Police Accountability Lost for the Sake of the Drug War

An unarmed, innocent Ohio mother was shot to death by a veteran police officer during a Jan. 4 drug raid at her home. The jury determined not-guilty verdicts for homicide and negligent assault. According to The Blade August 5, 2008 article,("Lima Police Officer Not Guilty in Deadly Raid") "After hearing 3 1/2 days of testimony in Allen County Common Pleas Court, the jury of four white men and four white women deliberated a little more than three hours before returning the not-guilty verdicts for misdemeanor charges of negligent homicide and negligent assault. The jury had been charged with determining whether Sergeant Chavalia, 52, was negligent when he fired his fully automatic rifle from a dark stairway at a shadowy figure he said he believed was firing at him. His three shots killed Wilson, 26, and injured her 1-year-old son, Sincere, who was in her arms."

The article states, "Mr. Kluge said no officer wants to kill another person yet many of the SWAT team members who took the stand during the trial testified that if they were placed in Sergeant Chavalia's position, they would have done exactly what he did. The defendant himself took the stand last week and unapologetically told the jury that as he neared the top of the staircase moments after the SWAT team burst into the Third Street house, he spotted movement down the hallway behind him. He said he saw a shadowy figure he believed to be an adult move in and out of a bedroom doorway, appearing at the same time he heard gunfire. He returned fire. As it turned out, the gunfire had come from the kitchen where two members of the SWAT team had fired at two pit-bull dogs let loose on the officers by Wilson's boyfriend, Anthony Terry, who was the target of the raid. Police found no weapons in the house but discovered Wilson's five other children in the bedroom where she and Sincere were shot."

The article adds, "In closing arguments yesterday, Mr. Strausbaugh told the jury that the fact that Sergeant Chavalia fired the weapon that killed Wilson and injured her son was undisputed. The only issue, he said, was whether he acted negligently, meaning he showed 'a substantial lapse of due care' when he pulled the trigger. Mr. Strausbaugh said in his mind the officer was indeed negligent: Sergeant Chavalia did not identify his target, which was in fact an unarmed mother with a baby in her arms. He said Sergeant Chavalia's contention that he thought the gunfire came from the bedroom was inconsistent with the testimony of the officer standing just one step behind him on the stairs who told the jury he thought the gunfire came from downstairs.'There wasn't so much as a verbal threat that came out of that room before he fired,' Mr. Strausbaugh said. He said the officer should be held accountable; otherwise 'you end up with a situation like this where officers are never wrong."