The Justice Department finds there is not enough evidence to pursue a case in which an arrestee was fatally injured.
By CANDACE RONDEAUX
Published January 16, 2004
TARPON SPRINGS - A Tarpon Springs police officer's arrest of a drug suspect who later died did not violate federal criminal civil rights statutes, U.S. Justice Department prosecutors have determined.
Nearly a month after the FBI had said it sent its findings about the arrest and death of William Keith Anderson to the Justice Department, federal officials said they did not find enough evidence to pursue the case.
In a letter sent to Tarpon Springs police Chief Mark LeCouris last week, a federal official wrote that the Justice Department has closed its investigation.
"After careful consideration, we concluded that the evidence does not establish a prosecutable violation of the federal criminal civil rights statutes," wrote Albert Moskowitz, chief of the Justice Department's civil rights criminal division.
Anderson, of New Port Richey, sustained a fatal head injury when now-retired Tarpon Springs police Officer Romando Black arrested him in connection with an attempt to purchase crack cocaine on June 8, 2000. In February 2003, Anderson's family filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Black, 34, and LeCouris in U.S. District Court in Tampa.
LeCouris said Thursday that he was not surprised by the Justice Department's decision. He added he expects the courts to exonerate Black in the wrongful death lawsuit as well.
"It was ridiculous from the start," LeCouris said. "The people who made the complaint in the first place are just part of the group that's trying to discredit this department."
Tarpon Springs attorney John Shahan contends in the lawsuit that Black slammed Anderson's head to the ground during the arrest, causing "blunt traumatic head injury, skull fractures and brain contusions."
Anderson, then a 39-year-old construction worker, lost consciousness and was flown to Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg. He remained there in critical condition until he died on June 16, 2000.
On Thursday, Shahan said Justice Department officials still do not have all the facts and he plans to press ahead with his client's case.
"It's not over if there's more information," Shahan said. "They don't have the information, so I'm going to get it to the FBI in Tampa and I'm going to get it to Moskowitz."
Reached at his Tarpon Springs home Thursday, Black, who retired on medical disability from the Police Department in April 2003, said he was aware that the Justice Department had dropped its investigation into the Anderson arrest.
"I did no wrong," Black said. "I just did my job. I'm sorry that it happened. I pray that it happens to nobody else."
Calls to the Justice Department were not returned Thursday.
FBI spokeswoman Sara Oates declined to provide details on her agency's investigation or its findings Thursday.
In July 2000, Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney Bernie McCabe investigated and concluded that Black "was in lawful performance of his legal duty" when he arrested Anderson and tried to prevent him from escaping during a scuffle with the officer.
McCabe was not available for comment Thursday.
But Shahan said Black testified in a Dec. 12, 2003, deposition that investigators did not interview a key witness in the Anderson case. The witness, Aaron Derome Hardy, 22, told Florida Department of Law Enforcement agents during a February 2003 interview that he saw "Anderson attempt to get up on three separate occasions and Officer Black slammed his head to the ground each time," according to FDLE records.
"I think (the Justice Department's) action is kind of premature, given the fact I haven't been able to give them the deposition of the defendant, Romando Black," Shahan said.
Black declined to comment on his December deposition.
On Thursday, LeCouris repeated his claim that Hardy, who has a string of mostly misdemeanor arrests, is not a credible witness. He said he expects a federal jury to reach the same conclusion about Hardy.
Black is one of two police officers currently at the center of an FDLE investigation of the Tarpon Springs Police Department. FDLE agents have asked for police records on more than a dozen arrests or instances in which Black, his longtime partner Sgt. Michael Trill and other officers used force in making arrests, according to records obtained by the Times.
Trill was later named as a defendant in the wrongful death lawsuit. LeCouris said he was on duty that day but not present for the arrest.
FDLE spokesman Rick Morera said Thursday that he could not discuss details of the investigation, but confirmed that it is continuing.
