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Ruling to halt inquiries by Wecht concerns some observers
"The laws are a bit archaic, but open inquests can still be a powerful and effective tool in finding the truth," said Westmoreland County Coroner Ken Bacha. "It's an old law, an old practice, but a necessary one."
That's why coroners across Pennsylvania are closely watching the legal feud that has effectively ended the 50-year-old practice in Allegheny County, the home of Coroner Cyril H. Wecht, a nationally-recognized forensics expert. Wecht and District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. are fighting over the coroner's authority to conduct so-called open inquests.
Open inquests are public hearings. The coroner -- or a jury selected by the coroner -- issues recommendations after listening to sworn testimony. The recommendations, which can include criminal prosecution, are not binding on the district attorney. But the hearing itself often presents the only opportunity for a public examination of case.
Some community leaders and legal observers fear that halting such inquests -- particularly those involving police shootings -- could inflame rather than extinguish public suspicions.
"To limit this kind of check and balance is, in my mind, a mistake. A big one," said Pittsburgh attorney Chuck Evans, who has presided over inquests as well as represented families at them. "When the police kill someone, for whatever reason, it is of critical importance to clear the air. No matter the results, the process is important."
Added Elizabeth Pittinger, executive director of the Pittsburgh Citizen Police Review Board: "There is a terrible loss to the transparency of government. Any effort to shoot down the public airing of facts is suspicious and just evolves into more tension when you're talking about police shootings."
The squabble between Wecht and Zappala, both veteran Democratic officeholders in Pennsylvania's second-largest county, involves accusations of power-grabbing, ethics violations and grandstanding.
In the meantime, federal investigators are examining whether Wecht used his public office to supplement his lucrative consulting business.
Zappala has secured an order from Common Pleas Judge Jeffrey Manning to block some of Wecht's inquests. As a result of the court order, Wecht has been unable to conduct an open inquest into the fatal police shooting in November of Eugene Aiello, 31, of Turtle Creek.
Zappala has contended the hearings are unnecessary and would interfere with his investigations.
Zappala accuses Wecht of grandstanding in the case of Charles Dixon Sr., 43, of Altoona, Blair County, who died of suffocation during a struggle with police at a Mt. Oliver party in 2002. Zappala also questioned Wecht's objectivity in that case because the coroner later became a paid legal consultant to the Dixon family in its civil lawsuit against Mt. Oliver Borough.
Wecht accuses Zappala of a power grab. Wecht noted he and his predecessors have conducted public inquests into all police killings -- as well as other suspicious or controversial deaths.
"From a legal standpoint, when you set aside the personalities and so on, it's not good for one office to be the sole arbiter in these cases," Wecht said.
The split
Zappala said he lost confidence in Wecht's ability to conduct fair and legally sound hearings after the coroner recommended charges in the Dixon case and in a case involving the fatal 2002 shooting of Bernard Rogers, 26, by Pittsburgh Housing Authority police.
Rogers was shot by Housing Authority Police Officer Tonyea Curry during a struggle in a Hill District apartment. Wecht initially said Rogers was shot while fleeing down a stairwell. After a second hearing at Zappala's request, Wecht ruled that Rogers was shot while trying to take Curry's gun and then ran down the stairs.
"The process is not credible anymore," Zappala said. "It's not about the administration of justice anymore. It's about publicity."
Much of the legal battle has revolved around state coroner's laws passed in the 1950s. In part, the laws direct the coroner to conduct an inquest when there are still questions surrounding a death after an autopsy. The law states the coroner should determine the cause of death, whether someone was "criminally responsible" for the death, and the identity of that person.
Only the district attorney can prosecute a case.
University of Pittsburgh law professor John Burkoff, an expert in constitutional law, said Zappala and Wecht each have some legal standing in the dispute but that Zappala has a stronger position because "the final decision on whether to prosecute someone rests with the district attorney."
"It's not commonplace around the country for a medical examiner or coroner to replicate the role of the prosecutor like this," said Burkoff. "In a jurisdiction where that happens with inquests, it's important that the two officers cooperate."
High-profile cases
Inquests into police-related deaths have always garnered intense scrutiny, and none more so in recent years than the 1995 death of Jonny Gammage, 31, of Syracuse, N.Y.
Gammage, an unarmed black motorist, suffocated during a struggle with white police officers at a traffic stop in Overbrook. A coroner's jury recommended then-District Attorney Robert E. Colville prosecute three officers for criminal homicide. One officer was acquitted by a jury, and two others were set free after juries could not reach verdicts.
Since Wecht regained the office in 1996, there have been 63 inquests. Thirty-three did not involve police -- Wecht examined drownings in public pools, drug overdoses and deaths at nursing homes.
Wecht has recommended charges against police officers four times. Two officers have been prosecuted.
In 1999, city police Officer Jeffrey Cooperstein was charged in the fatal shooting Downtown of motorist Deron Grimmitt, 32, of the Hill District. A jury later acquitted Cooperstein, who resigned from the department.
In 1999, homicide charges were brought against city Housing Authority Officer John Charmo in the fatal shooting in 1995 of motorist Jerry Jackson, 44, of Homewood, in the Armstrong Tunnels. The charges were filed only after Wecht conducted a second inquest based on new evidence. Charmo later pleaded guilty to involuntary manslaughter.
Zappala has rejected Wecht's recommendation in 2000 that a North Versailles police officer be charged in the shooting death of William Stanley, 40, of Beltzhoover, after a 1999 car chase into Wilkinsburg.
North Versailles police Officer James Matrazzo said he shot Stanley after the unarmed man crashed a stolen Camaro into a garage during a chase and then tried to back the car into officers who had surrounded him.
Zappala has not moved on Wecht's recommendation two years ago to prosecute several Mt. Oliver police officers in the suffocation death of Dixon. Zappala said he questioned Wecht's motives after a revelation this year that Wecht accepted $5,000 from a Dixon family attorney to prepare a report on Dixon's death for a civil lawsuit. Mt. Oliver settled the lawsuit for $850,000.
Wecht said he made his recommendation as coroner long before he was contacted as a private forensic expert by the attorney for the Dixon family. Wecht denied any wrongdoing.
A federal grand jury is hearing testimony about Wecht public and private roles. In January, Zappala said he was investigating whether the $5,000 payment Wecht received violated state ethics laws.
Battling in court
Since January, Zappala has twice won court orders blocking Wecht from conducting an inquest into the shooting Nov. 9, 2004, of Aiello by Forest Hills police Sgt Ed Hinchey, who was wounded in the shootout.
The prosecutor argued an inquest would interfere with the county police probe his office was overseeing.
Last month, Zappala announced he determined Hinchey was justified in killing Aiello. Interviews with the officers and an audio recording from a dashboard-mounted video camera in one police car showed Aiello fired first, the prosecutor said.
But Wecht has continued his legal fight to conduct the inquest. And Aiello's family is behind him.
Sharon Aiello, the dead man's mother, said in a letter to Manning and an e-mail to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review that she thinks Zappala is trying to keep details of the shooting from both her and the public.
Zappala "does not care that he is putting our family through more trauma and grief by trying to shove my son's death under the rug," Sharon Aiello, of Turtle Creek, wrote June 20 to Manning. She also said Zappala refused to play the audio tape for her or show her any investigative reports.
Sharon Aiello did not respond to requests for interviews.
Zappala said he told Sharon Aiello that she could have all of the investigative files if she files a lawsuit against the officers or their departments.
"I have to follow the law," he said. "The family heard from me what the facts are. And the public heard it from me, too."
Pittinger and others said public trust in the police and justice system suffers when someone who needs the police to prosecute criminal cases is the only person reviewing evidence in police shootings.
"The public just can't trust what is said under a veil of suspicion like this," Pittinger said.
Attorney Timothy P. O'Brien, who represents both citizens and police officers in civil rights cases, agreed.
"I don't see how anyone could contend that the close working relationship between the district attorney and police is not a factor when making a decision like this," O'Brien said. "They work hand-in-glove together at every level."
Former city police officer Harvey Adams, who heads the police affairs committee of the Pittsburgh branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, said an end to open inquests would be a giant step backward in the relationship between blacks and the police.
"Open inquests are a breath of fresh air into a system that has always been closed when police are involved," Adams said. "But little by little, everything that was in place to help justice prevail is being chipped away."
Coroner's authority
The state Coroner's Act of 1953 gives the county coroner the following authority and duties in death investigations:
Call for charges
Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht has recommended police officers be charged in the deaths of four unarmed men:
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