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Michigan v. Budzyn
Prosecution's Case Drawing to a Close
(DETROIT, MICHIGAN - Feb. 25) Prosecutors began bringing their case against former police officer Walter Budzyn to a close, bringing more witnesses to Malice Green's alleged beating to the stand who seemed to blame the defendant's former partner Larry Nevers.
Emergency medical technician Lee Hardy returned to the stand for cross-examination by defense attorney James Howarth. Hardy testified that he saw Nevers and another police officer Robert Lessnau beating Green, but he never saw Budzyn touch the victim. Under re-direct by the prosecution, Hardy admitted that he did not know what Budzyn had done before he arrived at the scene and had not witnessed the entire incident.
At one point, according to Hardy, Sgt. Freddie Douglas warned Nevers, "Take it easy, Larry." But, said the witness, Douglas later struck Green himself. Howarth may have gotten an answer he had not expected when he asked Hardy if he remembered Budzyn's face from the incident. Hardy said that he did. But when Howarth asked him to identify Budzyn as "the guy who didn't do the beating, Hardy described the defendant as "an officer there . . . any officer there was obliged to stop the beating." Perhaps Hardy's most chilling comment was his recollection of how unemotional the entire incident was. "It wasn't a wildly frantic scene," Hardy said. "He [Malice Green] was calmly beaten to death."
Another witness, Robert "Joe" Hollins, Jr., who was the boyfriend of previous witness Teresa Pace, told the court that Green had been smoking cocaine in the hours before his altercation with Budzyn and Nevers and indicated that he had cocaine in his hand when he was stopped by the officers. Hollins was present at the time Green was allegedly beaten by Budzyn and Nevers. He told the jury that he and Pace had returned to Ralph Fletcher's home just before the incident (they had been there earlier in the day) in order to pick up a friend, Robert Knox.
Hollins heard Budzyn order Green to open his hand. "That got my attention," Hollins said. "And so I looked over to the car, and Officer Budzyn was striking Malice's hand. He was leaning in the car, holding Malice's hand . . . he grabbed Malice's left hand with his left hand, and had his flashlight in his right hand. He was telling him to open his hand, striking him with his flashlight on the hand several times."
According to Hollins, Green was offering no resistance as he was being struck. Nevertheless, the witness claimed that both he and Fletcher asked Nevers to control his partner; Hollins and urged Green to open his hands. Budzyn, too, allegedly continued to urge Green to open his hand, but the suspect continued to clench his fist. At that point, said Hollins, Nevers began to strike Green on the knees, an action which caused his flashlight to come apart. As Nevers attempted to reassemble the instrument, Hollins said that "he looked up at us and told us to leave."
Despite Nevers' instruction, Hollins said that he saw Budzyn continue to strike Green at this time. He conceded that he was unable to see exactly where on Green's body Budzyn's swinging flashlight would have made contact but said he had no question from the position of the men's bodies that Green was being beaten around the head.
"I seen him swinging his flashlight," Hollins testified. "From the direction he was swinging, it had to be in the head area." Hollins said that he and Teresa Pace left the scene at that point. According to the witness, the last thing he saw was "Ralph Fletcher and Robert Knox going back towards the back door. I seen Budzyn and Nevers still struggling with Malice."
Like many witnesses before him, Hollins had credibility problems. Hollins admitted that his memory of the altercation had faded over the past several years and that intake of drugs and alcohol could dim a person's memory. (Hollins had smoked crack and drank alcohol in the hours before Green's beating.)
The rest of the major testimony of the day came from another witness Gregory Sims, who did not see
the actual beating but described its aftermath. According to Sims, officer Nevers was covered in
Green's blood and appeared to be trying to clean the victim's blood of the car window and seats.
Sims did not paint a very sympathetic picture of Nevers, saying that the former officer was joking
around with another officer at the scene with a plastic gun after Green's brutal alleged beating.
However, Sims claimed that he saw Budzyn throw up after Green was removed from the car.
The prosecution is expected to bring its last witnesses to the stand tomorrow.
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