Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Detroit officers charged with murder Date: Tue, 17 Nov 92 15:07:56 EST Message-ID: \SE A;NATION \SS (WS) \HD Detroit officers charged with murder \BY ASSOCIATED PRESS \DT DETROIT DETROIT (AP) - Two police officers were charged with murder and one with manslaughter yesterday in the beating death of a black motorist, a case that drew parallels with the Rodney King confrontation in Los Angeles. A fourth officer was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm. Three other officers who also had been suspended after the Nov. 5 beating of Malice Green were not charged. Mr. Green, 35, died of head injuries after being beaten on an inner-city street near a suspected drug house. "I feel justice is done. . . . I think they handled it very well," said the victim's father, Jessie Green Jr. He had urged calm in the days after his son's death. "He's dead, and any charges aren't going to bring him back. I got to live on." Three of the officers charged, including the two charged with murder, are white. The one charged with manslaughter is black. While the beating of an unarmed motorist drew parallels to the videotaped beating of King and the rioting that followed the acquittal of officers in that case, NAACP officials have said the Detroit case was different. They credited quick action by Police Chief Stanley Knox in suspending the officers allegedly involved. And Mayor Coleman Young publicly denounced the beating. Chief Knox and Mr. Young are black. Chief Knox has said he did not believe the beating was racially motivated, and Wayne County Prosecutor John D. O'Hair said yesterday no racial epithets were used during shouting that witnesses said was going on during the beating. But, "what was in their minds is hard to tell," he said. Fifty-eight percent of the 3,850-member force is black in a city that is 75 percent black. Chief Knox had suspended seven officers Nov. 6, a day after Mr. Green's death. Mr. O'Hair said there was not enough evidence to charge the three other officers. Those officers remain on indefinite suspension, police Sgt. Christopher Buck said yesterday. While the four officers were being arraigned, about a dozen people demonstrated at the site of the beating. Mr. O'Hair refused to give details of the beating. Witnesses have said that it occurred after Mr. Green and police argued when he dropped off a passenger near a suspected drug house, and that Mr. Green refused to open his clenched hand. Undercover officers Larry Nevers and Walter Budzyn were charged with second-degree murder. They could get life in prison if convicted. Sgt. Freddie Douglas was charged with involuntary manslaughter, which carries a maximum 15-year sentence, and willful neglect of duty, punishable by a year. The ranking officer on the scene, he was accused of failing to try to stop the beating. Officer Robert Lessnau was charged with assault with intent to do great bodily harm, punishable by 10 years in prison. Officer Nevers, 52, and Officer Budzyn, 42, were known in the neighborhood as Starsky and Hutch, after the streetwise cops in the television show of the same name. Officer Budzyn was named an Officer of the Year by his union in 1990 for making 31 arrests and recovering six stolen cars. The two also had been named in 25 complaints from the public and five lawsuits. Officer Budzyn and Officer Nevers were freed on $100,000 bond each, Sgt. Douglas on $25,000 and Officer Lessnau on $10,000. A hearing was set for Dec. 14. This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM