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Lawsuit filed in death from 1977

By MIKE DONILA
Published April 14, 2007

The brother of a young man who died 30 years ago on Clearwater Beach has sued the city of Clearwater, its police and a number of retired officers, saying they violated his brother's civil rights and caused his death.

John Niesen of Atlanta for months has threatened the lawsuit, saying he's fed up with state and federal investigators and has nowhere left to turn.

The suit, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Tampa by Niesen and his mother Mary Riley, seeks more than $75,000 in damages in the death of Michael Niesen, 18. But John Niesen has told the city he'll seek $100-million.

Niesen has long claimed that his brother was killed in July 1977 by police who were distraught over the death of a fellow officer who was thrown from his brother's truck.

The suit alleges that for three decades, a number of officers participated in a conspiracy to conceal the events of that night.

"It's a shame it took all this to get this aired out," said Niesen, 52. "I don't know where it's going to go."

On July 13, 1977, patrol Officer Ronald Mahony, 21, stopped Michael Niesen's pickup on Clearwater Beach.

Mahony planned to cite Niesen, who had come to Clearwater to meet girls, for reckless driving, but he learned that the truck had been reported stolen.

As the officer approached the truck, Niesen accelerated, and Mahony jumped into the truck's bed. Niesen fishtailed several times before flipping the truck along Memorial Causeway and killing Mahony.

The suit says retired officer Mark Cairns "savagely beat" Niesen while he was "in custody, handcuffed and defenseless."

It also claims retired officers Michael Egger, Charles Butler, James Gravely and Richard Yerby and former officer Edward Garner filed "deceptive reports" to maintain Michael Niesen was injured in the wreck and to mislead investigators.

All six men are named as defendants in the suit.

Reached Friday, Butler and Yerby declined to talk about the case, saying they hadn't reviewed the allegations. Cairns, Egger, Gravely and Garner couldn't be reached for comment.

City and police officials said they sympathize with the family but feel the case has been thoroughly investigated.

"No one has brought forth any new information, and I'm hopeful that perhaps (John Niesen) will accept the court's ruling, whatever that may be," said police spokesman Wayne Shelor.

Mayor Frank Hibbard said "it was a tragic event, and I know that the family still has inner turmoil," but he said no credible witnesses have come forward. "We'll go through the defense process as we have to," Hibbard said.

Last month the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to investigate, saying the statute of limitations had expired, indicating the office didn't view the incident as a first-degree murder or conspiracy.

Before that, the case had been reviewed repeatedly by Clearwater police, the State Attorney's Office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

Each time, investigators said they found no new evidence to reopen the case.

Earlier this year, a St. Petersburg Times review of Pinellas-Pasco State Attorney's Office and Florida Department of Law Enforcement files showed that more than a dozen state officials formally reviewed the incident at least six times over the years, assembling nearly 1,300 pages of documents, interviewing more than 20 witnesses, reviewing records and poring over transcripts.

John Niesen also has investigated the case, supplying reams of files to investigators. But some of the testimony he gleaned from witnesses conflicted with that found by state investigators.

One was former paramedic Richard Walton, who recently said he witnessed officers pummel Michael Niesen. But officials questioned whether he was telling the truth.

And last November, retired officer Garner, 57, said Niesen wasn't hurt from the wreck. He said fellow officers coached him about what to include in his report.

But Garner had been fired for drinking on the job, had an extensive criminal history and had been in prison for DUI-manslaughter.

Legal experts who spoke with the Times in recent months agree that the Niesen family has a tough case to prove due to the passage of time.

"It's not impossible to put cases like this together, just very difficult," said Frank Louderback, a St. Petersburg defense attorney. But, Louderback said, unlike a criminal case where guilt must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, a civil case turns on "who puts forth the more credible evidence."

Watching the case from afar is the family of the patrol officer killed in 1977. Ronald Mahony was the eldest of five children. Dwayne Mahony, 45, said Niesen has never "acknowledged the wrongdoing that was done to my brother."

"There's been a lot of conflicting reports and it's been a long time, so we acknowledge that it's not outside the realms of possibility that it happened, but we feel it's unlikely and untrue," said Mahony, a Pasco County resident.

Reporter Jacob Fries and Times researcher Carolyn Edds contributed to this story.

[Last modified April 13, 2007, 22:10:36]