Jury finds for Baltimore City cop in fatal teen shooting

Daily Record, The (Baltimore), Jun 30, 2008 by Brendan Kearney

The recent trial to determine whether a Baltimore City police officer wrongfully shot and killed a 14-year-old boy in August 2006 boiled down to credibility, according to an attorney for the teen's parents.

"If you believe the officer, it was a defendant's verdict; if you believe the mother, it was a plaintiffs' verdict," said A. Dwight Pettit last week.

Kevin Cooper's mother, Greta Carter, and Ofc. Roderick Mitter were the only fact witnesses during the two-week trial in Baltimore City Circuit Court before Judge Albert J. Matricciani Jr. The only other people in the Southwest Baltimore kitchen at the time of the incident were Cooper, who died shortly after a bullet ripped through his left arm, heart, and left lung, and Carter's infant grandchild.

Wednesday morning, the jury cleared Mitter of any responsibility: no wrongful death, no civil rights violation, no assault and battery, no gross negligence, no malice and no funeral expenses. They awarded none of the $25 million in compensatory and punitive damages Cooper's parents sought in their lawsuit.

"Once you decide that you don't believe the main witness in this case ... then you've got to justify coming consistent all the way down the line," Pettit said.

Mitter's attorneys from Jones & Associates P.C., which handles some police defense for the city, did not return calls for comment.

After the result, Pettit said he knew it was "a tough case going in."

Carter, a state correctional officer, called authorities to her house because Cooper, who had a history of behavior issues, was acting up. The stories become divergent after officers arrived at the house, but at some point after the situation seemed to have defused, Mitter met Cooper in the kitchen.

Carter testified that Mitter had provoked her son and that Cooper, despite having a plastic broom handle in his hands, never presented a threat to the officer. At some point, Mitter maced Cooper.

Responding to questions from one defense attorney while another defense attorney played Mitter in a staging of the event for the jury, Carter testified she turned away to shield her grandchild from the spray and heard the shot almost immediately.

"It was like in one motion: he maced, then he shot," Carter said during her cross-examination. "I looked back and Kevin was lying down."

Mitter, on the other hand, testified Cooper broke a wooden broom handle over his head, leaving him woozy. When Cooper menaced him with a splintered piece, Mitter shot him, he testified.

Though Carter denied her son brandished such a stick, one was recovered from the crime scene which fit the dustpan, Pettit said. To believe Carter would have required a belief that the stick had been planted, one of many "steps" the jury would have had to follow to side with Carter and Kevin's father, Lloyd K. Cooper, said Pettit.

Pettit said the basis for his motion for a new trial or an appeal will be Matricciani's decision to admit Kevin Cooper's medical and school records and allow his psychiatrist, counselor and elementary school teacher to testify to his violent history. Pettit said the so- called propensity evidence was "cumulative" and "highly objectionable."

"The prejudicial impact far outweighed the probative value," Pettit said.

In his closing argument, Pettit told the jury, "the case is not about the problems Kevin had because Officer Mitter did not know about those problems."

He said parents don't expect to bury their children, something Carter had now done twice.

A captain from the city sheriff's office lectured the crowd of Cooper's family members after an outburst during testimony and returned to remind them to stay calm before the verdict was read.

While Carter was visibly "devastated," Pettit said the gathered kin, who had waited in the courthouse hallway while the jury deliberated, were "good soldiers about keeping their composure."

Greta Carter, et al. v. Ofc. Roderick Mitter

Court: Baltimore City Circuit

Case No: 24-C-07-002196

Proceedings: Jury trial

Judge: Albert J. Matricciani Jr.

Outcome: Defendant

Dates: Incident: Aug. 12, 2006; Suit filed: March 30, 2007; Disposition: June 25, 2008

Plaintiffs' Attorneys: A. Dwight Pettit and Mitchell D. Treger of The Law Office of A. Dwight Pettit P.A.

Defense Attorneys: Joseph E. Spicer and James H. Fields of Jones & Associates P.C.

Counts: wrongful death, civil rights violations, assault and battery, gross negligence, actual malice, and funeral expenses

Award: $0