Features

CINCINNATI — A judge Thursday refused to throw out charges against a white police officer whose fatal shooting of an unarmed black man sparked the city’s April riots. 

Hamilton County Municipal Court Judge Ralph E. Winkler ordered that the trial of Officer Stephen Roach continue. 

Defense lawyer Merlyn Shiverdecker argued that the state failed during three days of testimony to prove that Roach was guilty of negligent homicide and obstructing official business. 

But Prosecutor Steve McIntosh argued that the trial should go on. 

“We cannot conclude that the state failed to meet its burden just because the defendant is a creative storyteller,” he said. 

McIntosh said evidence showed that Roach’s actions in the April 7 shooting of Timothy Thomas, 19, amounted to criminal neglect, and that the state demonstrated that Roach hindered the police investigation by telling different stories to officers. 

The rioting, which lasted three nights, was the city’s worst racial violence since the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s assassination in 1968. A citywide curfew was ordered, dozens of people were injured and more than 800 were arrested. 

The judge is hearing the case without a jury. With his ruling Thursday, the trial shifted to defense testimony. Shiverdecker has declined to say if Roach will be called as a witness. If convicted of both charges, Roach faces up to nine months in jail. 

Roach shot Thomas after chasing him down a dark alley with other police officers. Thomas was wanted on 14 charges, including traffic offenses and fleeing from police to avoid arrest. 

Thursday afternoon, William Lewinski, who has studied the stresses on police involved in shootings, testified that many officers report distorted vision or hearing. Others say time seemed to slow down or speed up. 

Officers often react instinctively, Lewinski testified, which could explain Roach’s initial statement to other officers, within minutes of the shooting, that his police revolver “just went off.” 

“The decision to shoot is a reactive decision,” Lewinski said. “What happened to officer Roach is, he made the most serious mistake of his life and he doesn’t know why he did it.” 

Homicide investigators testified Wednesday that they doubted Roach’s initial explanation of the shooting and called him back for a second interview. 

Investigator Charles Beaver testified that evidence found at the scene and on a police cruiser videotape contradicted statements Roach made about five hours after the shooting. 

“Our conclusion was that he realized that he had made a mistake and was trying to justify his actions,” Beaver told Winkler. 

Prosecutors contend that Roach violated several police procedures and should have tried other means of stopping Thomas before shooting him. Roach said his gun discharged accidentally. 

Roach, 27, has been suspended without pay.