BY EDWIN FRUIT
PITTSBURGH - As protesters chanted "No Justice, No Peace" outside the Allegheny County Courthouse in downtown Pittsburgh December 13, Judge James Rowley declared a mistrial in the case of two police officers being charged in the death of Jonny Gammage. Gammage was a Black man who was killed by five suburban Pittsburgh cops in October 1995 after a routine traffic stop.

In November of that year, a coroner's jury recommended that criminal homicide charges be filed against all five cops involved. Immediately the local authorities began weakening the potential prosecution of the cops.

Only three of the cops were charged, and with the misdemeanor charge of involuntary manslaughter.

In May 1996 Judge David Cashman ruled that juries for the two trials, one for John Vojtas and the other for Milton Mulholland and Michael Albert, would be picked from outside of Allegheny County, where Pittsburgh is located and 11.9 percent of the population is Black. Both juries ended up being all white, chosen from areas with much smaller Black populations.

Meanwhile, activists began to organize demanding justice. Picket lines and demonstrations were held and in February 1996 nearly 300 people attended an all-day conference here on police brutality highlighting the Gammage case and others. In June the NAACP and other organizations sponsored a march of close to 500 people. The next week the cops mobilized over 1,000 police officers and their supporters in downtown Pittsburgh.

Just two days into the October 1996 trial of Albert and Mulholland, Judge Cashman ruled a mistrial. The next month an all-white jury acquitted Vojtas.

More than 2,000 demonstrators protested this verdict, and the following Friday more than 1,000 high school students walked out of class and marched to downtown Pittsburgh. The protests continued this year.

Cashman decided against retrying Albert and Mulholland last April, and the next month the third cop, Vojtas, was promoted to sergeant in the Brentwood police department. In June some 700 people demonstrated protesting both of these actions. Finally, in October the Pennsylvania Supreme Court overturned Cashman's decision and ordered a new trial of Albert and Mulholland with a new trial judge.

Some 75 people demonstrated outside the courthouse on the first day of the trial December 1. To those who attended any part of the trials it was apparent that the District Attorney's office was not going to prosecute the cops in a manner that could convince a jury to convict them.

The fact that only two cops were on trial made the case harder to prove. Dr. Abdulrezak Shakir, who conducted the autopsy on Gammage, testified at the trial. When asked by the defense attorney whether he could separate any action by Milton Mulholland that would be the direct cause of death, he answered. "In my opinion, it's the collective action by the officers involved."

The Assistant District Attorney, who was the prosecutor, appeared inept and disorganized. Several high school students who attended the trial questioned the prosecution's competency in countering defense attorney arguments.

Even though the jury in the most recent trial was picked from Allegheny County, those selected consisted of 11 whites and one Black juror.

In less than 24 hours the jury reported that it was deadlocked and that after six different votes there was not going to be any changing of views. As it turned out the 11 white jurors voted to acquit while the Black juror voted for conviction. At that point, Judge Rowley declared a mistrial and dismissed the jury.

According to the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, "weeping jurors who wanted to acquit the police pitied retired Brentwood Borough Lt. Milton Mulholland so much that they passed the hat .. to defray his legal woes."

The jury forewoman told reporters, "The whole experience was frustrating. We had a person who wouldn't listen to reason."

Another juror stated, "He [the Black juror] came with an agenda. He said he had organizations he belonged to and a community to go back to."

Walter Moorefield defended his actions in holding out with a "guilty" vote. "A man is driving down the street - don't even say a Black man but a man - and he gets stopped for a traffic violation and somewhere between 17 and 23 minutes later he dies. There's something wrong with this picture." Moorefield added, "When you come from where I come from, it happens all the time. I'm tired of the police killing people out there and then getting a pat on the hand. Any time somebody dies, there's negligence on somebody's part."

Pro-police forces have gone on the offensive to defend the actions of these cops and to urge closing the Gammage case. The December 14 edition of the Post-Gazette featured two prominent articles written by a cop, Chuck Bosetti, under the heading, "Pittsburgh Police: Betrayed and Abused."

Marshall Hynes, president of the Pittsburgh Fraternal Order of Police, said, "This was nothing more than a terrible, tragic accident... If you fight the police, you can expect to get hurt."

In a December 16 editorial entitled "No verdict, no peace," the Post-Gazette commented, "If you consider the Vojtas case together with this latest one, you come up with the fact that 23 of 24 jurors who have heard testimony on the events of that night did not finally agree with the prosecution's theory."

Polarization was also noticeable among workers at USAirways, where this reporter works. After the verdict several workers said they thought it was wrong that none of the cops were going to serve any time. Another argued that Gammage had a history of resisting the police and that aggressive encounters he had had with cops in Syracuse, New York, were not allowed as evidence in the current trial.

Activists involved in the fight were outraged at the outcome. Pearl Story-Nelson, who has spent numerous days picketing the courthouse, said, "It wasn't an accident. This man was brutally strangled. Anyone who saw the pictures of him laying in the morgue could see that. African-Americans simply cannot get any justice in the state of Pennsylvania."

Dorothy Urquhart, of the United Concerned Christians at Work and the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, has been at every demonstration as well as at the courthouse during the three trials. "I think this whole trial was a farce," she declared. "They never intended to have any of the police do any time. We need the federal government to come in and prosecute all five of the cops."

Activists who have been part of keeping the Gammage case in the public light for over two years are discussing the next stage of the fight. Ideas being considered include a newsletter, a teach-in, and working with other forces in the Black community to have the annual Martin Luther King Jr. holiday march focus on justice for Jonny Gammage.

Edwin Fruit is a member of International Association of Machinists Local Lodge 1976.  
 
 
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