Family of slain Uniontown boy has new lawyer
Michigan trial attorney vows civil rights suit
Source: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Tuesday, January 21, 2003
By Jonathan D. Silver, Post-Gazette Staff Writer
The family of Michael Ellerbe, the 12-year-old Uniontown boy who was shot to death Dec. 24 as he was chased by state police, has retained Michigan trial attorney Geoffrey Fieger.
Fieger, who has represented assisted suicide advocate Jack Kevorkian, said yesterday he planned to file a federal lawsuit in Pittsburgh by the end of next week alleging that Ellerbe's civil rights were violated by state police.
Ellerbe was shot through the heart from behind at 2:30 p.m. while two state troopers chased him on foot after he allegedly wrecked a stolen vehicle.
State police have refused to declare whether the bullet that killed Ellerbe was fired by either of the troopers running after him -- veteran Juan Curry or rookie Samuel Nassan.
Fieger said he believes Nassan shot Ellerbe and he framed the case in racial terms: Ellerbe was black and Nassan is white.
"I think it's a cover-up. Nothing precipitated it. I think it's a deliberate act that is absolutely unexplainable and undefendable," Fieger said in a telephone interview. "I'm concerned that a black child was shot in the back by an officer ... I don't think this would happen to a white child."
The shooting is under investigation by state police.
"If that isn't a conflict of interest, I don't know what is," Fieger said.
The FBI is conducting a separate investigation.
"I think that's the only way we'll get a straight story other than me filing suit, and I plan on filing suit by the end of next week," Fieger said.
Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip Reilly plans to hold an inquest into Ellerbe's death Monday. Fieger said he did not plan to attend.
State police have said Ellerbe was driving a stolen sport utility vehicle when troopers spotted him. Troopers followed the vehicle until it crashed into a fence in a residential neighborhood. Ellerbe allegedly ditched the vehicle and ran as Curry and Nassan chased him. He was shot and fell in a back yard between Cleveland and Murray avenues.
Fieger is working with Joel Sansone, a Pittsburgh civil rights attorney who has suggested that Curry slipped on ice while chasing Ellerbe and accidentally discharged his gun, which led to Nassan firing.
Fieger said he believes the shot that hit Ellerbe was fired from less than 60 feet.
"The explanations I'm hearing are just absurd. This is 2:30 in the afternoon. This child was less than 60 feet from the person who shot him. He claims he saw his partner fall down. He knew the kid in front of him was running away and doesn't have a gun," Fieger said.
Fieger would not identify his source of information about the circumstances of the shooting. Sansone has cited confidential sources.
Fieger said there were three other people in the vehicle with Ellerbe. Contrary to Sansone's past denials that Ellerbe was driving, Fieger did not rule out the possibility that the boy was behind the wheel.
"It's possible," Fieger said. "Since when do you start shooting a suspected car thief in the back?"
Jonathan D. Silver can be reached at jsilver@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1962.
Source: www.pittsburghlive.com
By Matthew Junker - TRIBUNE-REVIEW -Tuesday, January 21, 2003
Civil rights attorney Geoffrey Fieger swept into Pittsburgh Monday promising a thorough investigation and a speedy civil rights lawsuit in the Christmas Eve police shooting death of 12-year-old Michael Ellerbe, of Uniontown.
"There is no excuse for shooting a 12-year-old in the back. I would like, and the family would like, to see charges result from this," he said.
He was critical of police efforts thus far, and named a raft of investigators he plans to bring into the case to determine what occurred.
"They will do the type of investigation that the police ought to do, but don't," said Fieger, of Detroit.
Ellerbe died after he was shot in the back by a state police trooper at 2:30 p.m. Dec. 24 while running from a stolen sport utility vehicle in a residential section of Uniontown. State police have placed two troopers on administrative duty while state and federal criminal probes are conducted.
Fieger once represented Dr. Jack Kevorkian in defense of several assisted suicides. He's also filed suit against rap musician Eminem over an alleged assault and the "Jenny Jones Show" over the murder of a talk show guest.
Yesterday, he offered biting assessments of the ongoing investigation into the Ellerbe shooting and said he does not believe an explanation police have advanced to the family about how the shooting occurred.
Authorities reportedly told the family that one officer slipped and fell, discharging a weapon accidentally, and the other shot Ellerbe.
"It sounds like somebody, upon reflection, tried to make up an explanation. I'd suggest that they try harder. My 17-month-old son could come up with a better explanation than that.
"When you come up with phony excuses like that that sounds like the start of a cover-up," he said.
He also said he suspects state police investigators are threatening possible witnesses in the shooting.
"Our limited investigation to this point indicates that many more children were involved, and that they may be threatening these children with felony murder charges if they don't do ‘the right thing’ and exonerate these officers.
"If it didn't happen here (with these children), it would be the first time in my experience that it did not happen. I believe implicit, if not explicit, threats are going on.
"Do police officers do that? All the time. The conspiracy of silence — the thin blue line — are endemic in this country," he said.
Fieger refused to say how much he would seek in damages in his promised federal civil rights lawsuit. He asserted that the action was more serious than what's alleged in suits against tobacco companies that secured multimillion-dollar verdicts.
"What is more serious than the killing of a child? Police who intentionally shoot 12-year-olds in the back. ... I believe the jury will assess a heavy penalty if they are, in fact, found liable," he said.
Pittsburgh attorney Joel Sansone still represents the Ellerbe family. He attended the news conference with Ellerbe's father, Michael Hickenbottom, and his stepmother, Rene Randolph.
Fieger said it was meaningful that the meeting with Ellerbe's family took place on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
"I think these are the type of things that Dr. King railed against and spoke out against," he said.
Sansone previously raised the possibility that the shooting was racially motivated because the state trooper who allegedly fired the fatal shot was white and Ellerbe was black.
But Fieger said, looking forward, he is concerned that Ellerbe's family receive impartial treatment, as it would if Ellerbe had been white.
"I don't think there is any question if this was a white child who died, charges would be brought," he said.
Matthew Junker can be reached at mjunker@tribweb.com or (724) 425-2338.