Cop’s lawyer requests outside jurors

Judge questions pool to test for bias in Antwon Rose II homicide case

People who showed up Thursday morning at the Allegheny County Courthouse for jury duty were questioned to determine whether the homicide case against an East Pittsburgh police officer should be heard by jurors from outside of Allegheny County, as his defense attorney has requested.

In the sampling, 82 percent of potential jurors questioned said they had previously heard about the case against Officer Michael Rosfeld, who is charged with killing Antwon Rose II.

During the brief session, Common Pleas Judge Alexander P. Bicket summarized the case, telling the group that Officer Rosfeld, 30, was charged on June 27 with homicide for shooting Antwon, 17, in the back following a traffic stop.

Then he asked the group of 78 jurors

several questions, including:

• Have any of you seen, heard or read anything about this case? Sixty-four people raised their hands.

• Have you formed a fixed opinion? Twenty-three said they had.

• Could you set aside that opinion and fairly consider the evidence? Fifteen said they could.

Judge Bicket said he would not consider the “weight of the numbers” and what they mean until after conducting two more samplings.

Officer Rosfeld was on patrol in East Pittsburgh about 8:40 p.m. June 19 when he spotted a gold-colored car that police believed had just been used in a drive-by shooting in North Braddock.

The officer, who had been officially sworn in by East Pittsburgh that day, stopped the car and got the driver out and down on the ground. The two other occupants — Antwon in the front passenger seat and Zaijuan Hester in the back — fled.

Officer Rosfeld fired three shots, fatally striking Antwon, who was unarmed, in the arm, back and head.

The shooting touched off weeks of protests, and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s office filed a single count of homicide against Officer Rosfeld, saying he was not justified in the shooting.

Defense attorney Patrick Thomassey said his client was justified and has asked that the trial be heard by a jury chosen from outside of Allegheny County due to pretrial publicity.

Officer Rosfeld, who is free on $250,000 bond and home monitoring, was accompanied to court by a civil attorney, Timothy Uhrich, who represented him in a lawsuit claiming false arrest when the officer worked for University of Pittsburgh police.