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Eureka ex-police chief Dave Douglas to face charges Feb. 21st in Cheri Moore shooting
This AP article implies that commanding officers have no responsibility to face up to, and ignores the other 4 fatal shootings under Douglas' command. However, it is the only article on the subject in the media, local and national.
By MARCUS WOHLSEN – Dec 21, 2007
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — No one claims the police chief or his lieutenant fired a shot when officers gunned down a mentally unstable woman in the coastal Northern California city of Eureka last year.
Yet they, not the officers who fired on her, are the ones charged with manslaughter in a case that has puzzled criminologists and law enforcement veterans, who say they've never heard of commanding officers having to defend themselves against criminal charges just for issuing orders.
"It's a novel legal theory to indict people who didn't do something, particularly when they didn't say, 'Go ahead and shoot this woman,'" said David Klinger, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminal justice professor who has studied police use of deadly force.
Chief David Douglas and Lt. Tony Zanotti were not part of the raid on Cheri Lyn Moore's apartment; they had been directing the tactical response from a command post elsewhere in the apartment complex.
Both plan to plead not guilty to involuntary manslaughter when they're arraigned Feb. 21, said Bill Bragg, a lawyer for Douglas, who retired in October 2006, and Bill Rappaport, Zanotti's lawyer.
If convicted, Douglas and Zanotti would face up to four years in prison.
The officers who fired the shots have not been charged.
The indictments announced last week against the two commanders remains sealed. Humboldt County prosecutors could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press and have said little publicly about the since the day it happened.
On April 14, 2006, Moore was grieving the one-year anniversary of her son's death and began suffering a "mental health crisis" and called Humboldt County's mental health services line, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by another son.
Police soon arrived at her apartment in Eureka, a remote city of 26,000 in the heart of California redwood country, but the welfare check turned into a standoff when she would not answer the door.
The 48-year-old grandmother brandished a flare gun from her second-story window, threw clothes into the street and threatened to burn down the building, according to police.
"She was an immediate threat to human life, to the building, to the officers, and to civilians surrounding that area," Zanotti testified at a September inquest into Moore's death.
After two hours, she was seen putting the gun down, and officers stormed the apartment.
Moore was brought down by nine shots fired from a shotgun and an assault rifle; officers said she pointed the flare gun at them. She died at the scene.
Key to the manslaughter case against Douglas and Zanotti is whether their decision to send in a SWAT team showed judgment so poor that it amounts to criminal negligence.
"It's pretty clear from the evidence that the problem came from the order to go into the apartment," said Gordon Kaupp, a San Francisco attorney representing the son in the wrongful death suit, filed in May. "The cops here knew she had a mental health history and chose to ignore (that)."
Crisis negotiators should have had more time, and police should have used non-lethal weapons to subdue Moore, according to her son and mental health advocates.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — No one claims the police chief or his lieutenant fired a shot when officers gunned down a mentally unstable woman in the coastal Northern California city of Eureka last year.
Yet they, not the officers who fired on her, are the ones charged with manslaughter in a case that has puzzled criminologists and law enforcement veterans, who say they've never heard of commanding officers having to defend themselves against criminal charges just for issuing orders.
"It's a novel legal theory to indict people who didn't do something, particularly when they didn't say, 'Go ahead and shoot this woman,'" said David Klinger, a University of Missouri-St. Louis criminal justice professor who has studied police use of deadly force.
Chief David Douglas and Lt. Tony Zanotti were not part of the raid on Cheri Lyn Moore's apartment; they had been directing the tactical response from a command post elsewhere in the apartment complex.
Both plan to plead not guilty to involuntary manslaughter when they're arraigned Feb. 21, said Bill Bragg, a lawyer for Douglas, who retired in October 2006, and Bill Rappaport, Zanotti's lawyer.
If convicted, Douglas and Zanotti would face up to four years in prison.
The officers who fired the shots have not been charged.
The indictments announced last week against the two commanders remains sealed. Humboldt County prosecutors could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press and have said little publicly about the since the day it happened.
On April 14, 2006, Moore was grieving the one-year anniversary of her son's death and began suffering a "mental health crisis" and called Humboldt County's mental health services line, according to a wrongful death lawsuit filed by another son.
Police soon arrived at her apartment in Eureka, a remote city of 26,000 in the heart of California redwood country, but the welfare check turned into a standoff when she would not answer the door.
The 48-year-old grandmother brandished a flare gun from her second-story window, threw clothes into the street and threatened to burn down the building, according to police.
"She was an immediate threat to human life, to the building, to the officers, and to civilians surrounding that area," Zanotti testified at a September inquest into Moore's death.
After two hours, she was seen putting the gun down, and officers stormed the apartment.
Moore was brought down by nine shots fired from a shotgun and an assault rifle; officers said she pointed the flare gun at them. She died at the scene.
Key to the manslaughter case against Douglas and Zanotti is whether their decision to send in a SWAT team showed judgment so poor that it amounts to criminal negligence.
"It's pretty clear from the evidence that the problem came from the order to go into the apartment," said Gordon Kaupp, a San Francisco attorney representing the son in the wrongful death suit, filed in May. "The cops here knew she had a mental health history and chose to ignore (that)."
Crisis negotiators should have had more time, and police should have used non-lethal weapons to subdue Moore, according to her son and mental health advocates.
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Maybe that's also your intent.
But at least - it seems you also provide a space here for the truth to be heard. For the facts to be laid out beside the spin. That is a high calling. And for that, I would commend you.
Those posts above contain links to all of the articles that have been written about this case, from its inception (as complete a list as I have been able to compile) for anyone who is truly interested.
It's definitely a case that is getting statewide and national attention.
Two examples - He says: <i>The 48-year-old grandmother brandished a flare gun from her second-story window, threw clothes into the street and threatened to burn down the building, according to police.
"She was an immediate threat to human life, to the building, to the officers, and to civilians surrounding that area," Zanotti testified at a September inquest into Moore's death.
After two hours, she was seen putting the gun down, and officers stormed the apartment.
Moore was brought down by nine shots fired from a shotgun and an assault rifle; officers said she pointed the flare gun at them. She died at the scene. </i>
He calls her a 'grandmother' but leaves out that she was estranged from her living son - the long number of years is in the real coverage.
He correctly prints that she was believed to have put the flare gun down, and that that is when the officers went in. When they came in the door, she reportedly picked up the flare gun she had been brandishing and pointed it at them.
That fact is critical to the case.