Family Of Tamir Rice Says Prosecutor Was ‘Abusing And Manipulating’ Grand Jury Process

The prosecutor who just defended a grand jury that supported his desire to not indict a police officer for shooting a 12-year old boy to death is now under fire.

Earlier Monday afternoon Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty (photo) announced a grand jury has declined to indict the police officer, 27-year-old Timothy Loehmann, who shot and killed 12-year old Tamir Rice last year. Loehmann shot and killed Rice within two seconds after driving up in response to a 9-1-1 call.

Now, the Rice family is voicing extreme dissatisfaction and is pointing specifically to McGinty.

“It has been clear for months now that Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Timothy McGinty was abusing and manipulating the grand jury process to orchestrate a vote against indictment,” Rice family attorneys said.

McGinty during today’s press conference in fact admitted he believed the grand jury should not have indicted the officer.

“Even though video shows the police shooting Tamir in less than one second, Prosecutor McGinty hired so-called expert witnesses to try to exonerate the officers and tell the grand jury their conduct was reasonable and justified.  It is unheard of, and highly improper, for a prosecutor to hire ‘experts’ to try to exonerate the targets of a grand jury investigation.”

McGinty in fact did call on experts to testify, and two reportedly called the shooting “reasonable.”

EARLIER: Breaking: Prosecutor Defends Grand Jury Refusal To Indict Police For Killing 12 Year Old Tamir Rice

“The grand jury heard evidence over nearly three months, including conflicting reports written by five experts in police use of force,” Cleveland.com reports.

Rice family “attorneys eventually released reports from three of their own experts, two policing experts and a bio-kinetics expert, who concluded that the shooting was unreasonable and that Tamir’s hands were actually in his jacket pockets when Loehmann fired,” Cleveland.com adds.

The lawyers, community activists and a group of rabbis and pastors had called for months for McGinty to allow a special prosecutor to take over the investigation. They accused McGinty of harboring a bias in favor of law enforcement because his office works with police officers to build cases, and seeking expert reports that would exonerate the officers.

They also wrote a letter earlier this month asking the U.S. Department of Justice to intervene and conduct its own criminal investigation. The office of U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio Steven Dettelbach is reviewing the letter, though such an intervention would be extremely rare.

The Rice family has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit.

Full Rice family statement:

 

 

This is a breaking news and developing story. Details may change. This story will be updated, and NCRM will likely publish follow-up stories on this news. Stay tuned and refresh for updates.

 

Image by Scott Taylor via Twitter