NAACP Asks DA to Prosecute in Miles Case

Representatives of several community groups met with Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen Zappala today, to ask him if he would prosecute the three Pittsburgh Police Officers involved in the January 12, 2010 beating of 18-year-old Jordan Miles.

NAACP’s national legal counsel Kim Keenan says she asked Zappala repeatedly when he would prosecute the officers.

"Lawyers are very good at saying they 'really can't say,' and the DA was exceptional in that regard," says Keenan. "Despite many questions in many ways, he could not give us a timeline, but he did indicate that he had three people in his office working on it."

Keenan says she will do whatever it takes to keep attention on the case, including holding public hearings and more meetings with Zappala.

Keenan says Zappala told her he would look “fully and fairly” at the evidence of the Miles incident, including grand jury testimony.

The group at the meeting included leaders of the regional, state, and national chapters of the NAACP, and the heads of local groups such as the Black Political Empowerment Project and the Black & White Reunion.

Those groups have been steadily advocating for the prosecution of the three policemen in question since the beating happened, almost 18 months ago. The officers were on paid administrative leave for more than a year after the incident. They were reinstated this May after a federal investigation of the case resulted in no charges.

Zappala had said in the past that he would not take action until the federal investigation had finished.

More Police Accountability Measures Introduced

Pittsburgh community groups strongly support a new amendment to add more police accountability measures to a package called the “Jordan Miles Public Safety Reform Agenda.”

Chairwoman Brandi Fisher of the Alliance for Police Accountability says the amended bills would call for a code of conduct for off-duty officers, and require reports to be filed any time a citizen is frisked.

Fisher says those reports may make officers only consider pat-downs when they are absolutely necessary.

City Solicitor Dan Regan says he’s concerned that the information the bill calls for is confidential, and would be illegal for the police department to submit.

However, Council discovered that Regan had been sent the unamended version of the bill by mistake. Councilman Doug Shields says the amendments don’t require any personal information to be publicized; he says it only requires statistical data to show police performance. The legislation has been held for a week so the Solicitor can review it in the meantime.

The proposed amendments from Councilman Ricky Burgess would augment three standing police accountability bills, requiring: cameras in police cars; paid leave for officers under investigation; and the accreditation of the Pittsburgh Police.

The package was created in response to the Jordan Miles incident of January 2010. The former CAPA student was walking, unarmed, when he was forcefully accosted by three Pittsburgh policemen.

Activists Want a Trial

The Alliance for Police Accountability, a group that started up about a year ago, delivered an estimated 1,000 signatures to Stephen Zappala, the Allegheny County District Attorney on Friday morning urging that criminal charges be filed against the three city police officers involved in the beating of Jordan Miles. Among them was Miles' mother.

In early May, the federal Department of Justice announced that there would be no federal charges filed against the three officers who had been on paid leave from the police department, because federal prosecutors did not believe they could prove a case beyond a reasonable doubt.

Brandi Fisher, the chair of the alliance, believes that since the federal investigation has come to a close, it is now up to Mr. Zappala to pursue the case.

"He has no reason to not prosecute," she said, saying she only wants the officers to be held accountable to the same laws all citizens are held accountable to.

DA spokesman Mike Manko said his office continues to review the matter.

Miles, then a high school student was arrested in January of 2010, on Tioga Street as he walked from his mother's home to his grandmother's.

Police had said he was acting suspicious and resisted arrest. He was brutally beaten and had hair ripped from his head.

Those charges were dropped.