Claim Filed in Slaying of Unarmed Man

Attorney Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. filed a $100-million wrongful death claim Monday against the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department and the city of Moreno Valley on behalf of the family of an unarmed man who had his hands up when he was fatally shot by an officer.

Dante Ramon Meniefield, 23, was shot once in the head by Officer Robert Marks early on March 10 as Meniefield stood with a friend in a vacant apartment in Moreno Valley, a city of 140,000 about 70 miles east of Los Angeles. Moreno Valley contracts with the Sheriff’s Department to run its Police Department.

“We’re all sorry about the incident,” said Moreno Valley City Manager Gene Rogers. “It was a tragic accident.”

But Cochran, a veteran of officer-involved shooting litigation, called it “one of most egregious cases we’ve seen. . . . They shot an unarmed man who had his hands up.”

Meniefield, he said, was familiar with the officers who patrol the neighborhood and his last words to friend Reshaad Roberts as they heard the officers approaching were “be very careful--raise your hands.”

The death of the African American man at the hands of a white officer has spurred several protests by members of Moreno Valley’s black community and calls for police reform.

The shooting is being investigated by the U.S. attorney’s office in Los Angeles to determine whether Meniefield’s civil rights were violated. The Riverside district attorney is also reviewing Marks’ conduct.

“Clearly this is a tragedy. We call on federal authorities and local authorities to proceed from a criminal standpoint,” Cochran said at a news conference Monday attended by Meniefield’s relatives.

Among those flanking Cochran were Shannon Nolley, the mother of Meniefield’s soon-to-be-born child, and his 6-year-old daughter, Tinisha, with a T-shirt emblazoned with her father’s photograph on the back and the words “RIP. Daddy.”

Her father was shot about 12:30 a.m. March 10 after Marks and his partner, Officer Dion Davis, went to check on a vacant apartment looking for trespassers. Sheriff’s officials say the check at 22960 Allies Place was routine for an area with high drug activity and several vacant apartments.

Sheriff’s Sgt. Mark Lohman said the officers came upon Meniefield and Roberts, who allegedly were smoking marijuana and drinking beer. Marks, 34, a 10-year member of the force, came around a corner and saw Roberts with his hands up, then moved his flashlight beam and saw Meniefield with his hands up, Lohman said.

Although the movement ledMarks to believe he was in danger of being hurt, Meniefield did not produce a weapon, Lohman said. “Mr. Meniefield quickly raised his hands higher and the officer fired,” he said.

A Sheriff’s Department investigation into the shooting concluded that Marks should not face criminal charges, and the matter has been forwarded to the district attorney’s office, he said. “The conduct does not rise to the level of criminal charges,” Lohman said, declining to elaborate.

Lohman said a separate administrative probe by internal affairs officers will be complete in a week. Marks was initially placed on paid leave, but has since returned to an administrative position, officials said.

As to the civil claim, commonly filed against government agencies as a precursor to a lawsuit, “we’ll let the attorney work it out in court,” Lohman said.

Officials in the Riverside district attorney’s office Monday said they expect to decide on any criminal charges in about two weeks.

Cochran, however, said he has no confidence in the sheriff’s investigation into one of their own, calling it a classic case of a fox guarding the hen house.

He said Meniefield and his friend entered the unlocked apartment to get shelter from the rain. As to the drug usage, he added, “you don’t get the death penalty for marijuana.’

Cochran said the Sheriff’s Department had shown an “absence of remorse” and recently arrested Nolley, the victim’s pregnant girlfriend, for trespassing when she went to a makeshift memorial outside the apartment. “She’s not guilty of anything except being a grieving woman bearing a child,” he said.

Speaking at Cochran’s office Monday, Gwyn Paschal-Hammond, a Moreno Valley activist and children’s book publisher, called for the City Council there to replace Police Chief Richard Coz, who is a sheriff’s captain.

She alleged that the department’s problem-oriented policing program was to blame for overly aggressive officers.

Sheriff officials said that far from being insensitive to the victim’s family, the Moreno Valley chief had “taken the family under his wing.”