Family of Slain Pace Player Indignant Over Grand Jury Ruling

February 14 2011 Last updated at 08:29 PM ET

A grand jury in a suburb north of New York City Monday declined to indict a police officer in the death of Danroy Henry, Jr., a Pace University football player shot while driving his car outside a bar in the Westchester County town of Thornwood.

Henry's father and his lawyer said they were not surprised by the decision and vowed to take the case to the United States Department of Justice and to pursue a civil suit.

"My faith was never in district attorney (Janet) DiFiore," Danroy Henry, Sr., said in a telephone conference call. "Our faith is in God. We were hoping she would surprise us but we had no faith in her."

Henry died a week before his 21st birthday and a few hours after the homecoming game from wounds caused by bullets fired from the gun of Aaron Hess, a police officer in Pleasantville, N.Y., who responded to a call to quell a disturbance in a parking lot after 1 a.m. on Oct. 17.

Although Henry was not involved in the fighting, Hess shot him from the hood of Henry's moving car. Police and witnesses disagreed as to whether police had told Henry to move his car or if Henry's actions put the officer in danger.

In a prepared statement, DiFiore said the grand jury of 23 persons heard testimony from 85 witnesses, including two passengers in the car with Henry and also from Hess, who testified without protection of immunity from prosecution. More than 100 exhibits were admitted into evidence at a proceeding which began on Jan. 10.

"After due deliberations on the evidence presented in this matter, the grand jury found that there was no reasonable cause to vote an indictment," DiFiore wrote.

Michael Sussman, the lawyer for the Henry family who often works on civil rights cases, said Justice Department contacts had told him they would wait until the grand jury came to its decision before deciding about whether to proceed further with an independent investigation.

"After due deliberations on the evidence presented in this matter, the grand jury found that there was no reasonable cause to vote an indictment."
-- District Attorney
Janet DiFiore He said he hoped the federal government would now become involved, and Henry also urged the state of New York to investigate the incident beyond the Westchester County level.

Both Sussman and Henry said the case should not have been investigated by the county because prosecutors and police there must work together constantly and it would be like family members investigating siblings and asking their parents to dispense justice.

Henry said the circumstances and persons involved in the investigation were "too fraught with opportunities for even good-intended people to do the wrong thing because of their own biases. That most certainly is the case here."

Sussman said that Henry's father "has never spoken about this case with regard to race." But Sussman alluded to the fact that Hess and the other officer who fired a gun were white and that the Henry family is African-American. The Henrys live in Easton, Mass. Their son was a senior defensive back.

"The criminal justice system is supposed to be there for every American and today signifies that it's not regardless of who is President of the United States," Sussman said.

He said that if a trial eventually takes place, he would produce witnesses whose testimony could convict the police officer, adding "these witnesses may not be the majority race."

Sussman added that parents of "a young person of color away at college had better be darned worried" if that student were to have an altercation with police.

"The criminal justice system is supposed to be there for every American and today signifies that it's not regardless of who is President of the United States."
-- Michael Sussman, Lawyer for the Henry Family In past briefings, Sussman has referred to the incident as "murder." In Monday's briefing, he referred to the investigation with terms like "shenanigans"' and "irregular process."

Both Thornwood and Pleasantville are communities located in the larger town of Mount Pleasant. The family has said it will file a $120 million lawsuit against the Mount Pleasant and Pleasantville police. The other officer involved in the shooting into Henry's Nissan was Ronald Beckley of Mount Pleasant.

"In our heart of hearts, we don't believe this office pursued an indictment," Henry said. "they allowed this same police agency to investigate itself."

DiFiore said the New York State Police also helped in the investigation and that the review of evidence was "exhaustive and thorough" and thanked the members of the grand jury "for the careful manner in which they discharged their solemn duty.'

Source: http://ncaafootball.fanhouse.com/2011/02/14/family-of-slain-pace-player-indignant-over-grand-jury-ruling/

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