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News :: Miscellaneous |
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Another Cop Acquitted in Cincinnati |
Current rating: 0 |
by Oread Daily
(No verified email address) |
05 Nov 2001
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What a surprise...
NOBODY KILLED DEAD MAN IN CINCINNATI |
Well, apparently Roger Owensby somehow asphyxiated himself while being held down by Cincinnati police. At least, that what a couple of different juries seem to think. Last Friday the OD reported on the case of officer Robert Jorg, the first officer not convicted in Owensby’s death. Jorg was acquitted last week of misdemeanor assault, but the jury was unable to reach a verdict on involuntary manslaughter. Now, the OD can report that Officer Patrick Caton didn’t due it either. ''Evidently our son killed himself,'' said a devastated Roger Owensby Sr. ''It's just heartbreaking to be pushed to the back burner like we're second- or third-class citizens. He was my first-born. I prayed and dreamed about him. He didn't deserve this… I was so proud when we served together in the Army in Bosnia and he would come over and see me in the evenings and we'd walk down the road together and protect our country with our lives. Then he comes back here and loses his life in this country,'' he said, shaking his head. ''Where is the justice?''
Caton's acquittal came even though two fellow officers who helped Caton struggle with Owensby that night testified at two trials they saw Caton punch a handcuffed Owensby while another said Caton told him, ''We kicked his ass'' following the struggle with Owensby. Deputy Coroner, Dr. David Schultz concluded Owensby died while on the ground. He testified he didn't believe it possible for Owensby to choke to death from sitting or lying in an awkward position in the back of the cruiser (as some had contended), even if he had been maced and was exhausted from struggling with police.
The Owensbys have called for a federal civil rights investigation into their sons death and have also asked that the cops be re-tried in federal court, where local officials have no jurisdiction. The Owensbys accused Hamilton County Prosecutor Mike Allen's office of not putting full effort into the prosecution of Caton and Jorg. ''No one is held accountable for Roger Owensby's death,'' said the Rev. Damon Lynch III, co-chairman of Mayor Charlie Luken's race relations panel, Cincinnati Community Action Now. ''They didn't just kick his ass, they killed his ass. It's clear the system, at least in Cincinnati, is not going to convict police officers for taking the lives of citizens.''
Just last month another Cincinnati cop, Stephen Roach, was acquitted in the shooting of another man. Roach returns to court today to have the incident expunged from his record. The names of the officers and suspects, the location and attorneys in the Jorg and Caton trials were different from Roach's, but the issue at hand was the same: Did an officer use too much force to subdue an unarmed man? Roach fired a single deadly shot at Thomas in a dark alley in Over-the-Rhine. Jorg allegedly used too much force to subdue Owensby in Roselawn; he died of asphyxiation.
"If it was me who accidentally killed somebody in an automobile accident, I'm doing hard time," said Antonio Robinson, 20, of Cincinnati.
Sources: Cincinnati City Beat, Cincinnati Enquirer, Cincinnati Post
The Oread Daily provides daily (Monday-Friday) progressive, left, anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist, environmental, Marxist, revolutionary, etc. news and information from around the US and around the world. The Oread Daily was a mimeographed sheet that came out first in the summer of 1970 in Lawrence, Kansas. It was irreverent, radical, spicy, revolutionary et. al. Now, three decades later it returns. To view the entire Oread Daily, please visit: |
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