Gang Chief Convicted, Officers Cleared in Racially Tense Cases

I n two racially charged cases Friday, a Minneapolis gang leader was convicted in the slaying of a white police officer, and a Nashville grand jury refused to indict five white police officers in the roughing-up of a black undercover officer.

A. C. Ford Jr., 26, was tried on two counts of murder and one count of attempted murder in the death of an officer who was shot in the back as he sat in a pizza restaurant. Ford was accused of planning the Sept. 25 killing of Minneapolis officer Jerome Haaf, arming one of the shooters with a gun and driving one of the killers near the restaurant where Haaf was killed.

Three other men are awaiting trial in the killing. A 16-year-old has agreed to a plea bargain in exchange for testimony. Ford faces a minimum sentence of 30 years in prison.

“An innocent man has been convicted,” said Ford’s attorney, Peter Erlinder. He said the verdict would be appealed.

Ford had acknowledged that he drove one of the alleged shooters to a corner near the restaurant more than an hour before the killing, but he maintained that the purpose was only to shoot out windows.

The prosecution portrayed Ford as a manipulative, ambitious gang leader who planned the killing. The defense maintained that Ford was being framed by other gang members.

The jury included a Latino and an Asian but no blacks. Ford, who is black, had contended that he could not get a fair trial from a jury that did not contain any blacks. The slain police officer was white.

In the Nashville case, Officer Reggie Miller accused five white officers of kicking him and gouging his eyes.

Miller was working on a prostitution sting Dec. 14 when police pulled over his unmarked, government-owned truck because the license tag had expired. Miller accused Jeffrey Blewett, David Geary, Jeb Johnston, Brian Petty and Jeffrey Bauer of racism. The officers contended that Miller failed to identify himself or respond to their commands.

Blewett and Geary were fired after an internal investigation determined that they used excessive force. The other three officers were cleared and reinstated.

The case drew national attention because of the parallel to the beating of black motorist Rodney G. King by four white Los Angeles police officers in 1991.

Grand jury foreman Lytle Brown III asked Nashville residents to remain calm, saying he feared they “might seek to use this case as a forum to incite racism and cause things in the community to happen that should not happen.”

But both Police Chief Bob Kirchner and Neal Darby, a spokesman for the Nashville chapter of NAACP, said they did not anticipate violence.