Ex-Officers Get Prison in Detroit Murder

DETROIT — Two former police officers, who made tearful appeals for leniency, were sentenced to lengthy prison terms Tuesday for the murder of an unemployed steelworker outside a crack house here last year.

Larry Nevers, 52, received 12 to 25 years in prison for his role in the fatal beating of 35-year-old Malice Green. His partner, Walter Budzyn, 47, was given eight to 18 years.

“What you did was excessive in the extreme,” Recorders Court Judge George W. Crockett III told Nevers.

The case, which has parallels to the police beating of Rodney G. King in Los Angeles, split Detroit along racial lines. Many in the black community wanted the maximum sentence of life imprisonment for the white officers, whom they described as out of control. Supporters sought a minimal one-year term, saying Green’s death was inadvertent.

Crockett said his decision would not satisfy many groups, but Wendell Anthony, president of the Detroit NAACP, said the sentences were appropriate. “I think justice was served,” he said. “It recognizes that whether you are a police officer or a citizen, you have a right to protection.”

The case will be appealed, the officers’ attorneys said. Nevers and Budzyn, who had been free on bond, were taken into custody. They initially will go to a state prison, but likely will be transferred to a federal facility for their protection.

The two officers were convicted of second-degree murder Aug. 23 by separate juries after an 11-week trial involving 50 witnesses and more than 200 exhibits.

Nevers and Budzyn were on a stakeout for an armed-robbery suspect on Nov. 5 outside a Westside crack house when they stopped to question Green, a known drug user. When Budzyn asked for his driver’s license, Green reached over to the glove compartment with something in his hand.

Green was ordered to unclench his fist but refused. A struggle ensued with Nevers coming to Budzyn’s aid. Nevers said he hit Green with a flashlight only after Green grabbed for his gun. Budzyn testified that he never hit Green with his flashlight.

An autopsy determined that Green died from 14 blows to his head. He was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol.

In issuing the sentences, Crockett told Budzyn that he did not believe his testimony that he did not hit Green. But Crockett said that he did believe the officer did not mean to kill Green.

“I don’t think that was your intent,” he said, but added that Budzyn deliberately tried to hurt Green and used excessive force. Budzyn, who was stoic throughout the trial, wiped tears from his eyes as the judge spoke.

Crockett gave the stiffer sentence to Nevers, noting that his blows probably resulted in Green’s death.

“I don’t think you are in the common usage a murderer, even though you stand convicted of murder,” he said. But Crockett said hitting a person, particularly one impaired by drugs, could not go unpunished.

Crockett handed down the sentences after conferring with a three-judge panel, sifting through hundreds of letters condemning and backing the officers, and hearing from Green’s family and the two former officers. The terms were in line with state sentencing guidelines.

In a shaky voice, Nevers apologized to the Green family for their loss. “Your honor, I did not kill Malice Green. I did not intend to hurt him, to do anything but arrest him for a felony.”

Green’s sister, Sherry Green, and his wife, Rosemary Green, both asked the court to impose the maximum sentence. His sister said the officers had shown no remorse and insulted their family with a series of rallies held in their behalf in recent weeks.

“These police officers are liars,” Green’s sister said. “They murdered Malice Green.”

“I’m very disappointed,” said Bennie White, an artist who lives in the neighborhood where Green died. “These kinds of crimes have been perpetrated on the black community for years. They should have gotten life.”