Teen sues city, 3 suspended officers

Federal court filing charges excessive force

Jordan Miles says that after he was beaten and handcuffed, he assumed he was about to be kidnapped or even killed.

He began to recite the Lord's Prayer.

But one of the three undercover police officers who had stopped Mr. Miles on Tioga Street in Homewood late Jan. 12 ordered him to "shut up," choked him and then slammed his face into the snow.

When Mr. Miles began whispering the prayer again, another of the officers said, "Didn't he tell you to shut up?" and once again choked him and slammed his face down.

Those are among the allegations Mr. Miles, 18, raised in a federal lawsuit filed Monday against the City of Pittsburgh and the officers, Michael Saldutte, David Sisak and Richard Ewing, involved in his arrest.

The 14-page complaint includes claims for excessive force, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, assault and battery.

"His injuries are substantial and couldn't have happened but for excessive beating by three men of their size and resources," said attorney J. Kerrington Lewis, who represents Mr. Miles.

The lawsuit also accuses the city of failing to properly train its officers, as well as failing to recognize the complaints of individual citizens regarding improper actions by the police.

The individual officers remain suspended with pay as a federal civil rights investigation into their behavior continues. That investigation, according to a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., remains open.

But Mr. Lewis said he was told by federal prosecutors about six weeks ago that it would be difficult to press charges against the officers.

Prosecuting the officers would be "a tough case," Mr. Lewis said he was told. "[Federal officials] had questions about credibility -- the victim versus three police officers," he said, adding that he was unsure where the federal investigation stood.

Mr. Miles' mother, Terez Miles, called the wait for answers "frustrating."

"We were told that, unfortunately, they just didn't see a way to go forward with [charges against the officers]," she said of the conversation with prosecutors. "We wanted to hear an apology or an admission that what the police officers did to my son was illegal. We didn't get that. What recourse do we have?"

City Solicitor Dan Regan said his office was still reviewing the lawsuit.

However, as is standard practice, the city law department will represent the city in the case, while the attorney who represents Pittsburgh's Fraternal Order of Police, Bryan A. Campbell, will represent the individual officers.

The controversy swirling around the Miles case has not let up since the event, and ultimately led to protests by his fellow students from Pittsburgh's Creative and Performing Arts high school, who marched through Downtown streets and delivered a petition with as many as 1,000 signatures to the Allegheny County District Attorney's office earlier this month.

Mr. Miles, of Homewood, was walking between his mother's and grandmother's homes the night of Jan. 12, when he said an unmarked car containing three men approached him.

The former CAPA student said the officers were in plainclothes and never identified themselves.

When the men first stopped, Mr. Miles claims, they asked him "'Where's your money? Where's the drugs? Where's the gun?' " the lawsuit alleged.

Mr. Miles tried to run, but quickly tripped and fell to the sidewalk. That's when, he said, an officer approached and started beating him.

The officers, who charged Mr. Miles with loitering and prowling, aggravated assault, resisting arrest and escape said they thought he looked suspicious and had a heavy object in his coat that they believed was a firearm.

Later, in an affidavit of probable cause, the officers said the heavy object they found in Mr. Miles' coat was a bottle of Mountain Dew. In the lawsuit, though, Mr. Lewis accuses the officers of lying in the affidavit, claiming that there was no Mountain Dew.

At a preliminary hearing on the charges in March, District Judge Oscar Petite Jr. dismissed the case against Mr. Miles.

Mr. Campbell, who is representing the officers in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment Monday.

Defense attorney William Difenderfer, who represents Officer Saldutte in the federal investigation, said he "strongly disagreed" with the allegations in the suit.

"He is steadfast, he acted totally within the scope of his duties."

Attorney James Wymard, who represents Officer Sisak, said his client welcomed the federal suit.

"We've been waiting to go litigate this, wherever we have to. If we have to litigate it civilly, we will," Mr. Wymard said.

He conceded that the officers did have to use force to restrain Mr. Miles, but they didn't use weapons, he said, and the teenager did not suffer any serious injuries.

"The question is, he's going to have to account for his conduct. Why did he run?" Mr. Wymard asked. "They'll account for theirs."

In the meantime, Mr. Miles started college at the University of Pittsburgh on Monday, where he is finding comfort in his peers, his mother said. As for serious injuries, she said her son still suffers from nerve damage in his face and pain in both knees, which he did not experience before his arrest.

"The doctor said if he's still being bothered by nerve damage to his face after a year just to consider it permanent," Ms. Miles said.

Paula Reed Ward: pward@post-gazette.com or 412-263-2620. Sadie Gurman: sgurman@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1878.

First published on August 31, 2010 at 12:00 am