![]() It is recessed this week while Murray presides over an unrelated trial.Īttorneys for the plaintiffs, now battling an array of police witnesses for the defense, rested their case on Feb. 15 before Murray and a six-member civil jury here and is expected to last about another month. While the so-called "death squad" incidents occurred 15 years ago, the plaintiffs did not file their lawsuit until 1980, after The Washington Post first brought the "death squad" allegations to public light in a series of articles in 1979. Murray ruled that the plaintiffs had failed to prove that the two prosecutors had acted "in concert" with police in the incidents. Wolman-were cleared of liability in the case last month when presiding Judge Herbert F. and former Assistant State's Attorney Benjamin R. Two additional defendants-Prince George's County State's Attorney Arthur A. All three are expected to testify on the incidents later in the trial. Vasco and Fitzpatrick were rank-and-file detectives under Montgomery's command. ![]() ![]() At the time of the 1967 incidents, Montgomery was a lieutenant in charge of a detachment of detectives in the department's Hyattsville substation. Blair Lee Montgomery, who now lives in Florida. ![]() James Fitzpatrick, currently commander of the major crimes division, and retired Maj. He was considered by many to be a shoo-in as chief of the 900-member force until survivors of the "death squad" incidents filed their $9 million lawsuit in 1980. Vasco Jr., now the second-highest-ranking official in the police department. , throwing 'em to the wolves."Īt stake in the trial are the futures of three current or retired county police officials-the defendants in the case-who are accused of masterminding the so-called "death squad" incidents 15 years ago. "I did it to save my a-," Hartman told the jury. One of the acquaintances was shot and killed by police, the other arrested. He told the jury that police pressured him to get two acquaintances to rob a 7-Eleven store. Take Sidney Hartman, an ex-informer who faced assault and check forgery charges in 1967. Will the jury accept the words-often disputed by police-of admitted housebreakers and hustlers, who acknowledged living in the informer's twilight zone of evasions and street-level gamesmanship with both their criminal colleagues and the police? Police say they fired in self defense only after pistol-wielding suspects ignored warnings to halt and fired at officers.Ī crucial element in the trial is the credibility of the police against the credibility of ex-informers. Rather, they say, the informers came to them with tips on planned holdups and burglaries, and detectives then staked out the targeted stores in routine fashion. However, they vehemently deny directing informers to recruit friends for the crimes. Police acknowledge the shootings and arrests and even occasional suggestions to informers to change the time and location of holdups to protect the public. "This is a case involving money"-an apparent reference to the $9 million in damages the plaintiffs hope to split among themselves if they win the case. Connaughton in opening statements to the jury. "This is not a case involving civil rights," retorted Deputy Prince George's County Attorney Michael O. Skolnik, one of four attorneys for survivors of the slain suspects and other plaintiffs against the police and county government for alleged violation of civil rights. "These crimes were police-created crimes, and the deaths, injury and arrests flowed illegally from them," argued Barnet D. But it all still boils down to the crucial issue: Did police instruct informers to solicit acquaintances to commit five robberies and burglaries of convenience stores where waiting officers then shot and killed two suspects, wounded another and arrested seven more? They have made accusations, issued denials, waffled under cross-examination, pleaded ignorance or contradicted themselves and others on a bewildering variety of points. One of the longest and most fiercely fought civil rights trials in recent Maryland history, the $9 million lawsuit has pitted a ragged array of ex-street informers, petty thieves and a lone retired policeman against a somber parade of county officers in blue-gray uniforms and business suits. As the Prince George's County police "death squad" trial enters its fifth month in federal court here this week, a core question still curls through the millions of words of testimony: Did police "create" a string of crimes in 1967 and then illegally kill, wound or arrest the unwitting perpetrators? ![]()
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