Police officer’s lawyer: Ford should have complied with order

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An attorney for a Pittsburgh police officer who shot Leon Ford five times after a traffic stop in 2012, paralyzing him, said the incident wouldn’t have happened had Mr. Ford complied with an order to get out of his car.

“He simply won’t get out,” Joseph Santarone told a federal court jury. “He fights them.”

He said Officer David Derbish saw what he thought might be a gun in Mr. Ford’s sweatpants and jumped into the passenger side of Mr. Ford’s Infiniti as the car began to move. At that point, he said, Mr. Ford reached out and put his right hand on Officer Derbish’s chest as if to shove him.

Fearing he might be pushed out the door while the car sped off, the officer pulled his gun and shot Mr. Ford five times in the chest. The car traveled about 20 yards and crashed.

“Officer Derbish is in fear for his life,” Mr. Santarone said of the officer’s mindset when Mr. Ford reached for him.

The lawyer’s comments were part of his opening statement in Mr. Ford’s civil rights case against Officer Derbish and Officer Andrew Miller in U.S. District Court. The trial began Monday and is expected to last three weeks.

Mr. Ford, 24, sued the city, the officers and various supervisors in 2013. Many of the claims and defendants have been dismissed. What’s left is a claim of excessive force against Officer Derbish for the shooting and an assaultand-battery claim against Officer Miller for grabbing Mr. Ford and trying to yank him out of his car.

On Tuesday, Mr. Ford’s lawyer, Fred Rabner, said the Nov. 11, 2012, incident in Highland Park was the result of police mistaking Leon Ford for a violent gang member, Lamont Ford. He said his client, 19 at the time, protested that he was not Lamont Ford but that the officers became convinced he was. Tension escalated until they demanded he get out of the car. He refused because he was scared, Mr. Rabner said.

But Mr. Santarone said that the police were justified in their actions considering the circumstances. He said Officer Michael Kosko and Officer Miller, his partner, first spotted the tinted-windowed Infiniti speeding. When they passed the car, they said Mr. Ford sped away. They followed. When he drove through a stop sign, they pulled him over.

Officer Kosko, who had been a defendant in the lawsuit but was dismissed, was suspicious that Leon Ford was Lamont Ford, Mr. Santarone said. His picture looked the same, he was the same size and his name was similar. As the officers became increasingly suspicious, Officer Derbish arrived on the scene and thought he saw a bulge in Mr. Ford’s pants that looked like a gun. That’s when the officers told Mr. Ford to get out so they could pat him down.

“It’s better just to check,” Mr. Santarone said.

But he said Mr. Ford would not comply.