Pubdate: Sat, 04 Aug 2012
Source: Courier-Post (Cherry Hill, NJ)
Copyright: 2012 Courier-Post
Contact:  http://www.courierpostonline.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/826
Author: George Mast

GROUP TYPICAL OF FALSE ARRESTS

CAMDEN -- Five men have emerged as symbols of the worst excesses by a
squad of rogue cops whose misconduct has spawned dozens of lawsuits
against the city.

There's Ron Mills, who weighs more than 300 pounds and walks with a
cane. He spent nine months in prison after allegedly discarding drugs
while outrunning police.

And Kenneth Pitts, who was jailed for 11 months and a day after a 2008
arrest for an alleged drug deal he said never happened. The Lawnside
man contends he was arrested while bringing groceries to a friend's
house in Camden after serving as a chaperone for a youth group.

Three others were arrested in 2007 for drugs their lawyers say were
planted. Melvin McLean was locked up for 35 months. Shawn Beverly
spent 33 months behind bars. Charles Cottle spent more than a
year-and-a-half in custody.

All five men are among some 200 people who had criminal charges
vacated more than two years ago as authorities began to unravel years
of corruption and false arrests by a group of narcotics officers.

About 70 of those people are now suing the officers and the city in
federal court, claiming they were falsely arrested and imprisoned.
Others have also sued in state court.

Attorneys say the five men have been chosen as "bellwether
plaintiffs." Their cases have been brought to the forefront as
perceived strong examples of injustice, a strategy often used in
class-action lawsuits to help influence a settlement.

"The idea of the bellwether plaintiffs is to give everyone in the case
a clear sense of how over the top these officers were in what they
were doing and to demonstrate this was not one isolated event," said
Jason Williams, an attorney for New Jersey branch of the American
Civil Liberties Union. "These are we think some of the more compelling
stories that we want folks to here."

Depositions in the five cases began last month and are continuing this
month, according to federal court records.

Four of the former officers -- Jason Stetser, Kevin Parry, Antonio
Figueroa and Dan Morris -- await sentencing on corruption charges. A
fifth officer, Robert Bayard, was acquitted at a trial in December,
but he is also being sued by many of the plaintiffs for his alleged
role in the arrests.

Stetser, Parry and Morris pleaded guilty in 2010, admitting they
planted evidence, conducted illegal searches and prepared phony crime
reports. Figueroa was found guilty in the December trial.

Mills, a father of two and a former employee of the Camden Parking
Authority, has been near the forefront of the debacle since before
charges were announced against the officers. His arrest was among
about a dozen cases highlighted during the plea hearings and the
December trial of Figueroa and Bayard.

Prosecutors said Mills in January 2009 was in a neighbor's home in
Camden when four officers stormed in. Mills was told to leave, which
he did.

The officers then allegedly recovered drugs and a gun during an
illegal search of the home. Federal authorities said a false report
was written, stating Mills had run from the home and was seen throwing
drugs to the ground.

A warrant was issued for Mills' arrest and he was picked up at his
mother's house in March by members of the U.S. Marshals Service.

But the arresting marshal noted Mills' weight and disability. Knowing
Mills could not have run away as the report indicated, the suspicious
marshal alerted the Camden Police Department Internal Affairs Unit,
sparking an investigation.

Mills maintained his innocence and was waiting in jail for his trial
when the Camden County Prosecutor's Office vacated the charges, said
his attorney Ken Aita. He said the nine months in prison took a
significant toll, even causing Mills to develop Bell's palsy.

"The biggest part of it was the mental and emotional strain it put on
him," Aita said. "He knew he wasn't guilty."

Cottle's run-in with the officers came in November 2007. According to
a lawsuit filed on Cottle's behalf, he was hanging out at a friend's
apartment on Morton Street when Stetser, Parry and Morris broke down
the door without a warrant.

The suit claims the officers beat Cottle before handcuffing the pair
and searching them for drugs.

The officers found no drugs, but Cottle still was charged with
possession to distribute a controlled dangerous substance, the lawsuit
states. Advised by his attorney that a jury was more likely to believe
the officers then him, Cottle pleaded guilty in April 2008.

Cottle's charges were vacated and he was set free after 587
days.

"For one year and nine months, Mr. Cottle was confined against his
will based on the admittedly unlawful actions of the defendant
officers and the governmental entities that failed to restrain them,"
his lawsuit states.

In McLean's September 2007 arrest, Figueroa reported seeing a white
male buy drugs from McLean near Norris and Morton streets. In a police
report, Figueroa said he approached McLean and found 36 baggies of
crack nearby on the ground.

Beverly was arrested by Figueroa in September 2007, after the officer
reported seeing several drug deals near 4th Street and Ferry Avenue.
In his report, Figueroa said Beverly tried to flee from cops, but was
arrested. A baggie of drugs was recovered.

Both men assert they were set up.

Attorney Val Wilson, who represents Beverly and McLean, said he is
looking forward to the day his clients get the compensation they deserve.

"They spent three years in jail. They had kids. One had a job," he
said.

"It's a long time to be away."

On the night of his arrest in March 2008, Pitts escorted a youth
outing to a Philadelphia 76ers game, visited his mother in
Collingswood, then went to Camden with a friend to drop off some groceries.

While the other man brought the groceries into a house, Pitts' lawsuit
says, he sat in a car.

According to the lawsuit, Stetser and Parry approached, ordered Pitts
from the car, frisked him and asked what he knew about the drug trade
in the area. When Pitts said he had no knowledge, the officers
illegally searched his car and reported they had found a bag of
cocaine, says the lawsuit.

The officers offered to "sweep everything under the rug" if Pitts
would provide information about the drug trade. When Pitts again said
he had no knowledge, he was arrested.

According to the lawsuit, a subsequent police report written by
Stetser said Pitts was seen selling drugs.

While the five men are thought to represent compelling cases, Aita and
Williams are quick to say all of the plaintiffs, even those with
previous criminal records, deserve compensation.

"In our view, whether or not you had a criminal record is immaterial
to whether or not what they did was legal or acceptable," Williams
said.

According to court filings, the average length of incarceration for
the dozens of plaintiffs was 510 days. Together, the group spent a
collective 107 years in prison.

City officials didn't return a request for comment for this
article.

Camden officials are currently in litigation with the city's insurance
provider over who will cover damages from the lawsuits.

Aita said there have been so settlement talks in the federal court
cases. However, at least 11 settlement agreements have been reached in
the state court cases, with damages totaling $340,000. A state law
sets compensation at $54.79 per day compensation for those wrongly
imprisoned.

Aita said it is a complex task when trying to calculate what time in
prison is worth.

"You couldn't pay me enough," he said.
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