- Rear l-r: Brian Staples, Jacquelyn Carter, Tommy Staples Jr., Tommy Staples III; front l-r grandkids Davion & Darion, daughter Ashley Staples
By Diane Bukowski Aug. 5, 2010
DETROIT — The family of Tommy Staples, Jr., shot to death by Detroit police officers Barron Townsend and Steven Kopp in June, 2008, has won a settlement of $2.5 million in their wrongful death lawsuit. The settlement in the federal case, heard in front of U.S. District Judge Arthur Tarnow, was approved by City Council July 27.
“This is another example of how the Detroit Police Department fails to investigate cases involving the use of excessive force, to reconcile inconsistent evidence and scrutinize officers,” the family’s attorney David Robinson said. “No discipline has been brought against these officers for Tommie Staples’ death. It is inexcusable that the department is still non-compliant after seven years of federal oversight.”
Robinson said Staples was shot six to seven times by the officers, including once in the top of the head as he lay on the ground, after the officers first struck him with their car.
Since 2004, the city has settled at least four previous lawsuits, one involving the death of Stephen Crawford, which cite either Townsend, badge #720, or Kopp, badge #1413. According to the city’s court filings in the Staples case, no discipline resulted from those incidents either.
Staples’ companion of 30 years, Jacquelyn Porter, said in a Michigan Citizen story (Police execute unarmed father in alley, MC 6/29/08) that the couple mentored and advocated for youth in their community, including protecting them from police harassment. Neighborhood youths told the Citizen at the time that Townsend and Kopp had been among those harassing them.
The couple had three children and two grandchildren. Several protests and candlelight vigils were held after Staples’ death.
“As [Staples] was crossing the street, Defendants Kopp and Townsend, without warning, cut off his path, striking him with the police car they were driving,” says the lawsuit. “Defendant Townsend exited the car, shouted at Tommie Staples, and began shooting him without provocation, and without probable cause, and without lawful excuse. Defendants Townsend and Kopp shot Tommie Staples in the back, and killed Tommie Staples, while he was not committing any crime and possessed no weapon and posed no threat of any kind to any person.”
Former police chief Ella Bully Cummings refused to discipline cops unless there was no "reasonable doubt"
The lawsuit contends that Townsend then placed a gun near Staples’ body in an effort to disguise the murder, It says the officers’ superiors, including a sergeant, lieutenant and then Police Chief Ella Bully-Cummings, participated in the cover-up. It says Cummings had a policy of disciplining officers only if there was no “reasonable doubt,” and concludes that meant that no one could be disciplined. Cummings is currently running for judge in Detroit’s Thirty-Sixth District Court, against the progressive National Lawyers’ Guild member Judge Kathleen Hansen.
“The video from a nearby bank was totally inconsistent with the officers’ claims that they saw Tommie Staples’ hands under his shirt and that he pointed a gun in their direction,” Robinson said. “His fingerprints were not on the gun, and no blood was discovered on it. This all pointed to it being a plant.” Continue reading
