1995 Shooting Investigation Is Called Into Question Autopsy Form at Issue in Clearing of Trooper

Document Page: 1995 SHOOTING INVESTIGATION IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AUTOPSY FORM AT ISSUE IN CLEARING OF TROOPER
8/11/13 9:17 PM
1995 SHOOTING INVESTIGATION IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AUTOPSY FORM AT ISSUE IN CLEARING OF TROOPER By DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERSDetroit Free Press; Detroit, Mich. 10-24-2000 1995 SHOOTING INVESTIGATION IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AUTOPSY FORM AT ISSUE IN CLEARING OF TROOPER Byline: By DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS Edition: METRO FINAL Section: NWS Type: News With a charming smile and plenty of street savvy, Inspector William Rice commands the spotlight as the head of the Detroit Police Homicide Section, one of the city's highest-profile positions. There are weeks in which Rice gets more television time than Mayor Dennis Archer. Prosecutors laud him as a solid cop. But Rice's actions have come into question in a 1995 investigation of a shooting by a state trooper. The off-duty trooper killed a man who had stolen a radio from his personal car. The central issue: Did Rice plant a bogus autopsy diagram in a homicide file to mislead prosecutors who cleared the trooper? Milton Greenman, a Southfield lawyer who represented the dead man's family in a suit against Trooper James Johnson, said that's what happened - - and that it's another example of Detroit police failing to impartially investigate a shooting by a fellow cop. Rice said he did nothing wrong. "I think that you would have to really, truly stretch to reach that
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conclusion," Rice said in an interview this month. "You would have to be a plaintiff's attorney to come up with something like that." The episode, however, has raised eyebrows in Detroit's law enforcement community and was a factor in the state's decision to pay the family of the dead man, Kendall Pritchett, $385,000 to settle their lawsuit. "It makes you wonder if it was an innocent mistake or a deliberate attempt to cover up," said Robert Agacinski, former deputy chief Wayne County prosecutor who reviewed the investigative file five years ago for possible charges and recommended that the trooper be cleared. "Only Bill Rice knows." The controversy centers on an official Wayne County Medical Examiner's autopsy form containing side view diagrams of a human body. The document, found in the police file, contained a handwritten notation that said there was no evidence of close-range firing on Pritchett's body. The words contradicted actual autopsy findings that Pritchett was shot at close range. Rice admitted in lawsuit testimony that he scrawled the note on the diagram after getting some initial information from the police crime lab before the autopsy report was finished. Rice said he left the diagram, which he described as "personal notes," in the homicide file that went to the prosecutor's office. Rice denied putting the document there to help clear the trooper. Trooper Johnson, who declined to be interviewed, said in court documents he shot Pritchett in self-defense after Pritchett tried to run him down with a
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car. Pritchett had just stolen Johnson's car radio and the trooper was trying to catch him. Johnson was cleared of criminal and administrative charges. Objectivity questioned The controversy over the suspicious autopsy diagram is the latest twist in an even larger debate over how objectively the Detroit Police Department investigates police shootings. Detroit has the highest rate of fatal police shootings among the nation's largest cities, the Free Press reported in May. During the past 10 months the newspaper has examined several fatal shootings, which have cost Detroit taxpayers millions of dollars in settlements. It found that in some cases detectives conducted haphazard investigations and overlooked key evidence and witnesses who contradicted officers' versions. Although Police Chief Benny Napoleon insisted that the investigations were proper, Detroit Mayor Dennis Archer ordered Napoleon in May to transfer shooting probes from homicide to internal affairs, which specializes in investigating police misconduct. After a public outcry over two questionable police shootings this summer, Archer asked the U.S. Department of Justice to review the department's handling of fatal police shooting investigations for the past five years. Greenman alleges the Pritchett case differs from the other shootings because it shows a willingness to create evidence and to protect an officer from another agency. He gave his file to the FBI, which is reviewing several Detroit police shootings. FBI officials would not comment.
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Napoleon said Friday that he would review the case: "I will take appropriate action if, in fact, it's determined that the inspector did something improper." Just a few seconds The events leading to the document's creation began July 18, 1995, when James Johnson settled into a chair at Bill's Barber Shop on West 7 Mile near Sorrento for a haircut that Saturday afternoon. He was startled by a familiar noise. "That's my alarm!" shouted Johnson, 31, who at the time had nearly 5 years on the State Police force. Johnson, who was wearing civilian clothes, leaped out of the chair and dashed out of the shop. Outside, Kendall Pritchett, 24, of Detroit, was sprinting toward the alley where his Oldsmobile Cutlass was parked with the engine running. Behind him was Johnson's new Dodge Intrepid, its right window shattered and a gaping hole in the dash where the radio had been. Exactly what happened in the next few seconds became the subject of three years of litigation. But this much is certain from court records and police reports: When Pritchett tried to speed off, Johnson fired at Pritchett -- who, mortally wounded in the chest, crashed into a utility pole and died. It was the first time Johnson had fired his weapon at anyone. Johnson told Detroit police officer Gerald Klisz that he fired in self-defense when Pritchett tried to run him down with a car. "I kept yelling at him to stop," Johnson told Klisz. "He then drove right at
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me and I fired at him." But in the ensuing months, Johnson's account changed. He later said he feared being sideswiped and that he fired after Pritchett reached for an object that Johnson thought was a gun. Johnson also said he struggled through the car window with Pritchett, who violently resisted. The investigation was led by then-Lt. William Rice. After receiving information from the crime lab, Rice said he pulled out a blank autopsy diagram and wrote the words "No signs of close range firing," and drew an arrow showing where the bullet entered Pritchett's body. Yet, photos taken at the morgue, as well as other documents, showed stippling around the wound -- tattooing that occurs when gunpowder burns into the skin because a gun was fired from within 6 to 18 inches. The distance from which Johnson shot was crucial in establishing whether Pritchett tried to run over Johnson, forcing the trooper to fire in self-defense. Rice said homicide investigators often use medical examiner forms so they don't have to draw their own diagrams. He said he often makes notes on the forms and leaves them in homicide files for easy retrieval. "That was never intended to represent the findings of the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office," Rice said. The complete autopsy report was also in the file. Greenman said he discovered the diagram when he obtained a copy of the homicide file during the lawsuit. Assistant Medical Examiner Yung Chung, who did the Pritchett autopsy, said
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only her office should use official autopsy forms. Still, Rice's diagram went with the homicide file to the Wayne County Prosecutor's Office. There Agacinski reviewed the file -- which included the actual autopsy report -- and wrote a report recommending that Johnson be cleared. When interviewed by the Free Press several weeks ago, Agacinski couldn't recall the document or whether it played a role in his decision. But he said it had no business in the file. "I really don't know why he did this," said Agacinski, now the administrator of the Michigan Attorney Grievance Commission. He said the document could have easily been mistaken for a genuine autopsy diagram. "I've not come across anything like this before." Other concerns Although Agacinski wound up recommending Johnson be cleared, his report wasn't a ringing endorsement of the shooting. "Since Trooper Johnson had already jumped clear of the approaching car, it might be argued that the shooting was not needed for self- defense," Agacinski wrote in his report to superiors. "One witness, Crystal Burton, claims she saw the trooper reach into the driver's side window and fire 3-4 times before Pritchett drove away. If believed, this would negate self-defense, but not fleeing felon," Agacinski said, referring to Michigan court rulings that say shooting a fleeing felon for a property crime is a defense against a homicide charge.
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Despite concerns, Agacinski sided with Johnson: "The facts seem to reveal that Pritchett was a professional thief. Johnson reacted quickly to the theft and took up pursuit. Pritchett had no intention of being arrested and may have even attempted to run Johnson over. Trooper Johnson fired once, from close range, as Pritchett drove by. The shooting was legally justified in my opinion." Prosecutor John O'Hair agreed. So did Michigan State Police executives, who concluded that Johnson complied with the department's policy. The state policy, like Detroit's, allows officers to shoot when their lives or the lives of others are in danger. State police officials declined to discuss their shooting investigation. Experts disagreed about the document's significance. "I am uneasy drawing too much from one incident. Was this a single event or part of a larger pattern?" asked Joseph McNamara, former police chief of Kansas City, Mo., and San Jose, Calif. He's now a fellow at the Hoover Institution, a conservative think tank at Stanford University. Another expert said leaving the document in the file was wrong. "Giving the biggest benefit of the doubt, it was sloppy -- sloppy at best," said David Carter, Michigan State University criminal justice professor. "No way in hell should it be done," said Carter, who was a street patrol officer in Kansas City. "Obviously, it sounds suspicious." Assistant Michigan Attorney General Michael McDaniel, who defended Johnson in the lawsuit, agreed that the diagram didn't belong in the file. He said it was one of several factors that caused him to recommend a settlement.
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"It complicated the case, and it was one more thing you would have to try to explain to a jury," McDaniel said. "But I never ascribed any evil or nefarious intent to that." Contact DAVID ASHENFELTER at 313-223-4490 or ashenf@freepress.com or JOE SWICKARD at 313-223-4557 or swickard@freepress.com. ILLUSTRATION: Photo ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Press file photo;Drawing Detroit Police document CAPTION: high-profile figures in the Detroit Police Department. His 1995 investigation of a killing by an off-duty state police trooper has raised questions. Kendall Pritchett was killed after stealing a car radio. The writing on this official Wayne County Medical Examiner's diagram contradicts autopsy findings in the 1995 fatal shooting of a thief by a Michigan State trooper. Drawing Detroit Police document CAPTIONWRITER: Homicide Inspector William Rice, left, is one of the most DISCLAIMER: THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION MAY DIFFER SLIGHTLY FROM THE PRINTED ARTICLE. Copyright 2000 - Detroit Free Press - All Rights Reverved
Citation for your reference:
By DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS. "1995 SHOOTING INVESTIGATION IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AUTOPSY FORM AT ISSUE IN CLEARING OF TROOPER." Detroit Free Press; Detroit, Mich.. 24 Oct. 2000: A1. eLibrary. Web. 11 Aug. 2013.
By DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS "1995 SHOOTING
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INVESTIGATION IS CALLED INTO QUESTION AUTOPSY FORM AT ISSUE IN CLEARING OF TROOPER." Detroit Free Press; Detroit, Mich.. 2000, October 24: A1.
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