Indianapolis, IN
The Michael Taylor Story: The civil trial and unanswered questions decades later
Michael Taylor’s dying at the back of a police cruiser in 1987 raised questions, many which stay unanswered to at the present time. It additionally opened dialogues on race, group relationships, the authorized system and policing — and helped usher in change. WRTV is revisiting this chapter in Indianapolis historical past, not in an effort to open outdated wounds, however to study from the circumstances surrounding Taylor’s dying and acknowledge the modifications his dying led us to as a group.
The Michael Taylor Story: Half One | The Michael Taylor Story: Half Two
Nancy Taylor by no means believed her son killed himself.
Michael had issues, however she insists nothing about him would recommend he was depressed or suicidal. Nancy Taylor simply couldn’t settle for the findings of the official investigations.
Michael, she knew in her coronary heart, didn’t kill himself.
Vic Ryckaert/WRTV
Civil lawsuit
Nobody was holding police accountable. There have been so many extra questions she wished answered.
She employed famous Indianapolis civil rights lawyer John O. Moss and filed a wrongful dying swimsuit in Marion Superior Courtroom on Aug. 31, 1989.
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Nancy Taylor’s lawsuit blamed Michael’s dying on the officers’ negligence and carelessness. The police did not hold him secure whereas he was of their custody and he died.
The trial
It might take 9 years earlier than the case went to trial in Hancock County earlier than an all-white jury. Then, like at present, members of the Black group harbored long-standing complaints over harsh remedy by police.
“To be trustworthy, I suppose we did not have a lot confidence within the judicial system due to the historical past of Black folks earlier than the courts with an all white jury,” Nancy Taylor stated.
Vic Rycakert/WRTV
Nancy Taylor remembers going to court docket, wanting throughout at desk the place the town’s authorized staff crowded along with three legal professionals and three extra paralegals or assistants. At Nancy’s aspect sat two legal professionals, Moss and David Shaheed.
“However if you happen to ever look within the Bible,” she stated, “each time certainly one of God’s folks was up towards one thing, they all the time had lower than anyone else and so they gained.”
Nancy Taylor’s legal professionals prevented citing race within the courtroom, Shaheed stated. They believed this civil case was about household, about righting an injustice and about accountability for the officers who did not stay as much as their responsibility.
Vic Ryckaert/WRTV
“We wished all of every of these jurors to consider as dad and mom what it will be like in case your baby, your teenage baby, was apprehended by legislation enforcement and did not go residence,” Shaheed stated.
“Most of them had been dad and mom. They usually understood that if a toddler bought in hassle and was in police custody, they need to come residence… They should not be discovered useless within the backseat police automotive.”
Moss, Taylor’s lead lawyer, had been a heavyweight within the Indianapolis authorized group. He constructed his repute when he filed a lawsuit on behalf of Black college students in 1968 that led to the desegregation of Indianapolis faculties.
“John Moss was a legend,” stated Shaheed, who was a younger lawyer when he joined the case and gained worthwhile expertise sitting subsequent to Moss over the subsequent decade.
Moss died Dec. 26, 2010, on the age of 74. Shaheed went on to grow to be a Marion County decide earlier than retiring in 2014.
“With the ability to work with him on that case was sort of like a tremendous alternative to study from somebody who had forgotten extra legislation than I knew on the time,” Shaheed stated.
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The civil trial started on Feb. 12, 1996.
The case had been transferred to a courthouse in Greenfield, the place a Hancock County decide seated a jury of 5 girls and one man. All six jurors had been white.
The jury heard 5 weeks of proof. In accordance with the Indianapolis Star’s protection in 1996, some highlights included:
- Officer Edwin Aurs instructed jurors that Michael didn’t appear despondent, however he requested Aurs to take him residence as an alternative of the juvenile middle.
- Penniston testified he heard a pop as he was pulling into the juvenile middle. He turned to search out Michael unconscious within the again seat. The boy’s hand was gripping a revolver, Penniston testified.
- Nancy Taylor instructed jurors Michael was a quiet, pleased teen who had been wanting ahead to getting his driver’s license. Jurors didn’t hear about Michael’s prior brushes with the authorized system or that he had spent a yr in a boy’s faculty.
- The jurors seen movies through which a number of police recruits performing as demonstrators reenacted how a suspect handcuffed at the back of a squad automotive might attain into his shoe and hearth a gun at his head.
Mary Ann Oldham, the lawyer for the town, and John Kautzman, who represented the officers, stated Michael’s dying was a tragedy however the metropolis and its police weren’t accountable.
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Michael, they argued, triggered his personal dying. He was the one who fired that gun, whether or not deliberate or an accident. His mom shouldn’t be awarded damages, they argued.
Each legal professionals stated the details and proof supported the speculation that Michael killed himself. There was no credible proof that linked the officers to the taking pictures, they stated.
Officers who failed to search out the hidden weapon, Oldham and Kautzman stated, however they did not kill Michael.
Zoom interview
“I have a look at the naked details,” Oldham instructed WRTV in a Zoom interview.
“I imply, if you happen to take it like that and do not embrace another parts, it would not make any sense. It reveals that the cops couldn’t have executed this.”
Kautzman agreed.
“I believed the law enforcement officials had been skilled and wouldn’t have executed something deliberately to hurt this child,” Kautzman stated in a Zoom interview.
Zoom interview
There are some dangerous officers, however Kautzman stated the overwhelming majority are hard-working and trustworthy.
“And these officers had been good examples of excellent cops, in my opinion,” Kautzman stated.
Penniston and Aurs each testified on the civil trial. They stated beneath oath they didn’t kill Michael.
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Penniston and Aurs every served a one-day suspension for failing to correctly search Michael Taylor.
A 3rd officer concerned within the arrest, Stephen Fogleman, died in 1994, two years earlier than the case went to trial.
Penniston and Aurs had been contacted by WRTV and declined to be interviewed.
A shocking verdict
Jurors simply didn’t consider Michael killed himself.
The jury deliberated for about 12 hours earlier than discovering in favor of Nancy Taylor. It awarded her a judgment of $4.3 million.
“I feel he was murdered,” Bonnie Andrews instructed WRTV in a current interview. Andrews served because the foreman on that civil case.
“I do not suppose that he did that. I do not suppose he dedicated suicide. There was an excessive amount of proof that was introduced that simply did not come widespread sense smart.”
Metropolis legal professionals had been shocked. Nancy Taylor and her supporters had been elated.
“I’ve by no means had any doubt. I by no means had any drawback about coming to Greenfield,” Nancy Taylor instructed reporters after the decision. “God has folks in all places. White and Black.”
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In her current interview with WRTV, Taylor recalled the second when the jury’s verdict was introduced
“It was like they had been naming off the quantities and stuff and I could not even determine how a lot that was. You realize. it was simply surreal,” Taylor stated. “I imply, it was such as you had been in a dream. It was prefer it wasn’t actual.”
Vic Ryckaert/ WRTV
The authorized wrangling continued for 4 extra years as the town appealed, in search of to scale back and overturn the judgement.
In 2000, then-newly elected Mayor Bart Peterson closed this chapter of Indianapolis historical past and settled with Michael Taylor’s household for $1.9 million.
“There have been a number of investigations, a trial, a court docket of appeals ruling, and attraction from these rulings,” Peterson stated on the time. “We might by no means know precisely what occurred. It suppose it higher to shut this chapter and transfer on.”
Contact WRTV reporter Vic Ryckaert at victor.ryckaert@wrtv.com or on Twitter: @vicryc.