police try to shakedown jury to keep fellow
pig from being convicted.

VA: Show of force shows police don't get it

The historic trial of Richmond police Detective David Melvin didn't 
end with a verdict, or even the pounding of a gavel. Early Wednesday 
afternoon, Circuit Judge Margaret P. Spencer softly agreed to defense 
attorney David Baugh's motion for a mistrial. The night before, the 
jury foreman had been upset by her contact outside her home with 
Richmond police officers who questioned her nephews on the street as 
possible suspects in a robbery. (They apparently weren't involved in 
the crime.) The juror felt intimidated by police and wanted out of 
the trial. Who can blame her? Numerous police officers, most of them 
in plain clothes, had attended the eight-day trial in support of 
Melvin. But the last two days of the trial - crunch time - saw half 
of the South Richmond courtroom packed by Richmond police officers, 
including top brass, in full uniform. There wasn't enough room in the 
courtroom for some of the relatives of Verlon Johnson, the unarmed 
robbery suspect Melvin shot to death May 17. Police Chief Andre 
Parker and his second-in-command, Teresa Gooch, sat on the front row. 
Showing up in plain clothes is support. And one could argue that the 
officers just happened to be wearing their uniforms Tuesday and 
Wednesday. Then again, that uniformed mass sent "a clear message to 
that jury," said Steven Benjamin, an attorney who is representing the 
interests of the Johnson family. "You can support an officer without 
trying to intimidate a jury with a uniformed presence." The show of 
force was all the more pointed given the fact that the police 
department's brass had been on trial every bit as much as Detective 
Melvin.

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/columnists/MGBX707Z4ED.html