BECKLEY- A federal jury Monday cleared two Raleigh County sheriff's deputies of any wrongdoing in the fatal shooting of a Cabell Heights man five years ago after he pointed a loaded, semi-automatic rifle at them in his driveway. U.S. District Judge Irene Berger polled the four-man, two-woman jury after it deliberated two hours, and found the verdict was unanimous, ending a six-day trial in Beckley. Key points the attorneys for the plaintiff, Mary Webb, hammered away were that Cpl. Gregory Kade and a former deputy, John Hajash, were negligent in setting up a violent scene that led to Robert Webb's death in a Fourth of July shooting and then denied a medical team immediate access to him as he lay dying. Chip Williams, chief counsel for the lawmen, applauded the jury, saying afterward the members carefully sifted through the evidence and reached the only logical conclusion. I've known Greg all my life, Williams said. I was proud to represent him. I know he is a fine human being. Kade declined to comment, but Hajash suggested he and his onetime partner were put in a position where they had no choice but to fire on Webb after they were called to his home in the wee hours of July 4, 2006, to investigate a neighbor's complaint he had been firing a weapon toward his house. I knew there was no wrongdoing on our part, Hajash said. Hajash became the center of the case Travis Griffith and Michael Olivio led against the officers, after a deputy medical examiner showed a downward trajectory of his third shot from a Glock Model 23 handgun, with the bullet lodging in the lower part of the victim's back. Using a mannequin, Olivio suggested Hajash moved from his original position behind Webb's pickup truck and fired on him after he was down and bleeding from a brain injury inflicted by Kade's tactical shotgun. Hajash maintained earlier he fired his final shot when he saw Webb rolling and wasn't sure if he intended to fire the semi-automatic rifle, with a live round in the chamber and the safety off. But Olivio argued the shot couldn't have been fired where Hajash originally stood, given the bullet was unimpeded by any internal organs or bones unless he had a bank shot off from the left. The shooting did not happen the way police said it did, the attorney maintained. Williams zeroed in on Olivio's implication that Hajash moved in for a closer shot, telling the jury. That's not only inconsistent with the evidence, that's outrageous. Jurors exonerated the two officers of negligence, denying Webb immediate medical attention, and inflicting emotional distress. Normally, lawsuits against public bodies in this case, the Raleigh County Commission was a co-defendant are handled in state courts, but a question of a potential civil rights violation moved it into the federal arena. The defense's sixth and final witness, Samuel Faulkner, an Ohioan who has trained instructors at the West Virginia State Police Academy, found no fault with Kade and Hajash, saying they acted properly in every phase of the operation. If anything, perhaps they waited too long to shoot, he said at one point. Kade and Hajash were dispatched to Webb's house by a woman who told the 911 center a man was firing a handgun toward his house. Upon arrival, the two said they parked separate prowl cars a quarter of a mile away, a point the plaintiff's lawyers questioned, given the timeline. The officers arrived at 1:09 and Webb was shot three minutes later. Faulkner said their silent and stealthy approach was proper, telling the jury, I would never pull up and announce myself in that situation, because I am a target. Three neighbors of Webb testified they never heard Kade call out, Police show us your hands, just before the pair opened fire. If not, Williams countered in closing arguments. What was it that caused Mr. Webb to turn around and face them? As for not providing immediate medical aid, Kermit Moore of Bluefield, another defense lawyer, recalled Hajash's frantic appeal to 911 to bring an EMS team immediately to the residence, when he said, Oh, my God. Shots fired! Send EMS. He was literally scared to death, the lawyer said, noting Hajash was only 23 at the time. You can hear the quiver in his voice. Moreover, the defense showed the jury a picture of Webb in a pool of blood with a heart monitor attached to his chest. Testimony showed that a doctor advised the Jan-Care Ambulance team do not resuscitate five minutes after the medics arrived. Olivio and Griffith emphasized that neither officer bothered to try to contact the Webb home before moving in on Webb to check the welfare of his wife and two daughters. Another point of the plaintiffs was the woman who reported Webb's gunfire earlier in the night Amy Smith wanted police to merely drive by the residence. She knew that would have been enough, Olivio said. By not turning on their lights and sirens, leaving their cars a distance away, taking cover behind a hedgerow initially, and being there in dark uniforms not visible by the dusk-and-dawn light at the home, he said, They set the scenario, and he reacted to it. The plaintiffs tandem used witnesses to say that firing a weapon on holidays, especially the Fourth of July, was common in that neighborhood, but Williams said he never knew of any such experience while growing up in a rural community. That is not normal behavior in southern West Virginia, or anywhere else, he said. When Webb faced them with the rifle, mistakenly referred to at times as an AK-47, Faulkner said the officers were left with no other option but to fire first. That is the only response that is available at that time, he said. Twice, a court aide walked to the jury at the behest of Williams and displayed the foreign-made rifle. They have a job where they have to make decisions about their security and the security of others in seconds and minutes, the Beckley attorney said.
By Mannix Porterfield E-mail: mannix@register-herald.com
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