From: nattyreb@ix.netcom.com
Date: Fri, 07 May 1999 18:37:44
Subject: !*More Cop Murders-Open Season Continues

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Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 18:23:19 -0700
From: Michael Novick 
Subject: kilMD04-Second Black man killed by white cops in two weeks

Montgomery officials, lawyers for family of slain black man meet
Unarmed victim shot by white officer during traffic stop
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 By Candus Thomson 
Sun Staff 
ROCKVILLE 

ROCKVILLE -- Lawyers for the family of a black man shot to death last month
by a white Montgomery County police officer met yesterday with county
officials -- including the insurance risk manager.

Johnnie Cochran, William H. Murphy Jr. and Walter Blair held a private
meeting with County Council President Isiah Leggett, two weeks after Blair
said they would be filing a "mega-lawsuit" against the county on behalf of
the wife and children of Junious Roberts.

After the meeting, the lawyers declined to say whether their visit signaled
the possibility of a settlement.

Roberts, 44, was shot once in the back April 14 after a brief struggle with
Officer Sean Thielke in the parking lot of a McDonald's restaurant on
Georgia Avenue in Wheaton.

It was the second time in two weeks that an unarmed black man was shot to
death by a white county officer, and it again placed the Montgomery
department in the position of denying it is racist.

"There's no penalty for shooting black people," said Leroy Warren, chairman
of the NAACP criminal justice committee and a Silver Spring resident.

Special prosecutor sought

Warren and local NAACP chapter President Linda Plummer have asked Leggett
to hire a special prosecutor to review this case and others.

"Things with the Justice Department are proceeding slowly and in the
meantime people are dying at the hands of police officers," Plummer said.

Being on the defensive is not new for the 1,300-member Montgomery County
Police Department. The U.S. Justice Department has been investigating
complaints filed by the local chapter of the National Association for the
Advancement of Colored People for three years and is expected to finish in
the next several months.

Two Montgomery County civilian review boards found no evidence of
systematic discrimination.

Officers cleared

Grand juries cleared officers in the Roberts death and the March 31 fatal
shooting of a Washington man who rammed a stolen car into three police
cruisers in Silver Spring.

Roberts' family paid for an independent autopsy and hired the three lawyers
to conduct their review of the case.

"To kill an unarmed man is just wrong," said Thomas Lewis, Roberts'
half-brother. "Nobody, but especially a police officer, should accidentally
kill somebody."

Yesterday's meeting was arranged by Leggett, a Howard University law
professor, "to explore the challenges of the case," said council spokesman
Patrick Lacefield.

The three lawyers emerged smiling from the council conference room after
the meeting of more than an hour.

"You know I'd love to give you a comment, but I just can't," said Murphy, a
Baltimore lawyer.

Cochran said the legal team was "going to wait for a period of time" before
deciding whether to file suit.

The shooting generated a flurry of activity from County Executive Douglas
M. Duncan, who ordered a review of firearms training and asked the Police
Department and county attorney to develop a program to identify and
discipline officers who use racial profiling.

The department has been instructed to compile racial statistics on people
who are stopped, arrested and charged.

Duncan said he does not believe white officers target minorities and that
he initiated the action to give the public more confidence in its officers.

According to the police account of the shooting April 14, Thielke saw
Roberts about 7 p.m. standing in an apartment complex parking lot talking
to another man. The officer thought Thielke's eyes appeared "glassy" and
thought the ignition on his late 1980s Oldsmobile was "punched," a sign of
a stolen vehicle.

When Roberts drove to a nearby shopping center parking lot, Thielke
followed and tried to stop him. Roberts, the officer said, ignored the
cruiser's red roof lights and drove away.

The officer caught Roberts a few blocks away at the McDonald's and walked
up to the car, his 9 mm semiautomatic Beretta drawn.

Roberts refused to get out, and Thielke said he could not see his right
hand. When the officer tried to drag Roberts from his vehicle, the gun
fired. The bullet struck Roberts' liver and he died three hours later.

Alcohol in blood

A state toxicology report showed Roberts had a blood-alcohol content of
0.27, nearly three times the legal limit.

Thielke, a six-year veteran of the force, did not wait for backup nor did
he wait for the dispatcher to relay that the car was not stolen, police said.

"The officer obviously did not feel he had enough time to do anything other
than what he did," said acting Chief Thomas Evans.


Originally published on May 5 1999 
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Date: Wed, 05 May 1999 17:25:04 -0700

                   Two officers are charged in death of suspect, 19
                   By Bill Bryan 
                   Of The St Louis MO Post-Dispatch May 5, 1999

                     Two St. Louis police officers were charged Tuesday
with fatally beating a 19-year-old burglary suspect on a rooftop April 24.

                   Officers Robert Dodson, 40, and Stephen Capkovic, 35,
both patrolmen in the First District, are charged with second-degree murder
in the death of Julius Thurman. According to an autopsy, Thurman suffered a
massive skull fracture caused by a blow with an object to the back of his
head.

                   St. Louis Circuit Attorney Dee Joyce-Hayes announced the
charges Tuesday afternoon at a press  conference after consulting with the
police and Dr. Michael A. Graham, the St. Louis medical examiner.
                   Earlier Tuesday, Graham had ruled Thurman's death a
homicide, because of the skull fracture.     Graham also said Thurman had
other injuries inflicted on him, but none that was life threatening.  A
conviction of second-degree murder carries a penalty of 10 years to life
imprisonment. 

                   The murder charges are the first filed against a St.
Louis police officer in 16 years, when Officer Joseph Ferrario was charged
with fatally shooting a bystander, Marilyn Banks, during a foot chase.
                   Ferrario was subsequently acquitted by a jury in a trial
moved to Jackson County. 

                   "This is not a good day," said Police Chief Ron Henderson. 

                   "It taints the St. Louis Police Department, but the
community has to understand that we'll take appropriate action when we see
possible wrongdoing. Most officers are good, hard-working officers. The
community has a good, honest police department. We're good, not perfect." 

                   Thurman's mother, Virginia Thurman, declined to comment
on the case until after her son's funeral, which will be Friday at 11 a.m.
at Eddie Randle & Sons Funeral Home, 4600 Natural Bridge Avenue. 

                   "I think the family is very pleased (that the officers
were charged)," said Ronald Rothman, a lawyer representing the Thurman
family. "Obviously, (Virginia Thurman) can't be thrilled that her son is
dead,  but she's glad that justice is moving forward." 

                   Capkovic was arrested Tuesday night and booked. He was
fingerprinted, photographed and surrendered his badge and pistol. Dodson
was expected to turn himself in Tuesday night and face the same procedure. 

                   It was unclear if the officers will have to post bond
for their release. 

                   Both officers will remain suspended without pay until
the case is over. 

                   Dodson is a 19-year veteran. His brother is a detective
and his uncle a sergeant on the force. His father was a longtime detective
on the department. 

                   A police source said Dodson received a psychiatric
evaluation in 1990 that indicated that he was under a lot of stress and
recommended that he work in a less stressful environment than the busy
Mobile Reserve unit, where he was assigned at the time. The evaluation
followed complaints by citizens against Dodson, and he was taken off the
street and put on desk duty for nearly a year, the source said. 

                   Capkovic has been on the department nine years. He has a
wife and three children, police said. 

                   Dodson and Capkovic had gone to the 2800 block of
Chippewa Street about 4:45 a.m. April 24 to  answer a burglar alarm
sounding. The officers discovered burglars on the roof, and Dodson and
Capkovic went up to the roof after the fire department sent a ladder. 

                   There were three burglars, including Thurman. 

                   The officers said in their report that Thurman fought
with them when they tried to arrest him. They said Thurman head-butted them
and kicked at them and that they had to subdue him. But they made no
mention of using their batons or anything else. 

                   According to one of Thurman's accomplices, who said he
witnessed the beating, it was Dodson who struck Thurman with a heavy-duty
flashlight. 

                   Lawyers for Dodson and Capkovic - C. John Pleban and
Andrew Leonard, respectively - could not be  reached for comment. 

                   An accomplice of Thurman has said that he witnessed
Thurman being beaten. He said both officers punched and kicked Thurman, and
he said one of them used his heavy duty flashlight to beat Thurman. 

                   During the arrest, Thurman began vomiting and he had to
be rushed to St. Louis University Hospital, where he was admitted in
critical condition. He died two days later, April 26, without ever
regaining consciousness. 

                   Rothman, the Thurman family lawyer, said there were
bruises on Thurman's back and shoulders. 

                   Graham said Thurman had several other injuries beside
the massive head wound, but none was lethal.
                   "Those injuries were not consistent with the sequence of
events in the (police) report, either," Graham said. 

                   Joyce-Hayes said a preliminary hearing will be the next
step in the case, perhaps in a month or two. 

                   A preliminary hearing is highly unusual in murder cases
in St. Louis. Normally the next step would normally be action by the grand
jury, which would hear testimony in secret and decide on charges. 

                   In a preliminary hearing, a judge hears testimony and
considers evidence in the open, before deciding if charges are warranted. 

                   "I think its in the best interest of both sides to
proceed in the open court room instead of the secret  confines of the grand
jury," Joyce-Hayes said. 

                   Joyce-Hayes has been criticized in the past -
particularly by some African-Americans - for sending cases involving police
misconduct to the grand jury. One such case was that of Officer Eddie
Sanchez, who fatally shot a youth who was running from him in 1996. Sanchez
said the youth, Garland Carter, was armed. Sanchez was not indicted by the
grand jury but did resign from the
                   department. 

                   Rothman welcomed the news of a preliminary hearing. "I
think its a good thing, particularly for the African-American community,"
he said. 

                   Thurman was black. The two officers are white.

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