From the Chairman

When I was first involved in the founding of the Law Enforcement Legal Defense Fund in 1994, I hoped that we would be able to assist police officers who face unwarranted charges for doing their job protecting citizens from criminals. I knew that the pendulum seemed to be swinging in favor of the criminals rather than the law enforcement officials, but could not have foreseen the injustice and hardships that many dedicated officers face today.

Young Officer Scott Smith, 27, has just been sentenced to 12 years for "intentional manslaughter." What did he do? He tried to subdue a violent criminal who had knifed and threatened his own family members in addition to the police. As he single-handedly struggled with this criminal who had boasted that he would never be taken alive, Smith rightly thought that he himself could be killed. He fired one shot in self defense in 1998, and now could spend his prime years in a prison cell. This is a travesty of justice, and the LELDF will be working very hard to get good legal representation for his appeal.

And Larry Nevers, who struck Malice Green with a flashlight to prevent him from grabbing the gun in his holster, has been tried not once, but twice. In this highly politicized case, evidence that Green, who was high on drugs at the time of the attempted arrest, died of an enlarged heart was ignored. The Detroit News reported that Nevers' first trial was "one of the most racially volatile in recent Detroit history." It was our hope that justice would be served the second time, and that Nevers' sentence would be for time served. Instead, he's back behind bars pending an appeal (see front page).

 

 

   

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I very much appreciate your donations and support of these two brave officers, and of the other cases we have been involved in. On page 3, we report on the excellent news that Officer Jeffrey Cooperstein of Pittsburgh was completely exonerated. And we are hopeful that the retrial of Officer Futrell in the fall will end favorably for him.

I sometimes speak to local police groups and have been asked repeatedly about the Amadou Diallo case in New York City. This was a tragic and unfortunate incident, but I believe that the acquittal of the four officers was proper. They had been charged with second-degree murder when, as part of a street crimes unit looking for a rape suspect, they attempted to stop Diallo. When told to stop and show his hands, Diallo instead turned to face the officers holding a black object in his hands. One of the officers fired a shot, thinking it was a gun. The officer fell backward and the other officers thought he had been wounded and opened fire, killing Diallo. There was clearly not criminal intent by the officers, and not one in which criminal charges should have been filed.

If you have comments about our cases or have any information you would like to give us, you can write to me at the address at the bottom of the page, or send an e-mail to leldf@acninc.net.  

    Sincerely,

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