Jail death of murder suspect overshadows officer's heroism

AMERICA:MORE THAN 1,000 people turned out on Thursday for the funeral of Maryland police officer Richard Findlay.

The procession along the Beltway around Washington, led by 500 police motorcycles, went on for eight miles.

Police chiefs and local officials praised Findlay's heroism at the funeral but the police officer's murder has been overshadowed by a troubling mystery surrounding the death of the man who allegedly killed him.

Findlay was killed last week when he tried to question the driver of a stolen vehicle in a car park in Laurel. As Findlay approached, the driver accelerated and ran him over, dragging the police officer's body along the ground before driving away.

Findlay died soon after he arrived in hospital. A few hours later, Ronnie White (19), a small-time criminal from southeast Washington, was arrested and charged with the murder.

White was taken to Prince George's County jail and placed in solitary confinement in the maximum security wing. Less than two days later, he was found dead in his cell, apparently strangled, with two small bones in his neck broken.

No other prisoners had access to White's cell, which only seven prison guards and about five supervisors could enter.

Video cameras were trained on the corridors leading to the cell but they were only designed for live surveillance and did not record.

Maryland state police have launched an investigation but local police had already collected all forensic evidence from the cell before they arrived on the scene.

The FBI has launched a civil rights investigation into the incident but Bobby Henry, an attorney for White's family, wants the justice department to play a bigger role in the inquiry.

"This did not happen on some dark, abandoned, lonely road," Henry said. "This happened in broad daylight, in the custody of county officials. Everyone who has someone or knows someone who is in the county correctional facility should have a problem with that."

The jail has faced a succession of scandals in recent months. Earlier this year, a guard who was allegedly a member of the Bloods street gang was arrested for supplying mobile phones to inmates. Another guard was charged with armed robbery and assault and a prisoner was wounded when he was allegedly attacked by seven gang members in a holding area.

Although prison guards have been told to co-operate with the investigation, several have refused to talk to investigators and have faced no sanction on account of their silence.

"The area where this happened is a maximum security area, where you have to swipe a card to enter or be buzzed in from a booth," Henry said. "Certainly the person in the control booth is a key witness. Certainly anyone who swiped a card to get in is a key witness."

Findlay was white and White was African-American, giving the case an added emotional charge in a county with a history of racial tensions.

Race relations have improved in recent years but June White Dillard, president of the local branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People, said she was concerned about the role in the current investigation of Maryland state police, who have been accused of racial profiling.

"We are not exactly confident that they are the best ones to lead this case," she said.

Some police officers are unhappy with the attention White's death has received.

Vince Canales, president of a local lodge of the Fraternal

Order of Police said the media coverage risked obscuring Findlay's heroism.

"We all understand that the death of this kid is tragic. However, his actions that led to him being in that predicament don't even begin to rise to the level of the sacrifice that Findlay made," he told the Washington Post.

Jack Johnson, chief executive of Prince George's County, insists that the two deaths must be viewed separately and that concern over White's death in custody should not imply any lack of respect for his alleged victim.

"We live in a constitutional democracy, and no one has the right to be judge and jury," he said.

"If we have vigilante justice, our society will fall apart. If we tolerate these kinds of acts, the courts are superfluous."