Court Digest

Washington
Medical expert testifies restraint actions of Tacoma police killed man
TACOMA, Wash. (AP) — An expert in forensic pathology testified Monday in the ongoing trial of three Tacoma, Washington, police officers charged with the death of Manuel Ellis that Ellis likely would have lived if not for the officers’ actions to restrain him.

Dr. Roger Mitchell, former chief medical examiner for Washington, D.C., made the statement Monday and last week affirmed ex-Pierce County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Clark’s ruling that Ellis died by homicide from oxygen deprivation caused by physical restraint, The Seattle Times reported.

Officers Matthew Collins and Christopher Burbank, both white, are charged with murder and manslaughter in the death of Ellis, a 33-year-old Black man, on March 3, 2020. Officer Timothy Rankine, who is Asian American, is charged with manslaughter.

Collins and Burbank were the first officers to engage with Ellis and have said they did so because Ellis, on foot, was hassling people in a car as it passed through an intersection.

All have pleaded not guilty and remain employed by the Tacoma Police Department on paid leave.

Mitchell was questioned by special prosecutor Patty Eakes about medical findings that led him to his conclusion. Key among them, he said, was the presence of acidosis, a condition indicative of insufficient oxygen.

People experiencing low oxygen instinctively seek to breathe, and heavy breathing is the body’s natural cure for acidosis, Mitchell said. Ellis, pressed against the ground by police as he lay on his stomach, couldn’t find a position that allowed him to breathe, Mitchell testified.

Prosecutors previously said Ellis’ last words were “I can’t breathe.”

Defense attorneys have generally argued Ellis died of a meth­amphetamine overdose.

Collins’ lawyer, Jared Ausserer, later questioned Mitchell about describing himself on social media as “an advocate.” Mitchell, who is Black, said he is an advocate for finding public health solutions to problems that have disproportionately affected Black Americans.

Rankine’s lawyer, Mark Conrad, asked Mitchell whether he drew his conclusions from “circumstantial evidence.”

Mitchell said his conclusion — that restraint caused Ellis to be denied sufficient oxygen — was based on a number of factors: Ellis being placed in a prone position, his handcuffed hands hogtied to his feet, with a spit hood on his head; the presence of food and blood in his airways; and documentation at the scene that Ellis’ heart rate and breathing gradually deteriorated.

Last week two eyewitnesses characterized the officers as the aggressors in the altercation. Lawyers for the officers have said it was Ellis who acted aggressively, prompting them to respond.

Testimony is scheduled to resume Tuesday when the prosecution is expected to call a forensic audio expert to testify.

This is the first trial under a Washington state law that makes it easier to prosecute police who wrongfully use deadly force.

The trial, which started Oct. 3, is expected to run four days per week until December.

New York
Raptors seek dismissal of lawsuit by Knicks
The Toronto Raptors seek dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the New York Knicks that says the Raptors – including new head coach Darko Rajakovic -- conspired to steal thousands of videos and scouting files through a former Knicks employee.

The initial lawsuit the Knicks filed in Manhattan federal court seeks unspecified damages and a ban on the further spread of the Knicks’ trade secrets. The Raptors called the Knicks’ lawsuit “baseless” and “a public relations stunt by the Knicks” in a court filing on Monday.

The Knicks said the theft occurred after the Raptors hired and recruited “a mole” — identified in the lawsuit as Ikechukwu Azotam — within the Knicks organization. The lawsuit said Azotam had directed the planning, organizing and distribution of all video scouting responsibilities for the Knicks’ coaching staff since August 2021 before leaving the team this August.

The Knicks lawsuit said on Aug. 11, Azotam sent two emails from his Knicks email address to his new Raptors email address containing “proprietary information with highly confidential material.”

The Knicks blamed Rajakovic, player development coach Noah Lewis, the Raptors’ parent company — Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment Ltd. — and 10 unidentified Raptors employees, saying that they received proprietary information and sometimes directed Azotam to misuse his access to Knicks information.

“As we have previously stated, given the theft of proprietary and confidential files and clear violation of criminal and civil law, we were left no choice but to take this to federal court and are confident the judicial system will agree,” a spokesman for Madison Square Garden Sports said in a statement.

The lawsuit said the Raptors employees had directed Azotam to misuse his access to a Knicks subscription to Synergy Sports to create and transfer for their use over 3,000 files consisting of film information and data, including 3,358 video files. The Raptors’ employees had accessed the stolen files more than 2,000 times, the lawsuit said.

The Raptors said the lawsuit doesn’t make sense and note that the Knicks have agreed that commissioner Adam Silver has jurisdiction over such cases. The Raptors also said the broad scope of the Knicks’ complaint would make a resolution in court unlikely before 2025.


Louisiana
Exonerated in 2022, men sue over prosecution
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Two men whose convictions in a 1994 New Orleans murder were tossed decades later — in part because a notoriously corrupt killer cop was involved in the investigation — sued the city, the district attorney and several former police officers Monday.

Kunta Gable and Sidney Hill (also known as Leroy Sidney Nelson), say in their federal lawsuit they were framed by former police officer Len Davis, who now faces a federal death sentence, and Davis’ accomplice, former officer Sammie Williams. Gable and Hill seek an unspecified amount in damages in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court.

Both men were locked up for nearly three decades before current District Attorney Jason Williams joined defense lawyers in 2022 to seek their release. Key to that decision was the involvement of Davis. Davis was convicted on federal charges in the 1990s for, while serving as a police officer, having masterminded a drug protection ring involving several other officers and arranging the murder of a woman who filed a brutality complaint against him.

Gable, Hill and Bernell Juluke were teenagers in 1994 when they were arrested in the shooting death of Rondell Santinac near the Desire housing development.

A motion to vacate their conviction was granted by a state judge in 2022. Among the problems the attorneys cited in the case was prosecutors’ failure to disclose evidence undermining the case against the men. Also, the jury didn’t know that Davis and Sammie Williams — the first officers on the scene — were known to cover up the identity of perpetrators and manipulate evidence at murder scenes at the housing development to cover up for drug dealers they protected.

“Although the vacatur of Plaintiffs’ convictions is a long-overdue step towards justice, it does not begin to remedy the enormous harm caused by Defendants’ misconduct,” the lawsuit says.

In addition to the city, the lawsuit names the district attorney, Davis and Sammie Williams, several former detectives and police supervisors as defendants. In addition to spelling out wrongs against Gable and Hill, the lawsuit outlines scandals that plagued the department in the early 1990s, as well as abuses outlined in a 2011 U.S. Department of Justice report. That report was released following an investigation into police policies and practices that was sparked by the deaths of unarmed civilians following Hurricane Katrina in 2005. It led to a broad reform plan, outlined in a court-approved document known as a “consent decree,” that the city is still operating under.

None of the defendants had responded to the lawsuit in court as of midday Monday. Contact information for Sammie Williams, who pleaded guilty in criminal cases and testified against Davis, wasn’t available. The city declined comment on the pending litigation.

District Attorney Jason Williams (no relation so Sammie Williams) was named a defendant in his capacity as the city’s top prosecutor. He took office in 2021, long after the prosecution of the men. A spokesman noted Williams played a key role in freeing the men.

“It is regrettable that lawyers continue to choose to name OPDA as a defendant in civil lawsuits even when — as in this case — it was OPDA’s work that was instrumental in investigating and exposing the wrongful conviction that caused the release of the wrongly convicted defendants,” Williams spokesman Keith Lampkin said in an email.


Missouri
Ex-officer who killed Black man loses appeal of his conviction
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A white former detective in Missouri who shot and killed a Black man in 2019 has lost an appeal of his conviction despite unusual support from the state’s Republican attorney general, with judges on Tuesday ordering the ex-officer placed under arrest.

Eric J. DeValkenaere was found guilty in 2021 of second-degree manslaughter and armed criminal action in the death of 26-year-old Cameron Lamb. Lamb was parking a pickup truck in his Kansas City back yard when the officer shot him, after reports Lamb was in a car chase with his girlfriend. The judge who found DeValkenaere guilty in a bench trial said police were the initial aggressors and had a duty to retreat, but DeValkenaere illegally used deadly force instead.

Prosecutors and Lamb’s family have alleged a handgun was planted after the shooting, but that issue was not addressed by Jackson County Circuit Court Presiding Judge J. Dale Youngs when he convicted the detective.

On Tuesday, a three-judge panel ruled unanimously that there had been enough evidence to convict DeValkenaere. He had been sentenced to three years in prison for involuntary manslaughter and six years for armed criminal action, with the sentences to run consecutively.

The former detective has been free on bond during the appeal, but the judges revoked his bond Tuesday and ordered a warrant for his arrest.

In an unusual legal move, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey in June asked the appeals court to reverse DeValkenaere’s conviction or order a new trial for him. In Missouri, the attorney general’s office handles criminal appeals and typically defends convictions, rather than appealing them.

A spokesperson on Tuesday said the attorney general’s office is reviewing the appeals court decision.

Police said DeValkenaere and his partner, Troy Schwalm, went to Lamb’s home after reports he’d been chasing his girlfriend’s convertible in a stolen pickup truck. DeValkenaere said he fired after Lamb pointed a gun at another detective. The judge said the officers had no probable cause to believe that any crime had been committed, had no warrant for Lamb’s arrest and had no search warrant or consent to be on the property.

Rumors had swirled this summer that Republican Gov. Mike Parson was considering pardoning or granting clemency to DeValkenaere. That prompted Jackson County Prosecutor Jean Peters Baker to send the governor a letter urging him not to do so. Civil rights advocates warned that releasing the former detective could cause unrest in the city and damage an already tense relationship between police and Kansas City’s Black community.

On Tuesday, a Parson spokesperson said the governor is “assessing the situation.”