Family Files $750 Million Lawsuit In Death
February 15, 2001
The family of a shoplifter killed in a struggle with Kroger store security guards is suing the store and its security firm for $750 million, as a new witness charged Thursday that Travis Shelton was brutalized before he died.
Shelton, 38, died on the floor of a Royal Oak Township Kroger store on Feb. 8, with $130 in stolen meat under his coat and a 377-pound security guard sitting on his back.
Southfield attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing Shelton's wife and four children, filed suit in Oakland County Circuit Court on Thursday.
"There's something wrong with a society that places a greater value on merchandise than it does on human life," said Fieger, flanked by Shelton's wife and mother. "What food item could be worth more than a human life?"
Oakland County Sheriff's deputies are investigating possible criminal charges in the case. "It will be the middle of next week, at the earliest, that the case might be presented (to the prosecutor for review)," said Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard. "The medical examiner is still waiting for toxicology reports and we are re-interviewing witnesses." Kroger officials, representatives from the William Davis and Associates Security Service and the two guards, Jason Clover and Lewis Wartley, all declined to discuss any details of the on-going investigation.
Witness offers graphic account
At the press conference, Fieger introduced his own witness,
Royal Oak Township resident Joanette Quinn, who claims to have seen the
confrontation between Shelton and the security guards.
Her graphic account of the encounter doesn't jibe with the Oakland County medical examiner's finding that the only injury on Shelton's body was the compression of his ribs that led to his death by asphyxiation.
Quinn, who has not told her story to sheriff's investigators, said she heard one of the guards muttering, "I'm going to get him today," after spotting Shelton, who had been caught stealing items from the store previously.
One guard blocked the door to keep Shelton from escaping, she said. Shelton bolted to a corner and grabbed a metal rail along the wall, next to the grocery carts. According to Quinn's account, one guard pulled him off the rail and pushed him, face-first, into a wall, while another grabbed him around the neck and choked him.
"As Shelton lost consciousness, she said, a guard pulled his legs out from under him and he fell, striking the back of his head on the floor so hard "that the window panes rattled."
The guards then rolled him over and sat on him for 10 minutes until sheriff's deputies arrived, she said.
Oakland County Medical Examiner Ljubisa Dragovic ruled Shelton's death a homicide Wednesday. According to sheriff's accounts, at least two large William Davis security guards wrestled the 5-foot-6, 278-pound Shelton to the store floor, and one, who weighs 377 pounds, sat on him until deputies arrived.
Dragovic said the crushing weight on Shelton's chest deprived him of oxygen and caused his death, although the autopsy also revealed that Shelton suffered from asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes and an enlarged heart. There also were traces of cocaine and opiates in his system and investigators found a crack pipe in his pocket.
Fieger said an independent autopsy by Dr. Werner Spitz, the Macomb County Medical Examiner, will confirm his witnesses' account of Shelton's injuries.
A history of drug abuse
Fieger acknowledged Shelton's history of drug use and
shoplifting convictions, which he blamed on undiagnosed and untreated kleptomania,
a psychiatric condition that causes a person to compulsively steal relatively
valueless items. He pointed out that since his last release from prison,
Shelton has held down a job in the dining room of the Franklin Terrace
Apartments.
Shelton's wife of 10 years, Jennifer, spoke briefly in her husband's defense. "I loved him. He was my husband and he's gone," she said. "He was a good husband, a good person and a good father."
The family's lawsuit blames Kroger and William Davis & Associates for failing to train their security force to interact safely with the public.
This is the second fatal encounter between a shoplifter
and store security worker in Metro Detroit in the last year. Frederick
Finley died during a scuffle with a security guard outside the Lord &
Taylor store in Dearborn's Town Center last June.
Shelton Family Files Lawsuit
Detroit News - February 15, 2001
The family of Travis Shelton, who died after a struggle with Kroger security guards, hired lawyer Geoffrey Fieger to file a lawsuit against the grocery store and the company that employs the guards. "If you sit on a person with a a heart problem, with sleep apnea and things, you know, you're going to kill him," Shelton's mother, Willie Shelton, said.
Shelton had a weakness for drugs and an addiction for shoplifting, she said. She also said he had a nonviolent nature.
"He was never violent at all," she said. "When they said he was fighting them, he wasn't fighting. He was trying to live. He was trying to breathe."
The family's belief is being backed up by a passerby who ended up getting involved in the struggle to subdue Shelton.
An off-duty firefighter who admits helping security guards subdue Shelton said the deceased man was not the aggressor in the struggle, but that he kept repeating he could not breathe.
"I knew he had a problem, but in spite of all of that, he should be living today if they would have held him right, you know," Algin Shelton, the father of Travis Shelton, said. "They are the ones killed him."
"Every time I close my eyes, I can see these security guards killing another black man," Willie Shelton said.
Fieger will be holding a news conference Thursday. There
will also be a demonstration outside the Kroger store next week.
Prosecutors Dispute One Witness' Account in Kroger Death - 3/2/01
Oakland County prosecutors are disputing one witness's account of the death at the Royal Oak Township Kroger. The witness was produced by lawyer Geoffrey Fieger.
"The tallest security guard choked him while the other one put his elbow into his neck," Jeanette Quinn said.
Quinn's account of what happened is in question. Investigators in Oakland County reportedly say none of the other witnesses at the Kroger store on February 8, the night shoplifter Travis Shelton died, saw the same thing.
Lawyer Geoffrey Fieger, handling a civil suit for the Shelton family, says he does not believe that is true.
"All the other witnesses, whether their stories vary a little, all of them say he was strangled," Fieger said.
The medical examiner said Shelton died of asphyxiation. A security guard who weighed 300 pounds sat on him while trying to stop Shelton from leaving the store. Shelton apparently stole some meat.
Fieger says two security guards roughly detained Shelton and should be charged in connection with his death.
"Let me just tell you under the exact same circumstances, if it's Travis Shelton doing the strangling, he's charged with first-degree murder. If it's the security guard doing the strangling, they charge him with the least possible crime they can possibly charge," Fieger said.
Prosecutors must determine if the security guards meant to cause Shelton harm or knew they were putting him in a dangerous situation.
$750 lawsuit filed, but no recommendation of charges - 3/21/01
Neal Rubin /
The Detroit News
Civil rights advocates are expressing outrage over a recommendation
that no charges be filed in the death of a suspected shoplifter.
Oakland County Sheriff Michael Bouchard said Tuesday that charges should
not be brought against security
guards who some say caused the death of Travis Anthony
Shelton, 38, of Detroit.
"I did not ask for a warrant based on the witnesses and the totality of the circumstances," Bouchard said when questioned at a news conference about the arrest of a rape suspect. Attorney Geoffrey Fieger is representing Shelton's family members in a $750 million lawsuit against Kroger Stores Inc. and Livonia-based William Davis & Associates Security Services.
He railed against Bouchard's recommendation, which he
labeled "obscene." "If it were Travis Shelton who killed
the security
guard, Mike Bouchard would have him hoisted up in the
yard at the Oakland County Sheriff's Department," Fieger said.
"I think people can feel pretty safe if they want to
kill African-Americans in Oakland County, as long as they're wearing a
uniform."
Fieger added, "I guess I'll have to be the prosecutor."
Chief Deputy Oakland Prosecutor John O'Brien said his office is just beginning
to review the results of a 51/2-week investigation submitted by the Sheriff's
Department on Tuesday. He declined further comment. In
a statement prepared before Tuesday's news conference, Oakland County Prosecutor
David Gorcyca
said his office will take at least a week to review the
report and determine whether charges are warranted. "We owe
it to the parties involved to make a careful inspection of all the accounts
leading up to Mr. Shelton's death," Gorcyca wrote.
"Until such time as the evidence is reviewed, any statements regarding possible charges, if any, would be premature conjecture and professionally irresponsible." Shelton died Feb. 8 following a scuffle with guards working at a Kroger grocery store in Royal Oak Township. They say they stopped Shelton from trying to steal $130 in meat products. Oakland County Medical Examiner Dr. Ljubisa Dragovic ruled the death a homicide by asphyxia. He said Shelton died after excessive weight was placed on his chest, though a considerable amount of cocaine in Shelton's system contributed to his death.
Public demonstrations denouncing the use of lethal force
by security guards have followed both Shelton's death and the June 2000
death of a 32-year-old man outside the Lord & Taylor department store
at Fairlane Town Center in Dearborn.
Frederick Finley died following a scuffle with security
guards who thought his girlfriend's 11-year-old daughter had been shoplifting.
Guard Dennis Richardson awaits trial on an involuntary manslaughter charge
in that case. In the most recent case, Horace Sheffield
of the National Action Network of Detroit and New York organized a Feb.
18 demonstration near the Kroger.
"I'm appalled, dismayed and agitated that no charges have
been filed to this point," he said. Sheffield added he and the National
Action Network president, the Rev. Al Sharpton, hope to meet with Gorcyca
on Monday to stress the need for prosecution. In a letter to
Gorcyca, Sheffield described Shelton's death as the result of "onerous
racial profiling and
scrutiny that all black shoppers endure on a daily basis.
..."
Decision Likely To Spark More Protests
PONTIAC, Mich., 4:08 p.m. EST March 29, 2001-- No charges will be filed in the death of a suspected shoplifter in an Oakland County Kroger store.
Oakland County Prosecutor David Gorcyca said Thursday afternoon that the security guards accused of killing Travis Shelton, 38, did not break any laws.
"The security guards involved in the arrest of Travis Shelton did not violate any criminal laws." Gorcyca said. "Their actions were lawful, and therefore I will not authorize any criminal charges in this case."
Shelton died in February after allegedly being involved in a scuffle with store security guards.
Previous Fieger comments: "Obviously it is okay to use extreme force and contribute to a person's death." "If it were Travis Shelton who killed the security guard, Mike Bouchard (the Sheriff) would have him hoisted up in the yard at the Oakland County Sheriff's Department." "I guess I'll have to be the prosecutor."