Death of arrestee ruled a homicide - Chicago Police Beat Handcuffed Black Man

911 Tapes Coroborate family's claims
A Black man at the center of a wrongful-death lawsuit choked to death while in police custody, according to a medical examiner's autopsy report completed last week. Christopher Hicks, 39, who died May 26 after allegedly resisting arrest for passing between moving CTA rail cars, died of asphyxia due to restraint in a homicide, Dr. Clare Cunliffe, deputy Cook County medical examiner, determined in a Sept. 16 report. Cunliffe concluded Hicks suffered internal injuries, including hemorrhaging, to his neck, the report stated. The report will become evidence in the federal lawsuit filed in June against the city and four Chicago police officers by Hicks' brother, Billie Ray Lewis. The suit contends that police officers beat Hicks while another officer placed him in a chokehold. Lewis seeks more than $3 million in damages from the city, the suit stated. "They chased him," said Dan Alexander, who is representing Lewis. "Two officers handcuffed him, and another had him in a chokehold." Alexander said he has received recordings of calls to the city's 911 emergency center reporting that two white men were beating an African-American man. "Both of the cops were white," Alexander said, while Hicks was African American. According to the tapes, one caller told a 911 dispatcher that she saw "a man holding a man down with his arms behind his back." A few minutes later, another caller told a dispatcher, "Two guys have a guy on the floor in a chokehold ... two male whites on a male black." [more ] and [more ] and [more ]

Houston Deputy cleared in Fatal Shooting of Latino Man

Grand jury declines to indict officer, who faces a federal suit from victim's family
A Harris County grand jury voted Wednesday not to indict a sheriff's deputy who shot and killed a man suspected of stealing construction materials. Zachary Long, 36, was working a second job as a security guard at a construction site on Feb. 1 when he killed 31-year-old Rodolfo Gonzalez Garcia. The death is the subject of a federal lawsuit in which Garcia's family alleges that the deputy acted improperly. Long said he tried to arrest Garcia on suspicion that he was stealing roofing shingles at the Atascocita Meadows housing development in Humble.  Randall Kallinen, the Garcia family's attorney, said the self-defense claim does not make sense because Garcia was shot in the side. He said there also was no evidence of a bullet hole in the windshield to indicate the van was moving toward Long. Garcia was one of at least 22 people wounded or killed in vehicles by Harris County sheriff's deputies in the past five years. The Harris County medical examiner's office has refused to release Garcia's autopsy report, citing the pending investigation. Autopsy reports usually are made public. A death certificate shows that Garcia died of multiple gunshot wounds to the chest, but it does not specify whether the entry wounds were in the front, side or back.

• A lawsuit challenges deputies who shoot fleeing drivers [more ]

Autopsy matches probe results in Police Shooting of Maurice Clark

An autopsy report confirms that a 30- year-old man who was killed by police April 24 was shot once each in the chest and abdomen, as police investigators have maintained. Maurice Clark was shot and killed after fleeing from police officers. Police say he fired a stolen .357 Magnum revolver while trying to get away, prompting Officer Keith Gomez to open fire. The shooting touched off several weeks of protests, as community members charged it was representative of police brutality allegedly committed by the Pasadena Police Department's gang unit. The autopsy report, released by the Los Angeles County coroner's office on Wednesday, also confirms there was no gunshot residue on Clark's hands. Police said the autopsy report confirms their version of events.  The Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office is conducting a standard investigation of the shooting, which should be available in about a month, Hiltz said. The family has not yet filed a claim against the city. Pictured above: Crystal Clark of Los Angeles, who was Maurice Clark sister, cries and hugs her father Dexter Clark of Pasadena who son Maurice Clark was shot and killed by the Pasadena Police Dept. [more ]

• Autopsy awaited in Black man's death after Fight with Police [more ]

Larry "Nicky" Hills' family Brings Lawsuit Against Nashville Police

Cops used Unnecessary Force Killing Black Man
About 40 friends and family members of a man who died in police custody in Nashville, Ark., gathered Wednesday morning on the steps of the state Capitol, trying to bring attention to a civil lawsuit alleging police brutality in the September 2003 incident. The lawsuit, filed on Sept. 13 in federal court in Texarkana-exactly a year after the incident-contends that Larry "Nicky" Hill died as a result of excessive force by Nashville and Howard County officers after Hill was stopped him on suspicion of drunken driving. "Larry Hill was a victim of excessive force and deliberate indifference," said A.C. Dumas, spokesman for Hill's family.  The lawsuit contends that while trying to arrest Hill, Cogburn "unnecessarily and with unnecessary force" struck Hill in the right side of the head with his right fist. It was that injury, as well as officers' subsequent "refusal to obtain medical care" for Hill, that caused Hill's death, according to the suit. The results of an independent autopsy concluded that the ``manner of Hill's death should be ruled as homicide'' because his death occurred as a result of a violent struggle with police officers. The family is asking the court to grant a permanent injunction enjoining the police in Nashville and Howard County from using excessive force. [more ]

• NAACP calls for murder charges against police officers [more ]

Six years later, Minneapolis Police settle brutality case with Andre Madison

Incident a rallying point against police abuse
"It is bittersweet," said Andre Madison, commenting on the recent settlement of his police brutality lawsuit against the City of Minneapolis.  Madison was the victim of a police shooting in 1996 stemming from a botched police raid on a North Minneapolis apartment. The suit charged that police violated Madison's civil rights by beating him and using racist insults after they shot him during the raid. In settling the case, the City admits no wrongdoing. Madison and the City settled the federal lawsuit for $15,000-plus, to include attorney's fees and costs. On November 8, 1996, Minneapolis police officers from the Emergency Response Unit (ERU) and Housing police carried out a raid based on evidence from an informant claimed Madison had purchased $5 worth of marijuana on the premises. During the course of the operation, police fired over 400 rounds of ammunition into the apartment building, shooting Officer Mark Lanasa in the process. Officers fired as they entered the apartment, hitting Madison two times -- once in the neck and in the arm. Madison's injuries were extensive.  Madison was subsequently convicted on charges of second degree assault against the police who shot him. His case garnered wide local attention and national exposure, and was at the center of a community protest campaign to win justice for him.[more ] and [more ]

• Madison fights to clear name. Madison has consistently maintained his innocence and said that he will continue to fight to clear himself. "Clearly, this civil case is significant, because it shows that there was no evidence that Andre fired a shotgun at the officers involved in the incident. The evidence shows that Officer Lanasa was hit by a bullet fired from another police officer," said Goins, commenting on the fact that much of the initial media coverage focused on the incorrect assumption that it was Madison who shot Officer Lanasa. "The concern I have is that if the prosecution knew this information, they should have informed Andre's lawyers," said Goins. "The prosecution has an obligation to disclose information which could be used to prove the defendant's innocence."

Judge denies new trial for convicted Miami officers who Planted Weapons

A judge has denied a new trial for five Miami officers convicted in plots to cover up the planting of guns on unarmed suspects shot by police. The 28-page order issued Monday by U.S. District Judge Alan Gold opens the door to an appeal by four officers sentenced to prison following a 2003 trial and the sentencing of three officers convicted in an April retrial. Two other turncoat officers are awaiting sentencing on their guilty pleas. The judge said new eyewitness evidence offered by the defense did not "undermine my confidence in the verdict" since nobody saw a gun right after the wounding of a homeless man and an officer's fingerprints were on the planted gun. "We intend to raise every single one of these issues before the 11th Circuit and hopefully be back for a new trial in a year," Richard Sharpstein, attorney for two of the officers, said Wednesday. The convictions came in the biggest scandal to taint the Miami department in a generation. Varying groups of officers were accused of covering up guns planted after four shootings that left three men dead and one wounded from November 1995 to June 1997. Four officers were acquitted. Community outrage over the shootings sparked the hiring of a new police chief, the creation of a civilian police review board with subpoena powers and police shooting policy changes that resulted in a steep drop in officer-involved shootings. [more ]

Coroner's inquest to be held in fatal police shooting of Kermith Sonnier

For five months, Kermith Sonnier has wondered why the police shot his son in the back and why they were chasing him in the first place. "There's just a lot of unanswered questions," he said. His son, Kermith Sonnier Jr., a Louisiana native who had been living in the Washington County community of Denbo Heights, was killed by police gunfire on May 5 during a chase through Brownsville borough and township. A bullet hit him near his left shoulder blade. He died from the wound. Authorities are holding a coroner's inquest on Thursday into Sonnier Jr.'s death at the Fayette County Courthouse. [more ]

Chicago Mayor Daley Accused Of Ignoring Memo On Police Torture

Lawyers say he tortured their clients, forcing them to confess to crimes they didn't commit. Now attorneys for several former death row inmates say a memo warning about the alleged actions of former Police Commander Jon Burge had been sent to Mayor Richard M. Daley back when he was a prosecutor, and that memo was simply ignored. Mayor Daley has not said much publicly about the Burge allegations, and the 2 Investigators have learned the city wants to keep it that way. The fight to question Mayor Daley is intensifying as attorneys for alleged police torture victims pursue the case in court. The fight to question Mayor Daley is intensifying as attorneys for alleged police torture victims pursue the case in court. They claim Daley failed to take action against Burge as a far back as 1982 after a letter was written to him by former Police Superintendent Richard Brezcek. They say it was a warning to Daley of alleged brutality but nothing was done. Mayor Daley was Cook County State's Attorney during the time of at least 69 alleged torture cases and during a time when former Police Commander Jon Burge and Burge's alleged right-hand man John Byrne were accused of torturing murder suspects. [more ]

Minneapolis Police Smashed Windshield with Black Woman's Face, witnesses say

"They just pushed her head right through the back windshield!" a woman said as she shook her head rapidly back and forth, her voice rising. She waved her hands in the air and pointed at the police car parked in the middle of Bloomington Ave. Blood was smeared across the police car, its window shattered. Parallel to, and facing the opposite direction, was a second police car. Behind it sat an idling ambulance. According to reports, the woman had been involved in an altercation with a man several blocks from the scene. In the ensuing fracas a car crashed into a backyard damaging a fence and a picnic table. From there the woman ran down the street yelling for help. When she reached the corner of 31st and Bloomington, she spotted a squad car heading in the direction of the crash. When she reached the car, police claimed the woman tried to jump in the window and reach for the officer's gun. "The cops are saying she tried to grab his gun. How are you going to reach across and grab the gun?" said DeJuan Reid.[more ]

City of Richmond: $150,000 to settle lawsuit against Police

The city of Richmond has agreed to pay $150,000 to settle a lawsuit accusing police of using excessive force and engaging in racially abusive behavior during a clash with Cinco de Mayo partygoers in 2002. The lawsuit, filed last year in U.S. District Court in Oakland, said Richmond police trampled a Mexican flag, assaulted bystanders and arrested people who defied officers' orders to leave. The suit said an officer struck Latino activist Andres Soto of Richmond in the back with a police flashlight after Soto had submitted to police officers. The case was settled Tuesday night during a closed session of the City Council, officials said. [more ]