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One Police Rioter Freed

One Police Rioter Freed image
Parent Issue
Day
3
Month
September
Year
1976
OCR Text

 

One Police Rioter Freed

 

The trial of six white Detroit police officers, charged with damaging a car driven by a black woman during a police riot at the old Federal Building last year, ended last week in a mistrial.

The mistrial was declared August 24 by presiding Judge Elvin L. Davenport after he questioned jurors who admitted to reading newspaper accounts of the case.

Two jurors admitted to reading a newspaper article about the case when it was passed around the jury room, contrary to the instructions of the court.

The jury had been deliberating in the case for a number of days. Having found a seventh defendant, Ronald Jones, not, guilty, they could not reach a verdict on the fate of the other defendants, and had been instructed by Judge Davenport to continue their deliberations.

 

The six defendants are Leland Trewyn, 30; James Hendrickson, 25; Joe Phillips, 32 ; Thomas Phillips, 26; Timothy Smith, 28; and Carl Riley, 29. They are accused of doing $300 damage to the car of Sylvia Wright, a stenographer, as she was leaving the Federal Building May 7, 1975, during a police riot over affirmative hiring measures instituted by the Young administration.

Trewyn is scheduled to stand trial on another charge of malicious destruction of property stemming from the riot. Jones also faces a charge of aggravated assault, based on his alleged attack on a black police officer who suffered a broken nose in the scuffle.