Civil rights probe into death of boy reportedly quashed
WASHINGTON — The Justice Department decided more than a year ago to effectively shut down its civil rights investigation into the killing of Tamir Rice, a 12year-old Black boy carrying a pellet gun who was shot by a Cleveland police officer in 2014, people familiar with the matter say.
Prosecutors had asked in 2017 to use a grand jury to gather evidence in their probe, setting off tensions inside the department.
Department supervisors let the request languish for two years before denying permission in August 2019, essentially ending the inquiry.
But more than a year later, the department has yet to take the steps to close the case, like completing a draft memo explaining why it declined to indict anyone.
Also, it hasn’t told the Rice family or the public it won’t charge the officer.
Subodh Chandra, a former federal prosecutor who is representing the Rice family, said Tamir’s mother, Samaria Rice, was devastated.
“When Samaria Rice heard the news, she cried out repeatedly, ‘I’m not ready for this!’ ” Chandra said. “The federal investigation was her last hope for justice.”
The Justice Department’s press office declined to comment.
Henry Hilow, a lawyer for the Cleveland Police Patrolmen’s Association who represented the two officers involved in the case, did not return a phone message.
Tamir’s killing became a touchstone in the national debate over race and policing and prompted protests.
But the prospect of bringing a federal case against
Timothy Loehmann, the officer whoshot him, was seen as challenging because prosecutors would need to prove he’d intentionally violated Tamir’s civil rights.
His pellet gun looked real, a 911 dispatcher had failed to relay that it might have been a toy wielded by a juvenile, and Loehmann shot him immediately upon arriving.
The investigation had stagnated in the final year of the Obama administration.
President Donald Trump’s two attorneys general, Jeff Sessions and William Barr, set a tone that their Justice Department won’t aggressively police the conduct of local law enforcement officials, but the matter apparently was handled by civil rights division supervisors.
A former department official said Sessions never was briefed about prosecutors’ request for permission to use a grand jury, and a current one said the same about Barr.
State prosecutors have broader latitude to charge police officers with crimes based on lower standards of proof, like manslaughter resulting from recklessness.
But in late 2015, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor announced that a grand jury, on his recommendation,
had decided not to charge Loehmann with any crime under state law.
The outcome upset lawyers for the Rice family, especially after the disclosure that the prosecutor apparently permitted the police officers to read prepared statements before the grand jury without cross-examining them.
The Rice family asked for a federal civil rights investigation, and the Justice Department said it was conducting a review.
Since then, Cleveland agreed in 2016 to pay $6 million to the Rice family to settle a lawsuit, and Loehmann was fired in 2017.
The Justice Department, though, has been largely silent about what was happening with its investigation.
Current and former officials speaking on the condition of anonymity described a dysfunctional and delayed effort.
They spoke in response to inquiries by the New York Times after it learned David Seide, a lawyer representing a person familiar with the case, filed a whistleblower complaint with the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, accusing the department of mishandling the matter.