Retail chain settles in man's death at hands of security guard
By Jim Irwin / Associated Press - 10/31/02
DETROIT -- Relatives of a man suffocated during a scuffle with a store security guard have reached a $6 million settlement with the store's parent company, a source familiar with the agreement said Tuesday.
May Department Stores Co. admitted no wrongdoing in the June 22, 2000 death of Frederick Finley, said the source, an acquaintance of the Finley family who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Finley, 32, died after struggling with Dennis Richardson, a Detroit firefighter moonlighting at a Lord & Taylor store in Dearborn's Fairlane Town Centre.
The scuffle took place after guards accused the 11-year-old daughter of Finley's girlfriend of stealing a $4 bracelet. Police said Finley punched one of the guards who tried to detain the girl before Richardson put him in a headlock in the store's parking lot.
"The case was resolved to the satisfaction of both parties, and under terms of the settlement we are precluded from discussing it further," May spokeswoman Laura Bryant said.
Finley's death sparked accusations by civil rights leaders that Detroit-area merchants hired inadequately trained security guards who used excessive force to subdue shoplifting suspects.
They also accused retailers of deflecting accusations of racial profiling by using black guards to monitor minority shoppers. Richardson is black, as was Finley.
Tensions increased over a two-month period in early 2001 after three other black Detroiters suspected of shoplifting struggled with security guards. Two of them died, but criminal charges were not filed; a guard accused of beating the third suspect was acquitted of felonious assault.
Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger filed a wrongful death lawsuit against St. Louis-based May Department Stores, owner of the Lord & Taylor chain, shortly after Finley died.
The trial of the lawsuit was to begin Oct. 15 in Wayne County Circuit Court, but the settlement was reached a few days before that, the source said.
Paul Broschay, an attorney in Fieger's office who handled the case on behalf of Finley's survivors, said he could not discuss settlement terms.
Richardson, 30, faces trial on an involuntary manslaughter charge. But the Michigan Supreme Court has put the criminal case on hold while it prepares to combine it with a similar but unrelated case, said Rebecca Tenorio, a spokeswoman for the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office.
The court was not expected to decide until next spring whether the case against Richardson could proceed, Tenorio said.
Fieger's office represents the estates of the two dead shoplifting suspects, and the surviving suspect, in wrongful death lawsuits stemming from altercations with security guards. No trial dates have been set in those cases, Broschay said.
The family of the man who died in a department store at Fairlane Mall filed a $600 million lawsuit against the store Tuesday.
Fred Finley's family attorney said Finley was attacked by security officers at Lord & Taylor after they saw his stepdaughter had shoplifted a $4 bracelet.
"But they insisted that they were going to arrest the little girl, and then they began to attempt to handcuff not only the little girl, but Carla," Geoffrey Fieger, the family's attorney said during a press conference Tuesday. "At that point Fred apparently saw what was going on, had no idea who they were. They had not identified themselves. They don't have badges. These are police wannabes."
"Fred helped his mother and daughter, and was taken down by these so-called thugs, who grabbed a gold chain around his neck, and began choking him," Fieger continued.
"In the complaint I have described, they told Fred, 'You can either do this the easy way, or we will do it until you are unconscious,'" Fieger said.
"They not only did that, they strangled Fred by holding onto the chain around his neck in front of the rest of the members of the family, and they killed him," Fieger said.
"I pray that they don't get away with this," Carla Finley, Fred's wife, said. "It was senseless. I explained to him to stop choking him. He can't breathe. He told me to get out of his face. I better get out of his face."
Fred Finley was 32 years old when he died. The prosecutor's office has not filed charges in this case. They said they are waiting for toxicology results from the lab before filing any charges, if they file charges at all.
A doctor hired by Fieger said the cause of death was strangulation.
The Associated Press - 7/6/00
Prosecutors said in a statement that while in the store, Finley's 11-year-old stepdaughter removed a bracelet from a counter and left the store without paying for it.
Outside, security workers tried to question the girl before Finley intervened, prosecutors said. During an ensuing confrontation with Finley, Richardson used a neck hold to subdue the Detroit man, ultimately causing his death, the statement said.
"Under all the circumstances, the duration and amount of force used by Richardson was excessive, and probable cause clearly exists" for the involuntary manslaughter count, Prosecutor John D. O'Hair said in the statement.
Prosecutors and Dearborn police did not return telephone messages Thursday. O'Hair says he decided to not charge the other security guards involved in the fatal scuffle. He says the issue of whether they contributed to Finley's death ``cannot be substantiated.''
Richardson is expected to be arraigned Friday in District Court in Dearborn. The manslaughter count carries a possible 15 years in prison and $7,500 fine.
Here is another news story
The Associated Press - 6/28/00
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- The Rev. Al Sharpton and other black leaders are protesting the death of a man who was placed in a choke hold by a security guard at a suburban Detroit mall. The man had been suspected of shoplifting.
Frederick Finley, 32, of Detroit died Thursday afternoon outside the Lord & Taylor department store at Fairlane Town Center.
Finley's family said plainclothes Lord & Taylor security guards wrestled Finley to the ground, twisted a gold chain he was wearing around his neck, then knelt on his throat until he died.
Family members say they had bought about $200 in goods at Lord & Taylor before Finley's 11-year-old stepdaughter put a $4 bracelet on her wrist and left without paying for it.
But Dearborn police said security cameras showed family members were taking tags off jewelry and appeared to be shoplifting as a group.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger said he is seeking $600 million in damages for the family in a lawsuit against Lord & Taylor's parent company, May Department Stores Co., on grounds of negligent death, The Detroit News said.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court. Fieger said he filed it after an autopsy performed by Dr. Werner Spitz found the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation. LaVelle Olex, senior vice president of Lord & Taylor, declined comment.
"I think it's an outrage," Sharpton said. "It's not something we can let go unanswered. This is part of the racial profiling that goes on across the country."
Sharpton said it was irrelevant that the five guards as well as the victim are black.
"They would not have done this to a young white man," he said. "Even blacks can be guilty of racial profiling." Sharpton is scheduled to lead a protest next week at the mall.
The Rev. Wendell Anthony, president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People's Detroit branch, said he has long been concerned about the treatment of blacks at the mall.
About 0.4 percent of Dearborn's 89,286 residents were black, according to the 1990 U.S. Census. About half Fairlane's customers are black, many coming from mostly black Detroit, the News said.
Fairlane General Manager Aj Jemison said Fairlane has worked hard to make black customers feel more welcome.
"From a store perspective and from an individual perspective, I want to send out my condolences to the family, because it's such a tragedy that someone lost their life," she said.
Fieger Announces Filing Of $600 Million Lawsuit
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is seeking $600 million from the Lord & Taylor store in the death of a Detroit man who died Thursday.
Fieger is representing the family of Frederick Demondre Finley who Fieger says was strangled during a confrontation with security guards at Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn.
Family members accuse guards at Lord & Taylor of killing Finley, 32, over an alleged shoplifting incident.
Fieger filed the suit Tuesday in Wayne County Circuit Court after he enlisted Dr. Werner U. Spitz to perform an autopsy. Spitz's report, according to Fieger, indicates that the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation. Spitz is the medical examiner in Macomb County.
Dearborn police said that they must await the official autopsy report from the Wayne County medical examiner before commenting further. Those reports could take 4 to 6 weeks. The department is continuing to investigate incidents surrounding Finley's death.
The incident with security guards at the Lord & Taylor store began after Finley's daughter said that security guards approached her because she forgot to take off a bracelet that she was trying on.
Finley got into a confrontation with the guards soon after.
"All three security guards rushed him," his wife Carla said. "They took him to the ground, put their knee on his neck, grabbed his jersey he had on and choked him until he had no life left."
He had gone there with his wife and daughter to pick out a graduation present.
Fieger plans lawsuit in incident at mall
Detroit Free Press - 6/27
An independent autopsy report requested by attorney Geoffrey Fieger shows that Frederick Finley, who struggled with security guards in Dearborn, died of asphyxiation.
Finley, 32, of Detroit scuffled with guards Thursday afternoon in the parking lot of Lord & Taylor, a department store in Fairlane Town Center. Security guards confronted him and his family after his 11-year-old stepdaughter had put on a $4 bracelet and walked out of the store. Family members have said they intended to pay for the bracelet.
Werner Spitz, the Macomb County medical examiner, conducted the autopsy at Fieger's request. "There's no doubt he died from asphyxiation," Spitz said Monday.
The autopsy also showed that Finley was involved in a struggle before he died, he said.
Fieger said the autopsy report proves his earlier assertion that Finley was choked to death by overzealous security guards.
He said he plans to file a lawsuit today against Lord & Taylor.
The family maintains that security guards twisted Finley's chain around his neck, and knelt on his throat until he died.
However, Spitz said the asphyxiation "could have come from a lot of things, but there's no evidence it came from a chain."
The Wayne County medical examiner is conducting an official autopsy and had no results available by Monday evening.
Dearborn police earlier had said that cameras caught the Finley family shoplifting at Lord & Taylor. Police said the family attacked guards after being confronted about the bracelet.
As the guards struggled with Finley, police said, the family drove off in a car, and threw the bracelet out the window.
Detroit Free Press - June 24, 2000
The family of a 32-year-old Detroit man who died in the custody of store security in a Dearborn mall parking lot said he was brutally choked to death by overzealous guards.
But Dearborn police said Friday they must wait for the results of an autopsy report before determining how Frederick Finley died on Thursday afternoon outside the Lord & Taylor department store at the Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn.
An autopsy was performed Friday but the doctor was unable to determine the cause, according to the Wayne County medical examiner's office.
Details of what happened vary between the family and police reports. But the incident appears to have involved a $4 bracelet.
The family said this was a case of unnecessary force. They said that plainclothes security guards wrestled Finley to the ground, twisted a gold chain he was wearing around his neck, and then knelt on his throat until he died.
Attorney Geoffrey Fieger held a news conference Friday, calling the incident an "outrage." He said he plans to file a suit against Lord & Taylor next week.
Lord & Taylor did not return calls for information about its security.
Officials with several stores at the mall declined to comment on security questions.
Finley, along with his wife and other family members, were shopping at the Dearborn mall when they stopped at Lord & Taylor to buy some kids' clothing, according to family members. His stepdaughter, Teera, 11, wanted to buy a bracelet and slipped one on. Family members said they intended to pay for it when they finished shopping.
But Dearborn police said that security cameras showed family members were shoplifting. They took tags off jewelry and appeared to be working as a group, police said. When they left the store, four security guards followed them to the parking lot, police said.
Police Chief Ron Deziel said Lord & Taylor security personnel asked the family to come back and talk about the jewelry. The family then attacked the security guards, punching and scratching them, Deziel said.
Finley was the main aggressor, said Deziel, and resisted apprehension. He was eventually handcuffed and then at some point became unresponsive, police said.
The rest of the family got into their car and tossed the bracelet out of the window, police said.
Family members say, however, that Finley merely was trying to protect his family members from an attack by plainclothes security guards who never identified themselves.
One security guard called Teera an expletive, said family members, and others "literally pounded" on her, according to Fieger. When Finley saw the guards allegedly harassing his stepdaughter, he got out of his car to confront them.
Fieger said that after Finley was taken down, family members heard a security guard say: "You can do it the easy way, or I'll make you unconscious."
Dearborn police took three male security guards into custody and held them overnight. They were released Friday afternoon pending further investigation. Fairlane officials said their cameras did not record the incident. But Lord & Taylor may have caught the alleged shoplifting on film.
Finley, a construction worker who doted on his children, often stayed home to care for his children, a family member said. He grew up in southwest Detroit and had been with Carla for 10 years. Family members said he would do anything for his wife, including getting up at 1 a.m. to buy cigarettes for her.
Said Mora Killebrew, Frederick Finley's mother-in-law:
"It's still unbelievable, in my mind, that he got taken away for something like a $4 bracelet."
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