LIMA POLICE OFFICER NOT GUILTY IN DEADLY RAID

Jury Determines His Actions Weren't Negligent

LIMA, Ohio - Police officers filling the cramped courtroom breathed a
sigh of relief, and family members of Sgt. Joseph Chavalia gasped and
whispered, "Thank God."

And those who loved Tarika Wilson cried out in anger and frustration
as a judge read the two "not guilty" verdicts for Sergeant Chavalia yesterday.

"We're supposed to take this with a smile? We're supposed to believe
in justice?" asked an incredulous Ivory Austin II, whose half-sister
was shot to death by the veteran police officer during a Jan. 4 drug
raid at her home.

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 youngster, who was hit in the
shoulder and finger, had to have one of his fingers amputated because
it was all but shot off.

Lead defense attorney Bill Kluge - one of four attorneys representing
the sergeant - said afterward that he hoped the jury's decision would
settle the unrest and distrust of police that erupted in the wake of
the shooting of Wilson, who was biracial, by the white police officer.

"We hope this will bring peace to the community," Mr. Kluge said. "We
tried to explain why Joe used deadly force that night."

As of late last night, Lima police said no verdict-related
disturbances had been reported.

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.

"There was absolutely, positively no doubt in my mind right then and
there that whatever this was is shooting and they're trying to kill
me," he told the jury on Thursday.

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.

Since the fatal shooting took place seven months ago, police remained
mum about the circumstances. Even after Seregant Chavalia was
indicted by an Allen County grand jury in March, no one would say why
the sergeant fired at the unarmed woman and her child.

The trial provided that answer, but it was hard for some to swallow.

"We've got to do better. We've given people the license to kill,"
Jason Upthegrove, president of the Lima chapter of the NAACP, said afterward.

The Rev. Arnold Manley, pastor of Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church, said
he came to the trial to see justice prevail but that did not happen.

"As a pastor, I'm hurt deeply that we can walk away from this and say
justice has been done," he said. "... How do I go out to tell the
people on the streets, 'Let the law prevail'? How do I say that?
White man justice. Black man grief."

'It Constituted a Threat'

Mr. Kluge refuted allegations that the shooting was racially based.

"Whether the shadowy figure behind the door was white, black, from
Mars or from Venus, it doesn't matter," he said. "It constituted a threat."

Police officers are permitted to use deadly force to defend
themselves or others from imminent risk of death or serious injury or
to prevent the escape of a fleeing, dangerous suspect.

Still, it was difficult for family members of Wilson to believe that
the 5-foot, 2-inch mother of six presented a deadly threat. Mr.
Austin said it didn't help that the jury had no people of color sitting on it.

"Who could actually relate to my sister on that jury?" he asked. "You
need people from all walks of life."

Special Prosecutor Jeff Strausbaugh said he did not believe the
jury's racial makeup had any impact on its verdict because "there
wasn't any type of racial motivation involved in the case."

"The jury's verdict is what it is, and I will respect their verdict," he said.

Mr. Strausbaugh said he believed the jury was influenced strongly by
the judge's legal instructions in which they were told they could not
consider the officer's action with the benefit of "20-20 hindsight,"
but had to look at the case from the officer's perspective at the
time of the shooting.

Sergeant Chavalia, who remains on paid leave pending the outcome of
an internal investigation to be completed by the Montgomery County
Sheriff's Office, made no comments afterward.

Mr. Kluge said it was unlikely Sergeant Chavalia would be working as
a police officer in Lima again, but declined to say whether he was
planning to retire.

Lima Police Chief Greg Garlock said he was relieved.

A Lone Protester

"Obviously, I am pleased with the verdict of not guilty. Our feeling
was there was no criminal conduct exhibited in this matter," he said.

After the verdicts were read about 5 p.m., a lone protester carried
signs reading, "Police accountability now" and "Liberty and justice
for some?" Maria Williams, who held the signs, called out to passing
motorists, "Another police acquittal. Can it be justice for Tarika?
Stop police brutality now. Stop it now."

Ms. Williams said she was there for Wilson and other victims of
police violence.

"I'm the voice for Tarika right now because she couldn't be here. We
have to be the voice for the voiceless," she said. "How can it be
that a mother and her baby die at the hands of a public servant?"

Mr. Upthegrove said the verdicts didn't surprise him but sickened
him. He was dismayed too to see the handful of people who showed up
in support of Wilson's family.

"You can look around and see a total of about 15 people here," he
said. "It's another example of how there's very low value on a black
life in this community."

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."

Boyfriend Gets Blame

Mr. Kluge told the jury Anthony Terry was to blame for Wilson's
death, Sincere's injuries, and for putting Sergeant Chavalia in front
of a jury on criminal charges. He also put some of that blame on
Wilson herself.

"Why would she put those children in that position? I don't know the
answer to that," Mr. Kluge said. "Love is a strange thing."

He said Wilson could have changed the course of events if she had
identified herself to the officer. Instead, he said, she moved in and
out of the doorway "in a classic shoot-and-cover stance."

"Why didn't she yell out, 'I have children here. I'm unarmed. I have
children here, please'? We don't know," Mr. Kluge said.