Ex-cop’s appeal postpones trial in Jones killing

Plans have been scrapped for a trial next month for former police officer Nouman Raja in the deadly shooting of stranded motorist Corey Jones, because of an appeal filed this week by the defense.

Raja’s legal team is challenging a June 1 ruling that rejected the ex-cop’s claim for immunity under the state’s “stand your ground” self-defense law.

Circuit Judge Samantha Schosberg Feuer denied Raja’s bid to dismiss manslaughter and attempted murder charges concerning Jones’ death at 3:15 a.m. Oct. 18, 2015 beside an Interstate 95 offramp in Palm Beach Gardens.

The judge said she did not buy Raja’s account that Jones jumped out of his disabled SUV and pulled a gun on him after Raja, wearing plainclothes, announced he was a cop.

So Raja’s lawyers, paid by the county police union, are asking the Fourth District Court of Appeal to step in and block the prosecution. If the appellate court accepts the case, all activity in the trial court will be on hold pending a resolution.

Raja, 40, was charged two years ago after a grand jury found the use of force was unjustified.

In January, Raja first claimed he deserved protection under the “stand your ground” law. It says someone does not have to retreat and can legally use deadly force if the person reasonably believes doing so is necessary “to prevent imminent death.”

Police officers are allowed to make these claims like the public, but the Florida Supreme Court is reviewing the law.

Schosberg Feuer convened two days of hearings in May, which served as a mini-trial of sorts. In her ruling, she wrote that it’s clear from a recording of Jones’ call for roadside assistance that there’s no evidence Raja ever said, “Police, can I help you?” as he insisted.

The judge found Raja “acted unreasonably” during the confrontation, when he fired six shots at Jones, hitting him three times.

“The manner in which Defendant approached Jones — in the middle of the night, driving the wrong way up the ramp, in a white unmarked van, parking head-on diagonal to Jones’ vehicle just feet away, jumping out of his vehicle, in plainclothes, with his firearm drawn with no indication he was a police officer — would not afford an ordinary citizen Stand Your Ground immunity,” the judge wrote.

But the appeal filed Wednesday contends the judge got it all wrong.

“The trial court’s order denying immunity is riddled with error,” wrote attorneys Richard Lubin, Scott Richardson and Rick King.

This includes an argument that the judge failed during the hearings to require prosecutors to “disprove” Raja’s self-defense claim with “clear and convincing evidence.”