Thursday, April 01, 1999
Police altered evidence, attorney charges
Court order sought in case of man killed by officers
BY BEN L. KAUFMAN
The Cincinnati Enquirer
A sawed-off automobile headrest has prompted lawyer Kenneth L. Lawson to allege that Cincinnati police altered vital evidence from Michael Demonn Carpenter's fatal traffic stop.
Worse, Mr. Lawson said, this is nothing novel, because officers changed, lost or discarded evidence in a deadly 1997 encounter with police.
Mr. Lawson represents Mr. Carpenter's family in a federal civil rights suit. He asked U.S. District Judge Herman J. Weber for an emergency temporary restraining order that would protect and preserve the Carpenter evidence, including taped statements that may contradict the official version of events.
Mr. Carpenter, 30, of Mount Airy, was shot in the head and right arm early March 19.
Almost a week later, Police Chief Thomas Streicher Jr. said:
• District 5 Officers Michael B. Miller II, 24, and Brent McCurley, 27, had stopped Mr. Carpenter's borrowed Pontiac in Northside because it had expired plates.
• Officer Miller tried to pull him from the car when Mr. Carpenter refused to get out.
• Mr. Carpenter accelerated, dragging Officer Miller about 15 feet, and appeared to be ready to back over Officer McCurley.
• That's when officers fired a total of 10 shots.
The Carpenters retained Mr. Lawson on March 20.
That same day, he said, he asked Chief Streicher, City Solicitor Fay Dupuis and Hamilton County Coroner Dr. Carl Parrott Jr. to preserve the evidence.
However, on March 24, when he saw the car, the headrest was sawed off the driver's seat where Mr. Carpenter was shot.
That altered the Pontiac “in a way that could make it difficult for a trajectory expert to determine the angles of the bullets, the position of the victim and the position of the officers at the time of the shooting,” Mr. Lawson said in his request for the court order.
That was consistent with Mr. Lawson's earlier conclusion that the angle and direction of the bullet wounds indicated Mr. Carpenter was “in a position of surrender” and lethal force was unjustified.
Mr. Lawson also told the judge that “Chief Streicher's version is not what the defendants Miller and McCurley initially reported to investigators the morning of the shooting.” Mr. Lawson said the court order would assure everyone that those taped interviews do not “come up missing.”
Wednesday, Assistant City Solicitor Frank H. Prouty Jr. said he assumed the headrest was removed for analysis “but I can't say why.” Mr. Prouty also said he had not listened to the officers' taped interviews and could not say whether they contradict the chief.
The other case referred to by Mr. Lawson involves Lorenzo Collins, a mentally ill Avondale man killed by Officer Douglas Depodesta in 1997.
To bolster his request for the court order, Mr. Lawson cited two problems in Mr. Collins' case, where he is co-counsel for the family:
• Cincinnati officers said they lost or discarded Mr. Collins' bloody bullet-ridden clothing. That shirt “would have been critical evidence in determining the range and distance the shooter was from the victim,” Mr. Lawson said.
U.S. District Judge Susan J. Dlott refused to dismiss the civil rights suit against Officer Depodesta, saying the angle of the fatal wound could indicate Mr. Collins was falling when Officer DePodesta fired and lethal force was unjustified.
• Someone altered the shooting scene diagram prepared by Spc. Clarence Caeser. Mr. Lawson said Spc. Caeser testified that he excluded positions of officers and Mr. Collins but someone added them.
Mr. Prouty would not comment on the Collins case because he had not worked on it.
Despite Mr. Lawson's allegations, Mr. Lawson and Mr. Prouty were trying to draft an agreement Wednesday to preserve the evidence without hampering investigations of Mr. Carpenter's death.
They have a date before Judge Weber at 9 a.m. April 9, either for his signature on an agreed order or to argue their differences over Mr. Lawson's requested restraining order.
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