VERDICT DEEPENS DIVIDE IN RACIALLY TENSE LIMA

Acquittal of Officer Who Fatally Shot Mother Spurs Mixed Reactions in
City

LIMA, OHIO - The fatal, split-second decision Police Sgt. Joseph
Chavalia made the night of Jan. 4 widened the divide in the already
racially tense city of Lima.

"Police department! Get on the ground!" he yelled for the third time
that night at a figure ducking in and out of cover in an upstairs
bedroom doorway illuminated by a light in the room.

Sergeant Chavalia wrote in his report about the drug raid how he twice
ordered the person to get on the ground when he heard gunshots.

When a second round of shots sounded in the Third Street Lima home,
the sergeant, standing on a flight of stairs with a fellow officer
beside him, fired his fully automatic rifle in two rapid bursts,
blasting the "shadowy figure" in the neck and upper chest.

"At the time I fired, I had no doubt in my mind that I was being fired
upon by the person ducking in and out of the bedroom," the sergeant
wrote.

But it turned out that no one was shooting at him, and the person he
fired on was an unarmed Tarika Wilson, 26, who was holding her
13-month-old son, Sincere, in her arms.

Wilson died that night, and Sincere was struck in the shoulder and
hand by bullet fragments. His finger was amputated as a result.

Wilson was shot in front of her five other children, who were hiding
with her in the bedroom when Lima's SWAT team burst into their home.

The officers were there to arrest Wilson's boyfriend, Anthony Terry,
who was wanted on drug-related charges. A single baggy containing 1 to
5 grams of crack cocaine was found in the home.

Hiding downstairs when the officers burst in, Terry unleashed two pit
bulls, which police shot and killed.

Those were the shots Sergeant Chavalia heard.

"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 testified in his trial last month.

The jury believed him and, on Monday, acquitted him of misdemeanor
negligent homicide and negligent assault charges.

When the verdict was read, some in the courtroom cried tears of joy,
others of anguish.

The next day, Tarika Williams' mother filed a federal lawsuit against
Sergeant Chavalia and the city of Lima on behalf of her grandson,
Sincere. A day later, the U.S. Justice Department announced it was
investigating the case for possible civil rights violations.

The Rev. Jesse Jackson also vowed last week to intervene, but only
under the leadership of Lima's black religious community.

"At some point there will be some action," Mr. Jackson told The Blade.
"This is a situation where the unarmed was killed by the armed. ...
The lack of care, the lack of judgment. This is not about black and
white. This is about wrong and right, and this is not right."

Sergeant Chavalia, who is white, was acquitted by a jury of four white
men and four white women in a city of about 32,000 people, where one
in four residents is black. Tarika Wilson was biracial.

Lima has a history of racial division, with long-standing complaints
by the black community of brutality from an almost all-white police
force.

"I'm born and raised in Lima, Ohio, so they can't tell me nothing
about this place and these crooked cops around here. I went to school
with half of them," said Darla Jennings, the white mother of Wilson.
"It's divided. It's always been divided. You don't see too many whites
coming into the black community and vice versa."

But both prosecution and defense at the trial said they don't think
race was a factor in the jury's decision.

Sergeant Chavalia's attorney, Bill Kluge, said there were 18 or 19
jury candidates interviewed for the case, only three of whom were black.

One of the black candidates served as an alternate juror, but Mr.
Kluge said he disqualified the other two for reasons other than their
race.

"The first black juror was the grandmother of one of my clients and
had been in my office before. That was a conflict of interest," Mr.
Kluge said. "The second black juror used to be the owner of a club
here in town called Club Utopia. She had a lot of issues with the Lima
Police Department in dealing with an armed robbery. ... I didn't think
she could get rid of her bias."

Special Prosecutor Jeff Strausbaugh of Defiance County said he
believed Sergeant Chavalia acted negligently when he shot Wilson, but
he also said he thought justice was served when the officer was acquitted.

Lima NAACP President Jason Upthegrove said, "Anyone who sat through
the trial - the evidence was so overwhelming against this officer,
[even] an unreasonable person would feel this guy was clearly guilty."

Sergeant Chavalia, who is on paid leave pending the outcome of
investigations, has not granted interviews.

There were no demonstrations following the verdict, but divisions of
race and class in the city remained apparent.

Lima Police Chief J. Gregory Garlock said his officers were relieved
their fellow officer was not convicted.

"There was a sense of mixed reaction," he said. "Mixed in the sense
that there was certainly relief the officer was not [convicted], but
there was no happiness here. This was a tragedy."

Lima City Council President John Nixon said Lima does not have an
issue with police brutality. He said a black jury would have ruled the
same way and that justice was done when Sergeant Chavalia was acquitted.

"I think the record clearly indicates that there is not a police
brutality issue, and it is not a reputation founded in fact," Mr. Nixon said.

Police Lt. Chip Protsman said Lima police crews were applauded by
black and white residents when they drove through the community the
night of the verdict.

"It's been very positive," he said. "We wanted the system to work
correctly and it did. Everybody's happy it's gone and over with."

Most in Lima's black community feel differently.

Lima south-side residents Leiayre Freeman, 15, Datrion Downton, 18,
and one of their companions were sitting on the porch of a house at
the corner of Fifth and Reese streets the night of the verdict.

They said no one was cheering the police in their neighborhood.

"Not on the south side they wasn't," said Leiayre, who is
black.

Mr. Upthegrove said Mr. Nixon, Chief Garlock, and other white city
officials are in denial about the city's racial conflicts.

"We keep putting Band-Aids on shotgun wounds and wonder why no healing
is taking place," he said.

Debbie Ballentine, an aunt of one of Tarika Wilson's children, said
blacks in the community were hurt and outraged after the verdict.

"Some people have literally got sick just from hearing the verdict,"
she said. "It really hurt me because to me, they're pretty much
telling the [police] whatever happened, it's OK."

The Rev. H. Frank Taylor, of Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church in
Lima, who is president of the city's Interdenominational Ministerial
Alliance, said the city's racial divide has created a systematic
inequality for blacks.

"We feel our community is not able to dispense equal justice," he
said.

Mr. Taylor and his fellow ministers will meet tomorrow to discuss how
to act in response to Sergeant Chavalia's acquittal.

Mr. Upthegrove said Lima police are guilty of "dehumanizing" blacks
and that must change if police want to regain the people's trust.

Chief Garlock said the police and community leaders have held
stakeholder meetings to address the conflicts between police and some
parts of the community.

"There's a segment of the community that is very much supportive of
us. I'm talking both black and white," he said.

Councilman Nixon said the lack of racial diversity in city employment
is an issue.

"There were issues that came up last year with regard to minority
hiring," he said. "Those discussions have to continue and do continue."

Mr. Jackson said the community must learn to trust police for race
relations to change, but Sergeant Chavalia's acquittal gives people a
greater sense of fear and distrust.

What happened to Tarika Wilson was an injustice for people of all
races and black and white must join together to protest that
injustice, he said.

"This is a case where citizens of good will, black and white, must
find common ground."