A COMPLEX QUESTION IN A TANGLED CASE

The jurors who found three Kansas City police officers at fault last week in the shooting death of Timothy Wilson didn't know that 30 small bags of crack cocaine and a larger bag of marijuana were found with the boy after he was killed.

Jackson County Judge Kelly Moorhouse disallowed that evidence, ruling it was irrelevant to the police officers' actions, but might prejudice the jurors.

Her decision has ignited bitter denunciations from supporters of the officers, and almost certainly will be contested when lawyers for the officers ask for a new trial.

Jurors in a civil trial ruled unanimously last week that three officers used excessive force when they shot Timothy, 13, as he tried to escape from them in a pickup truck. The officers said they thought their lives were in danger.

Moorhouse said Wednesday she wouldn't comment on her decision.

I asked other Jackson County judges about the ruling. They were reluctant to comment for attribution on a pending case. But one judge said he thought Moorhouse's ruling was correct, while another said it was "plain error."

Which just goes to show that legal opinions about the drug evidence are as polarized as everything else about this case.

The police and the plaintiff both have logic on their side. Had jurors known about the drugs, they may have been more willing to believe that Wilson would do whatever he needed to flee police, and less willing to believe police planted a gun at the site after the shooting.

But police officers didn't know about the drugs when they fired at the boy. And police would have had to prove that Timothy knew the drugs were in the truck.

This controversy eventually will be resolved, either by Moorhouse or by other judges.

Not so with other aspects of the case.

Some people are incensed that Timothy's mother stands to collect damages when she used, at best, a hands-off style of parenting and her son was running loose in someone else's truck at 1 a.m.

Others furiously reject any notion of sympathy toward the police officers.

Fanning the flames are hostilities centering on the fact that Timothy was black and the officers white.

But the issues here are too complex for a simple designation of right and wrong, victim and villain.

The pro-police camp is correct when it asserts that any 13-year-old driving a pickup poses a threat to public safety and police officers. But the public needs to have confidence that its police force is competent to handle situations without tragedy resulting. Young teenagers are expected to panic; police are not.

The anti-police camp has a point when it notes that the confrontation between Timothy and the police was a mismatch of six armed officers and one scared boy. But police will tell you they dread confrontations with reckless and unpredictable juveniles more than any others.

Citizens, especially minorities, nicked by pointless traffic stops and encounters with rude cops, are quick to believe police would plant a gun. Lost in the resentment is the gratitude they may have felt toward an officer who responded courteously and professionally to a call for help.

Citizens will remember that police shot Timothy Wilson. Police will remember that five Kansas City officers were fired upon in a two-week period last year.

Mistrust built over the years won't quickly dissolve. The best the city can do for now is insist on a well-trained police force with the highest standards of conduct. It's the one element that can be controlled.