Pubdate: Tue, 5 Aug 2008
Source: Blade, The (Toledo, OH)
Copyright: 2008 The Blade
Contact:  http://www.toledoblade.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/48
Author: Jennifer Feehan, Blade Staff Writer
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/raids.htm (Drug Raids)
Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/people/Tarika+Wilson (Tarika Wilson)

LIMA POLICE OFFICER NOT GUILTY IN DEADLY RAID

Jury Determines His Actions Weren't Negligent

LIMA, Ohio - Police officers filling the cramped courtroom breathed a 
sigh of relief, and family members of Sgt. Joseph Chavalia gasped and 
whispered, "Thank God."

And those who loved Tarika Wilson cried out in anger and frustration 
as a judge read the two "not guilty" verdicts for Sergeant Chavalia yesterday.

"We're supposed to take this with a smile? We're supposed to believe 
in justice?" asked an incredulous Ivory Austin II, whose half-sister 
was shot to death by the veteran police officer during a Jan. 4 drug 
raid at her home.

After hearing 3 1/2 days of testimony in Allen County Common Pleas 
Court, the jury of four white men and four white women deliberated a 
little more than three hours before returning the not-guilty verdicts 
for misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault.

The jury had been charged with determining whether Sergeant Chavalia, 
52, was negligent when he fired his fully automatic rifle from a dark 
stairway at a shadowy figure he said he believed was firing at him. 
His three shots killed Wilson, 26, and injured her 1-year-old son, 
Sincere, who was in her arms. The youngster, who was hit in the 
shoulder and finger, had to have one of his fingers amputated because 
it was all but shot off.

Lead defense attorney Bill Kluge - one of four attorneys representing 
the sergeant - said afterward that he hoped the jury's decision would 
settle the unrest and distrust of police that erupted in the wake of 
the shooting of Wilson, who was biracial, by the white police officer.

"We hope this will bring peace to the community," Mr. Kluge said. "We 
tried to explain why Joe used deadly force that night."

As of late last night, Lima police said no verdict-related 
disturbances had been reported.

Mr. Kluge said no officer wants to kill another person yet many of 
the SWAT team members who took the stand during the trial testified 
that if they were placed in Sergeant Chavalia's position, they would 
have done exactly what he did.

The defendant himself took the stand last week and unapologetically 
told the jury that as he neared the top of the staircase moments 
after the SWAT team burst into the Third Street house, he spotted 
movement down the hallway behind him. He said he saw a shadowy figure 
he believed to be an adult move in and out of a bedroom doorway, 
appearing at the same time he heard gunfire. He returned fire.

"There was absolutely, positively no doubt in my mind right then and 
there that whatever this was is shooting and they're trying to kill 
me," he told the jury on Thursday.

As it turned out, the gunfire had come from the kitchen where two 
members of the SWAT team had fired at two pit-bull dogs let loose on 
the officers by Wilson's boyfriend, Anthony Terry, who was the target 
of the raid. Police found no weapons in the house but discovered 
Wilson's five other children in the bedroom where she and Sincere were shot.

Since the fatal shooting took place seven months ago, police remained 
mum about the circumstances. Even after Seregant Chavalia was 
indicted by an Allen County grand jury in March, no one would say why 
the sergeant fired at the unarmed woman and her child.

The trial provided that answer, but it was hard for some to swallow.

"We've got to do better. We've given people the license to kill," 
Jason Upthegrove, president of the Lima chapter of the NAACP, said afterward.

The Rev. Arnold Manley, pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, said 
he came to the trial to see justice prevail but that did not happen.

"As a pastor, I'm hurt deeply that we can walk away from this and say 
justice has been done," he said. "... How do I go out to tell the 
people on the streets, 'Let the law prevail'? How do I say that? 
White man justice. Black man grief."

'It Constituted a Threat'

Mr. Kluge refuted allegations that the shooting was racially based.

"Whether the shadowy figure behind the door was white, black, from 
Mars or from Venus, it doesn't matter," he said. "It constituted a threat."

Police officers are permitted to use deadly force to defend 
themselves or others from imminent risk of death or serious injury or 
to prevent the escape of a fleeing, dangerous suspect.

Still, it was difficult for family members of Wilson to believe that 
the 5-foot, 2-inch mother of six presented a deadly threat. Mr. 
Austin said it didn't help that the jury had no people of color sitting on it.

"Who could actually relate to my sister on that jury?" he asked. "You 
need people from all walks of life."

Special Prosecutor Jeff Strausbaugh said he did not believe the 
jury's racial makeup had any impact on its verdict because "there 
wasn't any type of racial motivation involved in the case."

"The jury's verdict is what it is, and I will respect their verdict," he said.

Mr. Strausbaugh said he believed the jury was influenced strongly by 
the judge's legal instructions in which they were told they could not 
consider the officer's action with the benefit of "20-20 hindsight," 
but had to look at the case from the officer's perspective at the 
time of the shooting.

Sergeant Chavalia, who remains on paid leave pending the outcome of 
an internal investigation to be completed by the Montgomery County 
Sheriff's Office, made no comments afterward.

Mr. Kluge said it was unlikely Sergeant Chavalia would be working as 
a police officer in Lima again, but declined to say whether he was 
planning to retire.

Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock said he was relieved.

A Lone Protester

"Obviously, I am pleased with the verdict of not guilty. Our feeling 
was there was no criminal conduct exhibited in this matter," he said.

After the verdicts were read about 5 p.m., a lone protester carried 
signs reading, "Police accountability now" and "Liberty and justice 
for some?" Maria Williams, who held the signs, called out to passing 
motorists, "Another police acquittal. Can it be justice for Tarika? 
Stop police brutality now. Stop it now."

Ms. Williams said she was there for Wilson and other victims of 
police violence.

"I'm the voice for Tarika right now because she couldn't be here. We 
have to be the voice for the voiceless," she said. "How can it be 
that a mother and her baby die at the hands of a public servant?"

Mr. Upthegrove said the verdicts didn't surprise him but sickened 
him. He was dismayed too to see the handful of people who showed up 
in support of Wilson's family.

"You can look around and see a total of about 15 people here," he 
said. "It's another example of how there's very low value on a black 
life in this community."

In closing arguments yesterday, Mr. Strausbaugh told the jury that 
the fact that Sergeant Chavalia fired the weapon that killed Wilson 
and injured her son was undisputed.

The only issue, he said, was whether he acted negligently, meaning he 
showed "a substantial lapse of due care" when he pulled the trigger.

Mr. Strausbaugh said in his mind the officer was indeed negligent: 
Sergeant Chavalia did not identify his target, which was in fact an 
unarmed mother with a baby in her arms.

He said Sergeant Chavalia's contention that he thought the gunfire 
came from the bedroom was inconsistent with the testimony of the 
officer standing just one step behind him on the stairs who told the 
jury he thought the gunfire came from downstairs.

"There wasn't so much as a verbal threat that came out of that room 
before he fired," Mr. Strausbaugh said.

He said the officer should be held accountable; otherwise "you end up 
with a situation like this where officers are never wrong."

Boyfriend Gets Blame

Mr. Kluge told the jury Anthony Terry was to blame for Wilson's 
death, Sincere's injuries, and for putting Sergeant Chavalia in front 
of a jury on criminal charges. He also put some of that blame on 
Wilson herself.

"Why would she put those children in that position? I don't know the 
answer to that," Mr. Kluge said. "Love is a strange thing."

He said Wilson could have changed the course of events if she had 
identified herself to the officer. Instead, he said, she moved in and 
out of the doorway "in a classic shoot-and-cover stance."

"Why didn't she yell out, 'I have children here. I'm unarmed. I have 
children here, please'? We don't know," Mr. Kluge said. 
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