Store Guard Is Charged With Manslaughter

A private security guard was charged Thursday with involuntary manslaughter in last month’s suffocation death of a black man who was put in a hold outside a department store.

The charge against Dennis Richardson, a 29-year-old guard for the Lord & Taylor store at a mall in Dearborn, came a day after thousands of protesters rallied outside the store. They suggested the death June 22 of Frederick Finley had racial overtones, though Richardson also is black.

Finley, 32, was in the Lord & Taylor store with friends and family when surveillance cameras recorded some members of the group allegedly shoplifting. Finley’s 11-year-old stepdaughter removed a bracelet from a counter and left the store without paying for it, prosecutors said.

Outside, security workers tried to question the girl and Finley intervened, prosecutors said. During an ensuing confrontation with Finley, Richardson used a neck hold to subdue Finley, ultimately causing his death, prosecutors said.

The manslaughter count carries a possible 15 years in prison and $7,500 fine.

Attorney Geoffrey Fieger, who is representing Finley’s family in a $600-million lawsuit against the store’s parent company, May Department Stores, said he believes a second-degree murder charge would have been more appropriate.

He also rejected any reports suggesting the family had been shoplifting. He said that the young girl mistakenly left the store with a $4 bracelet and that the Finleys would have paid for the bracelet had they been nicely approached about it.

He said five security workers, four of whom are black, did not identify themselves when they confronted the family.

Prosecutors said information that other security guards perhaps contributed to Finley’s death “has been carefully considered but cannot be substantiated at this time.”

An estimated 5,000 to 10,000 protesters, led by the Rev. Al Sharpton, rallied outside the store Wednesday and accused Lord & Taylor of having black security workers watch minority shoppers to avoid the appearance of discrimination or racial profiling.

Lord & Taylor spokeswoman LaVelle Olexa declined comment, citing the family’s lawsuit.