February I, 2006
Page A3
(n’* Jlurtlanò (Obserupr Bliick History Month
Family Alleges Fix in Grand Jury Probe
Police witness
paid to testify
(A P )-P ortland city officials took
the unusual step o f paying a na
tional expert on deadly force to
testify before a grand jury that ulti
mately cleared a police officer in the
fatal 2004 shooting o f an unarm ed
black motorist in the St. Johns neigh
borhood o f north Portland.
O utside experts often testify at
trials. Grand jury proceedings, how
ever, are secret hearings where the
p ro se c u tio n p re se n ts the c a se
alone. No attorney w ould be able to
questio n the c re d ib ility o f the
pro secu tio n ’s expert before the
grand jury decides w hether crim i
nal charges are appropriate.
City attorneys said the expert
was hired to educate jurors in a
com plex case. They couldn’t recall
another tim e w hen an outside ex
pert was hired to provide testim ony
in a grand jury review o f a police
shooting.
Elden Rosenthal, the attorney
representing the fam ily o f Jam es
Jahar Perez, contends the expert
was sum m oned to influence jurors
not to indict, according to papers
filed in the fam ily’s wrongful death
lawsuit against the Portland police
James Jahar Perez
departm ent.
Perez, 28, was shot and killed in
the driver’s seat o f his ca ro n March
28, 2(X)4, after he was stopped by
O fficer Jason Sery and his partner,
Sean M acom ber. The officers said
th e y f o llo w e d P e r e z ’s 1997
M itsubishi with tinted w indow s
because it “stood out,” and pulled
Perez over after he signaled for a
turn only 20 to 30 feet before m ak
ing it — not the required distance o f
at least I (X) feet.
Perez reportedly struggled with
M acom ber before the fatal shots
were fired by Sery, w ho said he
thought the driver was armed. An
autopsy found that Perez had co-
Jason Sery
caine in his body.
T he shooting prom pted anger
across the city and led to calls for a
public inquest, w hich follow ed the
grand ju ry proceeding.
The city paid more than $6,(XX) to
hire the expert to testify before the
g ra n d ju r y an d th e in q u e s t,
Rosenthal learned. He said in court
papers that city officials spent “sub
stantial taxpayer dollars" to ensure
the grand jury cleared Sery.
Multnomah County District At
torney Michael Schrunk told The
Oregonian that he accepted the city’s
offer to pay for the expert — Will iam
Lewinski, a law enforcement profes
sor at a M innesota university —
‘r i''|J n rth n ib (ObserverEstablished 1970
USPS 959-680
because he thought the testimony
would be relevant. He said Lewinski
w asn't a "hired gun" advocating for
or against the police.
Schrunk said his office d id n 't
have the money to bring in Lewinski,
and he doubts jurors were told o f
the city ’s paym ent.
At the public inquest in 2(X)4,
Lewinski said officers are trained in
the action-reaction principle and
explained it. He said it would take
som eone a tenth o f a second to pull
a gun from a ca r’s console. An
officer, even with his gun draw n,
w ould no, have tim e to react before
he was shot, he said.
"In sim ple term s, if I see the gun
I’m dead?” Shrunk asked Lewinski
back then.
“ In sim p le term s, th a t’s it,”
Lew inski said.
Rosenthal said that kind o f tes
tim ony is why the city w anted the
professor.
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New Orleans Recovery Uneven by Race
Study looks at hardest hit areas and who lived there
Providence Health System-
Committed to diversity
in the workplace
As one of Oregon's largest private employers,
Providence Health System respects and values differences
in our patients and employees. We've developed programs
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One o f the hardest hit areas o f New Orleans was the Lower Ninth Ward, a predominantly African
American area. One local family — Alysia Chariot (left), her brother Alon, (center) and mother
Alison — look at damage to the neighborhood from their front porch last December.
(A P )— T hecity ofN ew O rleans
could lose up to 80 percent o f its
black population if people d is
placed by H urricane K atrinaare not
able to return to dam aged neigh
borhoods, according to an analy
sis by a Brown U niversity sociolo
gist.
Professor John R. Logan deter
m ined that if the c ity ’s returning
population was lim ited to neigh
borhoods undam aged by Katrina,
half o f the w hite population would
not return and 80 percent o f the
black population w ould not return.
“T here’s very good reason for
people to be concerned that the
future New O rleans will not be a
place for the people w ho used to
live there, that there w o n ', be room
in New O rleans for large segm ents
o f the population that used to call
it hom e,” said Logan, w ho studies
urban areas.
The study used m aps from the
Federal Em ergency M anagem ent
Agency that detailed flood and wind
pher and political analyst based in
dam age and com pared them to data
from the 2000 U.S. C ensus to deter
m ine w ho and w hat areas were af
fected.
I, found the storm -dam aged ar
eas had been 75 percent black, com
pared to 4 6 percent black in undam
aged areas o f the city. It also found
that 29 percent o f the households
in dam aged areas lived below the
poverty line, com pared with 24 per
cent o f households in undam aged
areas.
M ore than h alf o f those who
lived in the city ’s dam aged neigh
borhoods w ere renters, the analy
sis found.
“The odds o f I i vi ng i n a dam aged
area were clearly m uch greater for
blacks, renters and poor people,"
the study said. “ In these respects
th e m o st v u ln e ra b le re sid e n ts
turned out also to be at greatest
risk.”
Elliot, Stonecipher, a dem ogra-
Shreveport, La., said the analysis
gets to the heart o f the debate over
how to rebuild New O rleans. Racial
tensions have been high with some
w orried that those in charge o f the
rebuilding will push black residents
out o f the city.
“For this storm to suddenly rip
that aw ay from them , that feeling is
at the heart o f this grow ing racial
im passe," Stonecipher said.
The study was funded by a gran,
from the National Science Founda
tion and is ongoing, Logan said.
Nine Accused of
Katrina Help Fraud
N ine P ortland resid en ts have
been charged w ith fraud in c o n
n ection w ith the receipt o f federal
m onies in H urricane K atrina re
lie f assistance.
In v e s tig a to rs sa id se v en o f
th e d e fe n d a n ts are c h a rg e d w ith
m a k in g fa lse s ta te m e n ts in o r
d e r to q u a lify fo r $ 2 ,0 0 0 in d i
s a s te r r e lie f alo n g w ith $ 2 ,3 5 8
fo r re n ta l a s s is ta n c e p a y m e n ts
fro m he F e d e ra l E m e rg e n c y
M anagem ent A gency. The
c h a rg e s c a rry a m a x im u m p e n
a lty o f 10 y e a rs in p riso n an d a
$ 1 0 0 ,0 0 0 fine.
T he o ther tw o p ersons w ere hi,
v ith five co u n ts o f m ail fraud,
accused o f using th eir ow n nam es
and o th e r nam es to falsely claim
m oney for tem p o rary housing.
Mail frau dcarriesam ax im u m pen
alty o f 20 y ears in p riso n and a $ I
m illion fine.
In v estig ato rs said none o f the
nine d efe n d an ts had been d is
placed from the storm and d id not
q ualify fo r relief.
T h e se v e n p e o p le c h a rg e d
with m aking false statem ents w ere
id entified as O le lia L . B row n, 21;
C han tel C urry, 38; D om inique
A ndrew , 19; V irg er G arlan d , 46;
Je n n ife r Jo n es, 36; T rin a W ilson,
37; and S teven B row n, 50.
T he tw o peo p le ch arg ed w ith
m ail fraud are Jam es A. Irby, 46
and M iranda J. N elson, 20.
It
P ro v id e n c e | H e a lth S ystem
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