Officer
Zigan (pictured with his fiancée) was
hit by two bullets fired by Herschel Bullard.
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LELDF is pleased to report that we have won the
case of Officers Zigan and Freeman of the Newton, Georgia Police Department.
Captain Frederick Zigan and Patrolman James Freeman were acquitted
of all charges in a trial before the Georgia Judicial Circuit
Court (Judge Wallace Cato, presiding) on February 16, 2007.
The officers had been charged with involuntary manslaughter
for an incident in a Georgia trailer park on October 3, 2005.
Responding to a call that evening, they found a Baker County
trailer park owner, Herschel Bullard, firing shots into the
air with his 44-magnum handgun.
Officer Zigan told Bullard to drop the revolver. Bullard responded, “You
are not going to get my (expletive deleted) gun,” turned
his back, and started to walk away. But suddenly Bullard wheeled
and fired from his hip, hitting Captain Zigan in his left side.
As he fell, Captain Zigan fired at Bullard who fired back,
hitting Zigan again, this time in the face. Captain Zigan’s
partner, Officer Freeman, then fired two rounds at Bullard;
one round struck and killed him.
Captain Zigan required reconstructive surgery on his jaw, which
needed to be wired shot for six weeks. Both officers were fired
within a month of the October 2005 incident.
Involuntary manslaughter is a misdemeanor applied when someone “causes
the death of a human being without any intention of doing so
through the commission of a lawful act in an unlawful manner.” While
the prosecution charged that Officers Zigan and Freeman had
caused the death of Bullard by “exceeding reasonable
professional care,” they failed to call any experts to
testify that the officers has overstepped the standard.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had investigated the episode
and found that the shooting was justified. Clearly both policemen
followed the use of force regulations to the letter. Because
of your generous donations, LELDF was able to provide legal
aid to win this highly charged and emotional case, which disrupted
both men’s lives for two years.
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