PITTSBURGH —
Pittsburgh police are no strangers to civil rights controversies.
The city was
forced to hire more women and minority officers after a 1970s lawsuit. And in
1997, it became the first U.S. city to agree to Justice Department-enforced
reforms to curb a “pattern and practice” of civil rights abuses, including
improper arrests, brutality and a backlog of hundreds of cases before a panel
investigating citizen complaints of police abuse.
But a federal
trial that begins Monday in a police brutality lawsuit isn’t the latest chapter
on how Pittsburgh officers treat young black men — even though all three
officers accused of wrongfully arresting and beating the 20-year-old black
plaintiff, Jordan Miles, are white, his attorney said.
“I don’t think
this case is the kind of case that’s a bellwether,” said Miles’ attorney J.
Kerrington Lewis. “I think this is the kind of case that happens when you have
policemen who are cutting corners and are actually rogue-type cops.”
Jordan Miles was
an 18-year-old violist at the city’s performing arts high school when he was
beaten and arrested walking to his grandmother’s house in his crime-ridden
neighborhood the night of Jan. 12, 2010. Officers Richard Ewing, Michael
Saldutte and David Sisak contend Miles was acting suspiciously and they thought
a bulge in his coat pocket was a gun. They later said they found only a soda
bottle.
Miles acknowledges
running, struggling and kicking, but only because the officers didn’t identify
themselves as they rushed from an unmarked cruiser on a detail aimed at
identifying suspects about to commit drug or weapons crimes. He was charged
with resisting arrest, prowling and other crimes.
The police union
attorney, Bryan Campbell, contends the plainclothes officers clearly identified
themselves and used only the necessary force to answer Miles’ ”donkey kicks”
and what they believed was a gun.
Campbell said the
jury, to be selected Monday, must determine whether the tactics the officers
used in subduing Miles were reasonable based on their training and, more
importantly, the information the officers had about Miles at that time.
Lewis argues the
police went too far because Miles weighed about 140 pounds while the officers
weighed a combined 600 pounds, and two had martial arts training. Miles’
dreadlocks were pulled from his head and, Lewis said, evidence from a city
panel that probes misconduct allegations showed the officers feared Miles was
so badly beaten he might die.
Miles was left
with a brain injury and resulting short-term memory problems — a recent test
showed his math work was at a 5th-grade level — that Lewis contends derailed
Miles’ plans to escape his surroundings by getting an arts education. The city
has paid $75,000 to settle his claims against the police department itself and
could pay more if the jury decides the officers violated Miles’ civil rights.
Miles denies
having the soda bottle, much less a gun, though the officers are expected to
call as a witness a friend who told the FBI Miles acknowledged having a bottle.
The FBI closed its civil rights investigation last year without criminally
charging the police.
Miles’ friend has
recanted, Lewis said. U.S. District Judge Gary Lancaster has yet to rule on
whether the officers can even mention the soda bottle at trial. Miles’
attorneys argue the officers “spoiled” that evidence by claiming to have thrown
the bottle away, even though it’s listed in court papers as the reason they
stopped him.
A district judge
dismissed all criminal charges against Miles after a neighbor testified at a
preliminary hearing that she knew him, and police never asked her if he could
be near her property. The police claimed otherwise in an affidavit filed with
the charges.
In a ruling on
evidence last week, Lancaster said Miles may offer evidence of the officers’
alleged “prior bad acts” if they claim to have always done their jobs by the
book. A police commander has given a sworn statement that the officers have
lied to justify stopping suspects, and Chief Nathan Harper said the officers
are the target of more community complaints than others on the same detail.
Campbell, the
police union attorney, says such a high volume of complaints would be normal
against officers who do the best work.
But Lewis said the
complaints have done what they’re designed to do: single out officers with a
penchant for bending the rules who, in this case, hurt an innocent young man.
“This kid was a
jewel,” Lewis said. “He had a great future and that’s been taken away from him
because these officers got carried away, because these officers took shortcuts
and violated the law, and in the end they violated him.”
Copyright 2012 The
Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.