‘I hope our civil rights effort will not be judged by one case’
Rich Lord, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette—A year ago last week, the region’s new top federal prosecutor tasked a team of five attorneys with pursuing civil rights violations.
Six months later, U.S. Attorney David J. Hickton opted not to prosecute what some viewed as the most significant civil rights matter in the region’s recent history: the January 2010 encounter with Pittsburgh police that left Homewood teen Jordan Miles with a famously swollen face and many community members red with outrage.
Last week, Mr. Hickton made the case that the Miles matter would not be the defining moment for his Civil Rights Section, which is the highest-profile change he has brought to the office he assumed in September 2010.
“I hope our civil rights effort will not be judged by one case and we will be judged by the full body of our work,” he said.
As evidence that the section is running hard, he pointed to a civil case against a mortgage insurance company that wouldn’t back the loan of a woman who was on maternity leave, a child exploitation case against a North Versailles man and also the indictment of an Allegheny County Jail guard. He wouldn’t address signs that the unit is involved in a deep investigation of abuse at the jail.
“We have a host of other cases under investigation that we can’t talk about,” he said.
Mr. Hickton acknowledged that his Civil Rights Section attorneys continue to handle cases outside of that area.
Mr. Hickton noted that when new sections are launched, “you’re not going to have the volume that you have in violent crime,” so some of the civil rights attorneys move with “the ebb and flow” of the office’s work.
People who expect big things from the section said they are comfortable with Mr. Hickton’s pace — so far.
“The prosecution that many in the community hoped for did not take place, for reasons given,” said Tim Stevens, chairman of Black Political Empowerment Project. “I continue to like the idea [of a Civil Rights Section], and I’m waiting for the concrete results and anticipating that they will be forthcoming.”
Big hopes
Around six weeks after launching the Civil Rights Section, Mr. Hickton summoned about 80 advocates to the August Wilson Center for African American Culture for a meeting with U.S. Assistant Attorney General Thomas E. Perez. Mr. Perez declared the Justice Department’s civil rights operation “open for business again” after what many felt was a decade of disinterest in individual liberty.
Mr. Hickton said his new team of five attorneys would “expand civil and criminal prosecution” in areas such as official oppression, housing and salary discrimination, hate crimes, child exploitation, human trafficking, unfair lending and violence against women.
“Even symbolically having that office is important,” said Witold Walczak, Pennsylvania legal director for the American Civil Liberties Union.
“All I can tell you is that the kind of cases that they would be looking to bring take more time to develop than most people would think,” he added. “The fact that they don’t have sort of a huge, signature lawsuit, I don’t think that means they aren’t doing anything.”
Some of the attendees at the session with Mr. Perez viewed the Jordan Miles case as a litmus test for the section. Mr. Miles has sued the three plainclothes officers he encountered on Tioga Street between his mother’s and grandmother’s homes.
The incident, Mr. Hickton said, “was troubling… Our investigation was thorough and comprehensive.” He personally inspected the site of the incident, he said.
“The decision I made there is my best judgment based on the information that I had.”
One of the most vocal critics of that decision, Brandi Fisher of the Pittsburgh Alliance for Police Accountability, has come to terms with Mr. Hickton’s thinking.
“It wasn’t that they didn’t want to prosecute,” she said. “It was a burden of proof thing. … They do not take a case if they don’t already believe they can win.”
The decision to not charge the three officers played a part in spurring a police-citizen roundtable that has quietly sought to build better relations between law enforcement and civil rights advocates (see accompanying article). It may have also increased pressure on the Civil Rights Section to prove its prosecuting chops.
First cases
“At the end of the Pledge of Allegiance, we commit to liberty and justice for all,” Mr. Hickton said last week. “But in practice, it is sometimes liberty and justice for some.”
In July, his office sued Wisconsin-based Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Corp., claiming that the firm refused to back a loan to the family of Carly Neals when it sought to refinance its Pine home last year. The reason: She was off on paid maternity leave.
One of the firm’s employees, according to the complaint, noted in its internal file that Ms. Neals “is on maternity leave” and that she was “notifying her that we [cannot] proceed until Borrower is back to work full time.” That shows discrimination based on sex and familial status, and violates the Fair Housing Act, it said.
The company has responded that it just wanted more verification of Ms. Neals’ income and has no policy against insuring mortgages of women on maternity leave.
Mr. Hickton cited the Mortgage Guaranty case as an example of the way his office can protect rights without filing indictments.
“I don’t think that most of the work is going to be or should be indictments,” said Mr. Walczak, noting that civil rights matters can often be dealt with through lawsuits.
There have been indictments, Mr. Hickton is quick to note.
In May, the Civil Rights Section returned an indictment against John A. Brownlee III, 61, of North Versailles, accusing him of having child pornography on his computer. A superseding indictment accused him of trying to entice or coerce a minor into sexual activity and seeking to produce child pornography. Prosecuting the case is Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica L. Smolar, of the Civil Rights Section.
Mr. Brownlee has pleaded not guilty. His attorney declined to elaborate.
Part-time work
Mr. Hickton hasn’t freed the section’s attorneys to focus solely on civil rights. Section Chief Shaun E. Sweeney, for instance, is completing the prosecution of three men who pleaded guilty to mortgage-related fraud, while some others are handling drug cases.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Carolyn J. Bloch is prosecuting a woman blamed for the collapse of the Metropolitan Savings Bank. Two of the other assistant U.S. attorneys assigned to the section, Amy L. Johnston and Craig W. Haller, are managing the prosecutions of big cocaine and heroin organizations.
Ms. Johnston, however, is also involved in the jail investigation. An attorney representing Gary W. Barbour, who has said that he was badly beaten after trying to escape the lockup, said she has interviewed him.
Ms. Johnston is also assigned to prosecute Arii Metz, a former jail corrections officer charged federally with deprivation of civil rights after former inmate David Kipp accused him of administering a nose-breaking beating.
Mr. Metz is talking with prosecutors about a possible guilty plea, according to a status report filed by his attorney in September.
Mr. Hickton said he “can’t talk too much about” the Metz case. “It speaks to the trust we place in officials.”
Sala Udin, president and CEO of the Coro Center for Civic Leadership, said he continues to believe that Mr. Hickton “feels the civil rights mission of the Justice Department in his bones.”
And the lack of big cases, he predicted, won’t last. “I know the civil rights division is undertaking a lot of investigations that, under previous administrations … would’ve never been conducted.”
