WRONGFUL DEATH SUIT FILED OVER SHOOTOUT

The estate of a Fulton County man gunned down by a police last year
during a drug raid is suing in federal court, saying the officers
acted improperly.

The five-count suit, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court, claims
officers with the Illinois State Police and the West Central Illinois
Task Force violated the rights of David Green when they raided a
Fulton County house in June. Green, 47, was shot 10 times and died.

The suit names "unknown officers" as defendants and accuses them of
wrongful death, unreasonable entry and assault and battery, and seeks
an undetermined amount in damages.

James P. Ginzkey, a Bloomington attorney representing Green's estate,
said Thursday the police have rebuffed his attempts through the
Illinois Freedom of Information Act to see any of the reports
regarding the case, and the suit was filed, in part, to obtain access
to those documents.

"We have not seen document No. 1 from any of those agencies," he
said, including a 300-or-so-page report from the Illinois State
Police's Division of Internal Investigation.

At about 6 a.m., June 23, 2005, nearly four dozen officers served a
search warrant after spending two months investigating marijuana
production on the property. An official report given at a coroner's
inquest last year stated officers went to the upper floor and found
Green hiding in a "hole type area against a wall."

Police used "flash-bang" grenades designed to disorient a person but
shot Green when he came out with a handgun pointed at them.

Ginzkey, however disputes that, saying an independent forensic
pathologist believed many of the shots were to Green's back, not to
his chest as earlier reported. Also, the attorney states, not all of
the action took place upstairs.

"It was an upstairs room that Green allegedly confronted the police
with a handgun, but there is a lengthy trail of blood throughout the
downstairs. The blood is human, and DNA testing shows it is David
Green's," Ginzkey said. "So, the shooting was not confined to upstairs."

Another man was charged in connection with several marijuana plants
found on the property. Daniel C. Matheny pleaded guilty last November
in Fulton County Circuit Court to unlawful production of marijuana
plants. He was sentenced to two years of probation and 30 days in jail.