Officer Involved: Julie Schroeder
Citizen Killed: Daniel Rocha
06/17/2005 - Austin- Federal authorities said Wednesday that they have launched an investigation into the shooting death of a man by an Austin police officer during a drug sting operation.
FBI spokesman Rene Salinas said agents in Austin learned about the incident shortly after it occurred and that the agency often investigates fatal police shootings.
He said investigators likely will interview witnesses and review reports and other police documents concerning the June 9 shooting near Quicksilver Boulevard and Pleasant Valley Road in Southeast Austin.
Daniel Rocha, 18, was shot once in the back after the Chevrolet Suburban in which he was a passenger was stopped by officers conducting a drug investigation. The Austin American-Statesman has reported that officer Julie Schroeder thought Rocha had taken her Taser stun gun during the altercation and was about to use it against her or her sergeant.
Rocha had no drugs in his system, according to a toxicology report released Wednesday.
The FBI's decision to investigate is part of an increasing involvement among federal authorities in the Austin Police Department.
The U.S. Department of Justice is investigating the shooting deaths of two African Americans, Sophia King and Jesse Lee Owens, by Austin officers in 2002 and 2003. That investigation is not complete.
In March, City Manager Toby Futrell also asked the Justice Department to review practices and procedures of the department after several officers and dispatchers exchanged joking messages, including "Burn, baby, burn," during a fire at a nightclub that catered to African Americans.
City officials said Wednesday that they received a letter June 6 in which federal authorities said they are reviewing Futrell's request and had not decided whether to investigate.
The FBI's decision to investigate Rocha's death received praise from police leaders and community representatives.
Police Chief Stan Knee said the FBI told him about their investigation into Rocha's death Wednesday afternoon and that the department would cooperate fully.
Mike Sheffield, president of the Austin Police Association, said, "We welcome anybody coming in and looking at our work. I have full confidence that we will withstand the scrutiny."
Bobby Taylor, an attorney representing Rocha's family, said he has made several requests for a state or federal investigation. He said he also asked friends and other associates to do the same.
"The chief is being asked to decide whether his people did something wrong," Taylor said. "Do you honestly think he can make that kind of decision?"
Word of the federal investigation came hours after officials with the Travis County Medical Examiner's office released results of toxicology tests performed on Rocha.
Rocha tested negative for cocaine, amphetamines, marijuana and several other drugs, according to the report.
Travis County Medical Examiner Roberto Bayardo said Rocha was not a chronic drug user and had not ingested drugs at least six hours before his death.
Taylor said he was not surprised at the toxicology report.
"We expected that," he said. "He was on probation, and as a condition of probation, he had to give urine samples."
Rocha was on probation for burglarizing a house in 2004 and had been charged with marijuana possession, court records show.
Police have reported finding a plastic bag containing a leafy green substance on the ground near the vehicle in which Rocha was riding.
Updates: Click Here
Here is a site on a recent community forum that was held in Austin Texas on the police officer that murdered of Daniel Rocha. Click Here
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Officers Involved: Arthur J. Carbonneau
Killed: Eli Eloy Escobar II
Location: Houston, Texas
Arthur J. Carbonneau stood in court and nodded as state District Judge Mary Lou Keel ordered him to serve the two-month term at the Harris County Jail as part of his probation.
A jury on Tuesday convicted the 25-year-old former patrolman of criminally negligent homicide in the Nov. 21, 2003, killing of Eli Eloy Escobar II. The jury sentenced him Wednesday to nine years, six months and 14 days on probation.
Keel also ordered Carbonneau to write a letter of apology to the Escobar family.
The judge declined a request from Assistant District Attorney Don Smyth that Carbonneau also be required to write an open letter of apology to the residents of Harris County.
"They think their police officers are gun-toting, trigger-happy fools," Smyth said afterward. "He's put everybody in fear and he owes everybody an apology. It's all his fault."
On Wednesday, the 25-year-old former patrolman showed no emotion when the jury settled on probation, but Escobar's mother, Lydia, broke down and sobbed.
"This is an injustice. This really hurts," said her brother, Arnold Perales.
The sentence recommended by the jury was called too lenient by some who saw the six-day trial as a symbol of the tension between the city's Hispanic residents and the Police Department.
"We're fed up," said Johnny Mata, a spokesman for the Houston-area chapter of the League of United Latin American Citizens.
"This is outrageous. It's a disgrace," he said. But Hans Marticiuc, president of the Houston Police Officers Union, defended the outcome.
"It was a difficult case for the jury," he said. "You've got a young man, 14 years old, who was killed, and a young officer with little experience."
Carbonneau told jurors last week that his .40-caliber Glock pistol had fired accidentally when Escobar's hand or foot bumped his gun hand.
He was charged with murder, but jurors opted to convict him of a lesser offense, criminally negligent homicide with a deadly weapon.
Afterward, the jury of eight men and four women issued a brief public statement.
"This jury expresses its deepest sympathies to both the Escobar and Carbonneau families. This incident touched our hearts, and our thoughts and prayers will be with both families," the jury foreman read from the statement.
The shooting occurred after Carbonneau assisted officer Ronald Olivo in responding to a complaint in the 4600 block of West 34th. A caller reported that two teens had assaulted a 10-year-old boy at his home.
Police found Escobar and other teens playing computer games at a nearby apartment and told them to stand outside, witnesses said. The boy's father, Jesse Rodriguez, pointed out one teen who he said had harassed his son.
Escobar had not been involved in the earlier incident and began to leave, ignoring officers' orders to stop, police said. The struggle began when Carbonneau tried to detain him.
The teen thrashed his arms and legs violently and kicked Carbonneau in the groin, Carbonneau testified. He said he drew his gun, in part, because he feared Escobar had a weapon.
Carbonneau, who spent less than two years on the police force, resigned in April after being indicted.
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Officers Involved: Eric Hillman
Location: Conroe Texas
5/7/2004 -- A grand jury has indicted a Houston police officer on a charge of murder in the off-duty shooting of a 25-year-old man alleged to have been stalking him. Lt. Eric D. Hillman, 41. Hillman is charged with killing Kevin Leonard Lunsford, on Dec. 16, 2003, in a confrontation initiated when Lunsford drove past a no-trespassing sign and onto the officer's driveway in a rural section of the county. The dispute between the two originated after Hillman, who is also a lawyer, gave legal advice to Lunsford's wife about ending her marriage and seeking criminal charges against her spouse. Investigators said Lunsford, who later was found to be unarmed, was shot as he sat in his car. Investigators did not disclose how many times or where the victim was hit. Detectives said that Officer Hillman and Lunsford's wife, had been in a relationship.
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Officers Involved: Jeff Allen
Killed: Kelsey Morgan (11)
Location: Texas
03/17/2004 -Texas D.P.S. trooper Jeff Allen was going to pull over a vehicle inwhich Kelsey Morgan was an occupant, Kelsey's half brother was behind the wheel and sped off. The car overturned in a ditch killing Kelsey. The grandfather of Kelsey was arrested on Monday in connection with retaliation on trooper Jeff Allen. The grandfather was questioning other troopers on the incident as well as trying to get the video tape of the chase.
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Officers Involved: Richard K. Butler
Location: Houston, Texas
A Harris County grand jurors voted Friday not to indict a Houston police officer who shot and killed a 15-year-old boy last year, clearing the officer of criminal charges. Officer Richard Kevin Butler, who remains the target of a lawsuit, has been under investigation since the Oct. 31, 2003 death of Jose Vargas, who was shot while driving his mother's car. Butler thought thought Vargas was suspicious. The teen drove onto the street from a parking lot but had to stop for traffic, giving Butler time to catch up and confront him. The officer pointed his pistol inside the driver's window, and when Vargas accelerated, the vehicle's door frame struck his arm and the gun fired once.
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Officers Involved: Jason Lavastida and Donald Moore
Location: Corpus Christi, Texas
October 2003 -The family of a man who was shot and killed by Corpus Christi police officers filed a suit against the city in February. The city responded last week by denying any wrongdoing. The common-law wife and two children of Paul Silvas are accusing the city of violating Silvas' civil rights on the night he was killed by police. Deborah Golder and her two sons are seeking an unspecified amount of money, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi. . Silvas' family said he cooperated with police and died unnecessarily. The officers said the deadly shooting was in self-defense. Lavastida and Moore, both bicycle officers, said they smelled marijuana coming from his parked teal four-door Ford Taurus, according to a statement by Police Chief Pete Alvarez after the shooting. The officers ordered Silvas out of the car, according to reports. Silvas' family said the officers proceeded to beat him with batons "without provocation" and spray him with pepper spray when he sought safety in his car. The officers' said in their response to the plaintiff's filing that Silvas had tried to avoid detention by getting in his car, which necessitated the use of pepper spray. The officers said they then had to shoot at Silvas in self-defense when he tried to run them over. But Silvas' family said he was trying to escape the beating when officers started firing. Both the plaintiffs and defendants agreed the officers fired nine shots, hitting Silvas five times. Silvas died before he arrived at the hospital. Silvas' family said the shooting showed "malicious intent." The case is set for trial sometime in 2005.
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01/25/2003 -- Garland Police Chief Larry Wilson asked the FBI on Friday to investigate his officers' fatal shooting of Jorge Cruz.
The request comes in response to complaints about the department's use of force against minorities.
On Wednesday, a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict the four officers who fired at Mr. Cruz on Aug. 31.
The officers also have been cleared by a Garland department shooting review board.
According to police reports, Mr. Cruz had threatened neighbors with a knife and attacked the officers after ignoring their commands in English and Spanish to drop the knife.
FBI spokeswoman Laura Bailey confirmed Friday that the bureau has initiated a preliminary civil-rights investigation.
The League of United Latin American Citizens, the Garland Association for Hispanic Affairs, the American Civil Liberties Union and the NAACP had a town hall meeting last week to address grievances against the Garland police, including concerns about the use of force.
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After two days of deliberating and listening to eyewitness testimony, a grand jury came back Friday with a “no bill” decision, saying the officers did nothing wrong when they fatally shot 29- year-old Paul Silvas after he tried to run the two bike officers over.
Throughout the hearing, the Corpus Christi Police Department maintained senior officers Jason Lavastida and Donald Moore shot and killed Silvas only after he tried to run them over with his car.
Assistant district attorney Mark Skurka would not tell us about the testimony, but he did reveal that all but one of the eyewitness' testimonies were prerecorded.
Skurka says police officers have been indicted by the grand jury in the past, but this time jurors felt a indictment wasn't warranted.
He says, “I don't think there's a perception that cops get away with things. I think the perception is we have 12 individual people on the grand jury to make this kind of decision so the police department doesn't have to make that decisions on their officers."
Since the grand jury found no indictments on the two police officers, the case has been closed and the officers are back on the job with full pay.
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Officers Involved: Arthur Carbonneau
Location: Houston, Texas
Prosecutors are still investigating a fatal police shooting that occurred Nov. 21, 2002 in northwest Houston. Officer Arthur Carbonneau was trying to restrain 14-year-old Eli Eloy Escobar, when his gun fired. The boy died of a head wound.
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Officers Involved: Bert Dillow, Mika Aldred, Rodney Evans, and Chad Belleaud
Location: Baytown, Texas
Grand jury clears Baytown Four January 2002 - A Harris County grand jury declined to indict four officers for the death of Baytown Luis Torres, the Mexican national who died in police custody earlier this year, after a videotaped beating that left him dead. Jimi Hendrix "Are You Experienced" was playing on the radio in the background as Mr. Torres was beaten, he died from asphyxia i.e., he couldn't breathe because the officers knee was across his chest. One of the four officers, patrolman Bert Dillow, remains on administrative desk duty, but not because of killing Torres. He is the subject of another police investigation involving use of force against someone who recently received a two year jail sentence. The other three Sgt Rodney Evans and patrolmen Mika Aldred and Chad Belleaud have been cleared of any wrongdoing in the Torres case. Harris County in its history has never indicted an officer for killing a Mexican.
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Officers Involved: Lamont E. Tillery (30), David R. Barrera (28), Pete A. Herrada (28), David Perkins (30), James R. Willis (28), and Darrell H. Strouse (34)
Killed: Pedro Oregon Navarro
Location: Houston, Texas
07/12/2000 -- On July 12 Houston police officers arrested a suspect for drugs, the suspect told officers that he would take them to a "drug dealers" location. Officers without a "warrant" take the word of the "informant" and goto the otherside of Houston to Pedro Oregon Navarro apartment. Officers knock on the door and a occupant opens the door and force their way into the apartment. As officers go down a dark hall way Pedro Navarro comes out of his bedroom with a pistolto protect his family only to be met by all these goons. Officers fired at Pedro some even emtying their clips and reloading and shooting. Pedro was shot 12 times including 9 times in the back as he laid on the floor autopsy showed. During all the shooting officer Lamont E. Tillery was shot in the shoulder by one of his fellow officers.
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Location: Texas
October 2003 -The family of a man who was shot and killed by Corpus Christi police officers filed a suit against the city in February. The city responded last week by denying any wrongdoing. The common-law wife and two children of Paul Silvas are accusing the city of violating Silvas' civil rights on the night he was killed by police. Deborah Golder and her two sons are seeking an unspecified amount of money, according to documents filed in U.S. District Court in Corpus Christi. . Silvas' family said he cooperated with police and died unnecessarily. The officers said the deadly shooting was in self-defense. Lavastida and Moore, both bicycle officers, said they smelled marijuana coming from his parked teal four-door Ford Taurus, according to a statement by Police Chief Pete Alvarez after the shooting. The officers ordered Silvas out of the car, according to reports. Silvas' family said the officers proceeded to beat him with batons "without provocation" and spray him with pepper spray when he sought safety in his car. The officers' said in their response to the plaintiff's filing that Silvas had tried to avoid detention by getting in his car, which necessitated the use of pepper spray. The officers said they then had to shoot at Silvas in self-defense when he tried to run them over. But Silvas' family said he was trying to escape the beating when officers started firing. Both the plaintiffs and defendants agreed the officers fired nine shots, hitting Silvas five times. Silvas died before he arrived at the hospital. Silvas' family said the shooting showed "malicious intent." The case is set for trial sometime in 2005.
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04/07/2002 - Grand Jury Rules There's No Cause For Charges In Fatal Shooting A Travis County grand jury declined to indict a sheriff's deputy Wednesday for the shooting death of a 19-year-old man during a December drug raid.
Deputy Derek Hill shot and killed Tony Martinez during the Dec. 20 raid of a mobile home in Del Valle. Martinez was not the target of the drug raid and was not armed when he was shot. "How could they have no-billed him?" Gonzales said as she started crying on the phone. "My son was asleep." She declined further comment.
Travis County Sheriff Margo Frasier was not available for comment Wednesday.
Martinez was asleep on a couch when a Travis County SWAT team rammed open the front door of the mobile home on Cornflower Circle. The deputies were headed to the master bedroom to look for drugs when Martinez sat up, and Hill shot him once in the chest.
The target of the raid was 28-year-old Arturo Alvarez, who had a criminal history that included attempted murder and aggravated assault. A confidential informant had tipped off the department that he was dealing cocaine and methamphetamine from the home, as well as stockpiling automatic weapons.
Martinez, who was wanted in the burglary of a nearby convenience store, was related to Alvarez. Authorities arrested Alvarez at the mobile home.
Deputies found 540 grams of cocaine and 222 grams of methamphetamine in the mobile home as well as a bullet for an automatic weapon.
Martinez was flown to Brackenridge Hospital but was dead by the time the helicopter landed at the hospital.
Hill had been with Travis County Sheriff's Deputy Keith Ruiz during a drug raid in February 2001 in which the 36-year-old husband and father was killed. Edwin Delamora, 21, was charged with capital murder in Ruiz's slaying.
The sheriff's office decided to double the number of officers who participate in raids after Ruiz was shot.
The Drug Policy Forum of Texas, which was opposed to the police tactics that led to Martinez's death, held a March fund-raiser for Martinez's family, which includes his 13-month-old son.
The forum, based in Houston, advocates drug reform issues to local, state and federal lawmakers.
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Location: Austin Texas
Killed by Police: Steven Scottwas
March 2000 -- Steven Scottwas a black Austinite, beaten to death by up to eight cops while he was unarmed, handcuffed and shackled. Police officials claim Scott died of a heart attack, not the beating, but the coroner specifically ruled out heart
attack as the official cause of death.
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Officers Involved: Joseph H. Shackett
Location: Houston, Texas
8-24-1999 -- Colleen Beverly Kelly,37, was unarmed and mentally ill, and shot once in and killed by Houston PD officerJoseph H. Shackett. Colleen reportedly suicidal and having committed no offense, Shackett nevertheless hunted for and found her walking on a city street. Colleen told him she didn't want to talk to him, and continued walking as Shackett "kept an eye on her." Claiming he thought she had a gun, despite having been told by Colleen's mother less that 15 minutes earlier that she was unarmed and had no access to guns. Shackett then claims that Colleen approached his car with her hand inside her fanny pack, saying she was holding it as if it were a gun. Shackett shot her when she was just inches away. Despite an HPD general order that requires officers to "detain all witnesses," Shackett nevertheless ignores the numerous civilian witnesses to this murder and allows all traffic to proceed, thus ensuring that no witnesses other than police officers and EMS personnel remain. And despite the severity of her injury, Colleen lay on a gurney for 6 minutes before the ambulance left the site. Neither Shackett nor EMS personnel called for Life Flight, which likely would have saved her life since she died after arriving at the hospital 45 minutes later. Colleen was allowed to bleed to death, further ensuring no civilian witness to this incident. Shackett was no-billed.
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Officers Involved: Troy Brown
Location: Austin Texas
1999 -- Herbert Vences was a non-English speaking Mexican national killed by a APD Officer Troy Brown in 1999 because he allegedly pulled an 14- inch stick from a tree (in view of the officer) and threatened to stab him with it.
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Officers Involved: Floyd Goodwin
Location: Texas
7/09/1999 -- Janette Rodriguez (11 months old) is killed and three other family members critically injured when DPS trooper Floyd Goodwin, without siren or emergency lights, hits family's car from behind as he races to another accident. Witnesses say Goodwin's speed was more than 100 mph when he hit the Rodriguez car. Goodwin was no-billed.
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Officers Involved: J.E. Lopez
Location: Houston, Texas
1/22/1999 -- Sheryl Sue Seymour, 40, mentally ill, shot once and killed by officer J.E. Lopez after calling for ambulance to take her to hospital. Police claim she lunged at them with a butcher knife. Sheryl was barely 5 ft. tall.
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A Houston police officer named Scott Tschirhart shot to death three black men in circumstances that led to protests and a grand jury investigation. Cleared by the grand jury, Tschirhart was eventually fired by Houston's black police chief shortly after the third killing in 1989.
It was well known to his fellow officers that Tschirhart was a user of anabolic steroids, and they had watched the drugs transform him as a bodybuilder and as a policeman. "The bigger he got … the worse he got about strutting around and bragging," a veteran officer recalled. "You could really see him changing." But the Houston Police Department had no policy against steroid use, so no one intervened until the third fatal shooting provoked the department to investigate this officer's unusually violent career.
>>>> Texas Deputy Sheriff Scott Tschirhart brutally beat two young Chicanos last July; Tschirhart had been forced off the Houston police after killing three Black men.
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Officers Involved: Stan Farris
Location: Austin Texas
1999 -- Johnny Cornell was a black Austinite with mental impairments killed by an APD Officer Stan Farris. Farris shot Cornell three times in the left side and once in the center of his back. Cornell was Farris fourth shooting victim , the second to suffer mortal wounds. Farris said Cornell madly rushed him head on with a knife wielded over his head, but civilian witnesses said Cornell was not running but walking, and toward his mother, not the officer.
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Location: Austin Texas
Officer Stan Farris, a 26-year veteran beat cop, told the city's Police Oversight Focus Group that "I wanted to work on the street so it's more likely I'll be involved in shootings." In that, he has succeeded. In 1999, Johnny Cornell became the fourth person who Officer Farris shot during his career, and the second to suffer mortal wounds. Each time Farris has been cleared both by the department (in this case Chief Stan Knee), by the District Attorney's office, and by the Travis County Grand Jury, which is convened and largely controlled by the DA.
In the Johnny Cornell case, Farris claimed that the mentally impaired Mr. Cornell rushed him with a kitchen knife, wielding it over his head as though he were planning to physically attack the officer. The only corroborating witness that Cornell "rushed" Farris was an EMS technician who Farris apparently knew prior to the shooting. Moreover, by Farris' own testimony, he compared stories with the EMS technician before other officers arrived on the scene: "Jason with EMS came up to me and asked me if I was alright," Farris said in a sworn affidavit. "I told him I was okay and I asked him if he had seen what had happened." Despite the availability of this testimony, all Farris' superiors accepted Farris' account, as did the DA, the grand jury and all of Austin's mainstream media.
To have reached this conclusion, police and the grand jury must have chosen to ignore testimony by the only eyewitness to the shooting who did not have a prior relationship with either the shooter or the victim: Yawar Abbas, the store clerk in whose parking lot the incident occurred. Mr. Abbas swore out an affidavit in the case contradicting Farris' testimony. For starters, "the body shop guy told me that the son had a knife but I didn't see it," he told APD Homicide detectives on 2-2-99.
Abbas said he "could see the son as the police officer got out of the car. The son was walking in the direction of the police officer. The police officer told the son to stop one time and the police officer backed up towards the back of the police car and he had his gun out. The son never did stop and continued to walk toward the direction of the officer and the mother's car. I was yelling to the police officer that the son was crazy. I yelled, 'He's crazy, he's crazy!' The ambulance guy had gotten out by now and was yelling for me to get out of the way. I backed up and I saw and heard the officer shoot the son three times. The son fell down to the ground face first."
Officer Farris told investigators he shot three times quickly, then once more when Cornell got to his knees and lunged at him. Examine the graphic below. According to Cornell's mother, Georgia Parr, who witnessed the shooting, the first shot hit Cornell at the base of the neck. Supporting this claim, the coroner found a bullet had entered Cornell's neck from the left side sloping slightly downward and forward, lodging near his right collarbone. The coroner determined that this shot to the neck had been the fatal wound. The second shot entered Cornell's left shoulder, and the third shot entered the left side of his chest, as though in his dying moments he were turning to face his assailant.
Farris told investigators he fired the fourth and final shot when Cornell got to his knees and lunged at him. However, as clearly depicted on this diagram, the last shot entered Cornell's body in the middle of his back. The trajectory of the wound indicates it went downward into his body lodging near his buttocks. For a bullet to take this angle, Cornell either would have to have been shot from above, or while he was prone on the ground. If this analysis is correct, then Cornell was shot from the left side, not the front as Officer Farris told investigators, then finished off with a shot to the back after he fell.
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Location: Austin Texas
On January 24, 1998, Rodney Wickware a 31 year old black Austinite, was walking near the 6900 block of North Lamar toward some fast food restaurants up the street from his apartment. He had gotten off work at 11 p.m., and according to his roommate Wickware had just enough time to grab a bite to eat before he met a date at midnight to go out. He was jaywalking across North Lamar when officers pulled him over because he looked suspicious and was allegedly walking erratically. Since that neighborhood is predominantly white, one naturally wonders whether some type of racial profiling might also have contributed to the officers' intervention into Mr. Wickware's affairs.
Though Wickware was unarmed, ultimately five officers arrived on the scene before the decision to arrest him was made. Police said Wickware stopped breathing during the fight. The autopsy indicated that Mr. Wickware's larynx had been crushed and that he died from lack of oxygen to the brain. EMS workers performed an emergency tracheotomy on Wickware when they arrived to facilitate breathing, but he never recovered. Even so, Deputy Medical Examiner Dr. Elizabeth Peacock ruled that the crushed larynx had not cause this lack of oxygen, but instead theorized that Mr. Wickware had ingested antifreeze, a highly poisonous substance, likely in order to commit suicide or in an ineffably misguided attempt to get high.
Wickware's family and roommate dispute that Wickware would have ingested anti-freeze that night for either reason. A man about to meet a date after work had too much to look forward to to contemplate death. And Wickware's associates say he had no inclinations toward the type of extremist substance abuse which would be a necessary prerequisite for drinking deadly antifreeze to get high. Mrs. Wilma Wickware, Rodney's mother from Tyler, speculates that APD officers, knowing they'd strangled her son, might have forced antifreeze down him to provide an alternative cause of death and to get themselves off the hook. Whether or not that disturbing scenario is correct, it does seem unlikely that the crushed larynx was merely coincidental to the fact that Wickware passed out in an officer's chokehold and died from lack of oxygen to the brain.
No charges were ever filed against the five officers who assaulted Mr. Wickware, no apology or admission of wrongdoing has been forthcoming and his family has never been compensated for their loss. All these officers went back onto active duty.
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BELLAIRE FILES LAWSUIT TO FORCE SLAIN TEEN'S FAMILY TO ACCEPT OFFER
Two Bullets In The Back Of A 10th-Grade Boy, Travis Allen, In Bellaire, Texas, Killed In Police Custody While Allegedly On LSD - A $25 Million Lawsuit Filed By His Parents Against The Bellaire Police Department And Two Officers Alleging Excessive Use Of Force goes To Trial On August 17 - When A Grand Jury At First Absolved Police, One Juror Told The 'Houston Chronicle' That Another Politically Connected Juror Had Applied Pressure Not To Indict, Which Led To District Attorney Johnny Holmes Jailing The Reporter And Indicting And Prosecuting The Juror Who Spoke Out)
The city of Bellaire has filed a lawsuit in state court to try to force the family of a slain teen-ager to accept a settlement proposed during mediation of a federal suit.
Noel and Rebecca Allen of Houston, parents of 17-year-old Travis Allen, signed the $90,000 settlement on July 25 in the wrongful death suit they filed in 1996. But two days later, the Allens and one of their lawyers, Graydon Wilson, told U.S. District Judge David Hittner that the parents were bullied into accepting the ostensibly meager sum by the mediator and the opposing lawyers.
In December 1995, they filed a $25 million lawsuit against the Bellaire Police Department and officers Michael Leal and Carle Upshaw, alleging excessive use of force. The lawsuit has forced the Allens to relive their son's death, but has also uncovered many new details about it. Efforts to dismiss the case have been themselves dismissed. Last week, U.S. District Judge David Hittner scheduled the case for trial on August 17
The mediator, M.A. "Mickey" Mills, and Bill Helfand, the attorney for Bellaire and the two police officers who were sued, strongly denied the charges. Helfand told Hittner the agreement should be enforced like any other contract, but Hittner said a federal court does not have jurisdiction to determine the validity of a contract between two parties who live in Texas.
On Nov. 5, Hittner ordered the wrongful death case be delayed until a state court resolves the settlement dispute.
Helfand said Friday that he hopes the state suit, which was filed Monday in the court of state District Judge Pat Mizell, can be resolved before the end of the year. Helfand also represents officers Michael Leal and Carle Upshaw.
On Aug. 13, Mills, the mediator, told Hittner that Wilson urged the Allens to sign the agreement after acknowledging he would have a difficult time winning the federal suit.
Wilson said the Allens realized they did not want the proposed settlement "probably within one hour of walking out of the (mediation) room."
He said there are several reasons the signed agreement is not valid:
Although it was signed July 25, the settlement said it would have to be finalized by Bellaire City Council on Aug. 3. This meant it was not a valid contract until Aug. 3, and the Allens withdrew their support of the
settlement on July 25.
The settlement was made on behalf of a third party who was not at the mediation, Gracie Allen, the Allens' daughter. According to Wilson, Gracie Allen rejected the settlement before the Aug. 3 council vote.
The language of the settlement was indefinite. One paragraph outlined the terms of the settlement, while a later paragraph said if any disputes arose, there would be further mediation.
Bellaire City Council violated Texas open meetings laws by conducting an executive session prior to the mediation and discussing the settlement in closed session Aug. 3 before voting on it in open session.
Helfand said Wilson's contentions are absurd.
Helfand said that according to state law, a contract is valid when "there is a meeting of the minds," which occurred July 25.
He said Gracie Allen's name is not mentioned anywhere in the settlement. He said the city later agreed to put the money that would go to the Allens under a trust fund set up for Gracie, which he assumed was established to avoid paying taxes on the settlement.
Wilson had accused Helfand of sending a letter to the Allens warning them they might have to pay the attorneys' fees for the city and the officers in the federal case if they lost. Helfand said he always advises adversaries in legal proceedings that they may have to pay his fees if he feels their claims are without merit.
Helfand said the real tragedy in the contract dispute is that under Texas law, the Allens will have to pay the attorneys' fees if they lose. He said if this happens, as much as $20,000 could be deducted from the $90,000 settlement.
Travis Allen was on drugs when he smashed through the patio door of a Bellaire home in the 4400 block of Acacia about 1:10 a.m. July 15, 1995.
The teen-ager was injured and bleeding on the floor when police responded to an intruder call from the homeowner, the Allens contend.
The family said Upshaw's foot was on the teen's back, immobilizing him, when Leal fired two shots into the boy's back. A grand jury declined to indict the officers on any criminal charges.
Helfand said Friday that the Allens received a $108,000 settlement this spring in a state lawsuit they filed against Sharon Reed, the owner of a house where Travis attended a party the night he was shot.
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Officers Involved: Robert C. Johns
Location: Garland Texas
1993 -- The family of a 26-year-old man shot to death by a Garland, Texas police officer during a 1991 drug raid has sued the officer in federal court for more than $1 million. The parents of the dead man, allege in the suit that Officer Robert C. Johns unjustifiably used deadly force and then fabricated a story in conjunction with other police officials, to justify the shooting. Kenneth Baulch was asleep in his trailer around 2 p.m. of February 14, 1991 when a group of police officers dressed in black and wearing ski masks burst through the door and aimed pistols at his brother. The officers then kicked down the bedroom door, yelling "freeze!" and almost immediately fired three shots, fatally wounding Kenneth Baulch. They later seized a small quantity of marijuana. Police said they shot Kenneth Baulch because he attacked Officer Johns with an ashtray. The suit specifically refutes this allegation, stating that "at no time did Kenneth Baulch attempt to strike anyone, or use the ashtray as a weapon."
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Officers Involved: Juan Rojas and Juan Moreno
Killed: Richard Ponce
Location: El Paso, Texas
09/27/1993 -- Officers Juan Rojas and Juan Moreno were on a ride along with two producers of the TV program "COPS".(TM) Richard Ponce's mother saw the whole incident and said yes her son had a broken knife in his hands and stood 25 feet from officers and wasn't a danager to the officers and they shot him.
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Officers Involved: Wayne Denson, Stephen Orlando, and Joseph Janish
Location: Houston, Texas
1977- Joe Campos Torres, 23, unarmed, drowned in Buffalo Bayou after
being beaten so severely by HPD officers Wayne Denson, Stephen Orlando and Joseph Janish that a booking sergeant refused to accept him at the City Jail.
Torres was arrested when officers responded to a disturbance call at a bar. When the sergeant refused to jail him, the officers took him to the Bayou, beat him again and pushed him into the water. He was found dead in the Bayou two days later. His killers said they only wanted to beat into him a respect for the law.
They were sentenced to one year in jail for killing him, and ten years probation for beating him.
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2000 -- Jaime Santiago Cruz, 23, shot three (3) times and killed by HPD officer M. S. Reutzel when he raises the volume of his stereo. Although police say Santiago reached for a toy gun, the only witness disputes that claim. The witness, who cannot read English, was threatened with imprisonment if he did not sign the statement prepared in English by HPD
Police say only three (3) shots were fired, and three (3) bullets hit Santiago; yet they also report that "bullets ricocheted off the à wall" of his apartment. Grand jury declines to hear witnesses, no-bills Reutzel. The Mexican Consulate then asks for new investigation into shooting death of Santiago, accuses prosecutors of failing to uphold rights of immigrants "who are the victims of police violence in the Houston area."
