And on December 18, 1996, Davis was sentenced to life plus five years in federal court for his involvement in the cocaine ring. Along with Davis, a half-dozen other former New Orleans police officers were convicted on drug trafficking charges, all stemming from the same FBI sting operation.
Officer Antoinette Frank: At 1:00 a.m. on March 4, 1995, New Orleans police officer Antoinette Frank and an accomplice entered a Vietnamese restaurant in east New Orleans, shot the off-duty police officer moonlighting as a security guard, and then executed a brother and sister who worked at their family's restaurant as they knelt on the floor praying and begging for mercy. The victims' brother and sister hid in a cooler and witnessed much of what transpired. Frank, who did not disguise herself, knew the family and had moonlighted as a security guard at the restaurant before, and even responded to their call for help after the incident, as though she knew nothing about what had transpired. She was quickly convicted and sentenced to death in September 1995.
Frank had been hired as an officer in February 1993; after failing the civil service psychiatric evaluation, she had hired her own physician to find her fit. Following the department's rules, the two contradictory evaluations were thenevaluated by a second civil service psychiatrist, who found her suitable. Concerns of fellow officers about her behavior were ignored.
Lt. Christopher Maurice: Lt. Christopher Maurice was charged with two counts of simple battery by the district attorney's office on August 10, 1994, after allegedly assaulting two motorists during separate traffic stops on Interstate 10. In one of the cases, Maurice allegedly slammed the head of radio personality Richard Blake (known as Robert Sandifer), against his police car's hood after Blake was pulled over on June 22, 1994. Blake reportedly suffered facial lacerations. The altercation began when Blake yelled at Maurice, who was in an unmarked car, to slow down after he tailgated then quickly passed Blake's car; after the incident, Blake did not get a ticket. In November 1995, Maurice was convicted on battery charges in relation to this incident and sentenced to one year of probation and ordered to seek help from a stress management clinic. After a panel of Criminal District Court judges overturned the conviction, the 4th Circuit Court reinstated the conviction in December 1996. According to press reports, the district attorney's office only took up the case against Maurice involving Blake after a government watchdog group pressured the prosecutors to review the case.
Prior to this incident, Maurice reportedly had been the subject of more than a dozen discourtesy and brutality complaints. According to civil service records,Maurice had been reprimanded twice between 1985 and 1994, and suspended once.The suspension stemmed from an argument with a neighbor in which he allegedly brandished his gun. And in a 1991 civil lawsuit, the city paid a $25,000 settlement to a man who claimed Maurice hit him in the head with his police radio. Despite his record, Maurice served as the commander in charge of enforcing the internal rules of the department. The civilian review agency, the Office of Municipal Investigation, had reviewed several of the complaints against Maurice, but none had been sustained. Commented one officer about Maurice's job to enforce internal rules, "Having him in that position is ridiculous....Here's a guy with a history of complaints and it's like he's being rewarded for it." Maurice is no longer on the police force.