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Michigan v. Budzyn
Testimony on Beating Points More Towards Nevers
(DETROIT, MICHIGAN - Feb. 23) Jurors heard more conflicting accounts of the police
beating of Malice Green, with testimony placing most of the blame for Green's death on Larry
Nevers, defendant Walter Budzyn's former partner.
Mithyim Lewis, an emergency medical technician who happened to be driving his ambulance past
the site of Green's altercation with Budzyn and Nevers on the night of November 5, 1992,
testified that he and his partner were flagged down by a man holding a flashlight, Budzyn.
He said that as he emerged from his vehicle he noticed that Green was half-hanging out of a
parked car; Nevers was in the vehicle, on top of Green.
As he came closer to Green's car, Lewis noticed that Green had blood on his face and hands.
"The gentleman partly out of the car was obviously injured, and the gentleman over him was
struggling with the flashlight," Lewis said . The witness testified that when he asked
what was going on, Officer Larry Nevers said, "I hit him. And if he doesn't stop, I'll hit
him again." Lewis noted that he was able to see the victim's eyes at this point.
"He was conscious, but his eyes were glassy," Lewis said. "He didn't appear to be totally
aware, totally coherent of what was going on."
Lewis told the court that he saw Malice Green struck on the head several times; other blows
struck Green in the hands. And, according to Lewis, Green never offered any resistance to
the attack he was receiving. But Lewis said that the man he saw beating Malice Green was
Larry Nevers; he never saw Walter Budzyn hit the victim in any manner. Eventually,
after Green suffered a seizure at the scene, Lewis and his partner drove him to Detroit
Receiving Hospital. But his vital signs failed on the way, and all attempts to resuscitate
Green were in vain.
Scott Walsh, another emergency medical technician who arrived on the scene that night, also came to the stand. Walsh and his partner, Lee Hardy, pulled up behind Budzyn and Nevers' unmarked police car. Walsh testified that Malice Green was hanging out of the driver's side of his red car. (Green's legs were in the floorboard, but his upper body was out of the car). He said that he witnessed both Nevers and Officer Robert Lessnau strike Green. However, Walsh said that Walter Budzyn was standing on the curb and that he never saw Budzyn strike Green. Walsh did testify that Budzyn was facing Nevers (thus, he was arguably aware that his partner was beating Green).
Walsh also testified that after Green had been removed from the scene, Budzyn came up to him and asked him for something to clean up the blood. Walsh gave him some gauze and peroxide. The witness said that the wounds inflicted to Malice Green produced the most blood he had ever seen in his 10 years as an EMS technician.
During cross-examination, Walsh admitted that there was already a lot of blood by the time he arrived on the scene, and he has no way of knowing what caused the injuries to Green before he got there. Furthermore, Walsh noticed that Sgt. Freddie Douglas, the highest ranking officer at the scene, was not doing anything to stop Nevers from beating Green. Walsh then made a critical point for the defense when he admitted that he never saw Budzyn strike Green, nor did he see Budzyn with a flashlight.
Then, Emanuel "Ricky" Brown was called to the stand and contradicted the testimony of the two previous witnesses. Brown, one of the civilian eyewitnesses who were present during Green's alleged beating, was emerging from Ralph Fletcher's residence at the time Green's vehicle pulled up in front of the house (Teresa Pace, Robert Hollins, and Robert Knox were also present). He testified that Budzyn immediately ran up to Knox and frisked him, but then returned to the car. In the meantime, Green was apparently going through his car's glove box.
According to Brown, Budzyn asked Green what was in his hand, and Nevers ran over to the other side of the car. "He [Budzyn] leaped into the car, and they began to struggle somewhat," Brown said. "It was as if Malice Green was trying to keep his hand toward his body, and the officer was trying to pull it away from his body . . . it got more heated, more intense, as far as the aggression used in trying to subdue him, or whatever he was trying to do."
Brown then told prosecutor Robert Donaldson that he saw Green being struck for the first time -- with a flashlight wielded by Budzyn. In all, claimed this witness, he saw Budzyn strike the victim in the head at least seven to nine times. But Brown conceded that he could not actually see Budzyn's blows strike Green's head.
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Walter Budzyn's former partner,
Larry Nevers |
"All I could see was Malice Green's head go back as the motion of the flashlight came toward his body. As far as actual contact, no did not [see that]," Brown said. After a struggle that Brown estimated lasted five minutes, he claimed Larry Nevers then reached into the car and hit Green a few times in his still-clenched fist, followed by some Nevers blows to Green's knees.
Brown insisted that Green put up no struggle during his attack and made no sounds except for some occasional grunts and moans. Eventually, said Brown, Officer Nevers moved to the driver's side door of the car and began to pull Green toward him. "Then he began to strike him . . . in what area, I don't know, because his [Green's] head had disappeared," Brown said. "But he [Nevers] was going in an up and down motion." Brown said he could not clearly see the object with which Nevers was allegedly striking Green but noted that he had noticed the officer holding a flashlight moments before the attack.
According to Brown, Nevers ordered those at the scene to leave, and the witness started to do so. But Brown claimed he ultimately returned. "This was something we don't see every day," Brown said. "I just felt that something bad had happened, and I wanted to see the outcome of what I had just experienced." When Brown returned to the scene minutes later, he saw Green "laying on his back, in a pool of blood . . . I seen a uniformed officer hand Nevers a rag or towel or something, and he wiped the blood off his hands. I believe he [Budzyn] might have wiped blood off his hands, too."
Prosecutors also focused on refuting the defense suggestion -- first raised last Friday during the testimony of eyewitness Teresa Pace -- that, in an attempt to influence her testimony, Pace may have improperly received special treatment or even moneys during the time she was confined as a material witness prior to Budzyn's first trial. William Rice, a lieutenant in the Detroit Police Department, was called to the stand by the prosecution. At the time of Green's death, Rice was the Officer in Charge of the city's Special Assignment Squad, the unit responsible for handling any homicide involving police personnel.
Rice conceded that several of the eyewitnesses who were called to testify at the time of the original trial had outstanding arrest warrants, which the prosecution team was able to have set aside with the underlying cases adjourned until after the trial. But Rice insisted that all of the cases were ultimately answered with no help from the prosecution. He also denied that Teresa Pace had received any preferential treatment during her 33-day incarceration as a material witness, and explained that the several hundred dollars earmarked for Pace during that time -- moneys provided by the Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney's Office -- consisted of a witness fee (normal in the state of Michigan) and money for such personal use items as cigarettes, toiletries, and food.
But defense attorney James Howarth continued to cast doubt on the prosecution, asking why, for example, checks made out to Pace were evidently never seen by that witness, but endorsed under her name by someone else. And Rice was also forced to admit that, if Pace was put into custody as a material witness only to keep her available until the first trial, allowing her to be arrested on the original warrants would have served the same purpose.
Richard Padzieski, the Chief of Operations at the Wayne County Prosecuting Attorney's Office, also was called by prosecutors. Padzieski was the official who actually authorized and signed the checks that were made out to Pace. He took the stand briefly to say, as had the previous witness, that the moneys paid to Pace were perfectly normal and logical, noting that the State of Michigan has statutorially mandated that each witness in a trial be paid a fee of $12 per day.
Court was recessed for the day before the defense could begin its cross examination of Ricky Brown, and he'll be back on the stand Tuesday morning. Despite his damning testimony against the defendant, Brown has some major credibility problems the defense is sure to explore. He has been arrested in the past by both Officers Budzyn and Nevers, and he has admitted that he was smoking crack only twenty minutes prior to the incident. And his description of Budzyn striking Green contradicts the accounts given by Robert Fletcher and Teresa Pace. In addition, Brown was standing at least twice as far from the scene as were those witnesses.
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