JURY: Former LR Police Officer Liable in 2012 Teen Shooting Death

Attorney Mike Laux
By: Ellen Lampe by Arkansas Matters

Posted: Apr 13, 2017 03:23 PM CDT

Updated: Apr 14, 2017 07:51 AM CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – A former Little Rock police officer has been found liable for wrongful death in a 2012 incident.
The jury’s decision came in a civil trial Thursday afternoon in the case of Josh Hastings.
Hastings was accused of using excessive force when he shot and killed Bobby Moore, 15.
“This has been a long time coming,” said family members of Bobby Moore outside the courthouse after the verdict was announced.
The jury granted $415,000 in damages to Moore’s family..
Hastings had claimed Moore tried to run him over with a car as the officer investigated a reported car break-in. The teen’s family had said the evidence showed the former officer shot Moore because he didn’t want him to get away.
Hastings previously faced two criminal trials over the shooting of Moore, both of which ended in hung juries.

Former LRPD Officer Faces Federal Jury for 2012 Shooting Death of Teen

By: MARCI MANLEY for Arkansas Matters

Posted: Apr 06, 2017 05:49 PM CDT

Updated: Apr 07, 2017 03:55 PM CDT

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Former LRPD officer Josh Hastings’ civil trial regarding a 2012 officer-involved shooting will continue into next week.
Friday, four additional witnesses were called to testify in Hastings’ case.
Hastings is accused of using excessive force when he shot and killed 15-year-old Bobby Moore in August 2012. He said he was afraid Moore was about to run him over with a car in an apartment complex parking lot.
Friday, conflicting information on the speed of the car and bullet were presented to jurors.
Moore’s family said Hastings has a history of lying, and the evidence doesn’t back up his version of events.
The case will continue into next week.
(Original)
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – Five years and two criminal trials later, a former Little Rock Police Officer is now facing a federal jury after being accused of using excessive force when he shot and killed 15-year-old Bobby Moore in August 2012.
Former officer Josh Hastings claimed he was afraid the car Moore was driving was going to run him over. The attorneys for Moore’s family says that story is in doubt.
Inside the courtroom Thursday, Hastings had some tough questions to answer.
He took the stand and the attorney for Sylvia Perkins — Moore’s mother — pressed him on his history of dishonesty and alleged preferential treatment inside the LRPD, something Hastings’ attorneys described as a side show.
Hastings faced two criminal trials over this shooting… both of which ended in hung juries. Hastings was fired from the department and investigators from his own department said the evidence on the scene didn’t match up with hastings versions of events.
Thursday, the former officer spent hours on the stand explaining inconsistencies in his statements, with the family’s attorney repeatedly asking if he knew the meaning of telling the truth.
“I don’t think Josh Hastings is an evil guy at all, but I think he’s a chronic liar. I think the shooting of Bobby Moore was unjustified and he lied about it,” Mike Laux, Bobby Moore’s family’s attorney, said.
“We are not here to talk about the side show. We want get to the bottom of what happened that night or the morning of Aug 12th, 2012,” Keith Wren, Josh Hastings’ attorney, said.
Hastings claimed that Moore’s car was traveling at a high rate of speed — around 25 to 30 miles per hour — and that he shot to avoid being hit.
The family’s attorney says the physical evidence points to the car going much slower, but probably being stopped or in reverse when Hastings fired, and that he just didn’t want to let the teen get away.
So we really have two sides — one questioning whether Hastings actually had to shoot and use excessive force — or the lens of Hastings, who claimed he was afraid he’d be run over.
Ultimately, it will be up to the jury to decide who they believe.

Doc Washburn Interview with Mike Laux on 07/14/16

On July 14, 2016, Mike appeared on 102.9 KARN-Radio’s The Doc Washburn Show to discuss recent national events affecting civil rights, and to take listener calls. Listen to the full interview below:

Ellison family speaks on historic LRPD use-of-force settlement

Originally published for Arkansas Times by

The family of Eugene Ellison, the 67-year-old African-American man shot and killed by a Little Rock Police Department officer in Ellison’s apartment near the corner of Col. Glenn and University Ave. in Dec. 2010, held a press conference today to discuss yesterday’s announcement of a landmark settlement in the federal civil rights case arising from the shooting. The settlement will see the City of Little Rock pay $900,000 — an amount Ellison attorney Mike Laux said will swell to well over a million when combined with a settlement reached with Big Country Chateau Apartments, where Eugene Ellison lived — plus issue a formal apology. Under the terms of the agreement, the city will also pay to erect a memorial bench in a location chosen by Ellison’s sons.

On Dec. 9, 2010, LRPD officers Donna Lesher and Tabitha McCrillis were working off-duty security at Big Country Chateau when they noticed Eugene Ellison’s door ajar. According to their account, after going in to check on Ellison’s welfare, Ellison told them to leave and then became combative, struggling with Lesher and McCrillis them before Lesher shot him in the chest. At the time Lesher shot, she was on the balcony outside Ellison’s door, standing with McCrillis and two male officers who had arrived as backup. The Ellison family filed a federal lawsuit in the case in Oct. 2011, with the discovery phase uncovering many damning aspects of the investigation that followed the shooting, including that surveillance video from a camera pointed in the direction of Ellison’s door was mysteriously damaged while in LRPD custody, and deposition testimony from officers on the scene who said that Ellison didn’t appear to pose a threat to the lives of the officers at the time he was shot. The Washington Post reported on the case yesterday.

Laux, a Chicago attorney, appeared today with Eugene Ellison’s sons, Troy and Spencer Ellison, and attorneys Flint Taylor and Doris Cheng, who worked on the case. Laux, at times fighting back tears, said that he has come to love Spencer and Troy Ellison “like brothers,” and said they were very satisfied with the settlement. Laux said that Eugene Ellison was impugned by the Little Rock Police Department since day one, even though he was only sitting in his apartment, minding his own business, prior to McCrillis and Lesher entering and refusing to leave. Though he called the settlement historic, the largest ever paid in a civil rights case in the state’s history, he said the case was never been about money. “It’s always been about some modicum of accountability,” he said. The Ellison family couldn’t move on, Laux said, until an apology was made, but noted that in the years since the lawsuit was filed, LRPD use-of-force complaints have steadily dropped.

“When they know eyes are watching them, they’re more cautious,” Laux said. “People don’t get shot. People don’t die.”

Both Troy and Spencer Ellison addressed the crowd, with Troy, a Detective with the Little Rock Police Department, fighting back tears before saying: “The apology was something that was long waited for that we thought would never happen.”

Speaking after the press conference, Troy Ellison said that he plans to continue serving the city and department he fought in court over his father’s death since 2011. “Even based on everything that’s gone on in the last five years,” he said, “I still feel like I have a duty to continue what I’ve started. That’s my career with the police department. I enjoy what I do. I’ve always enjoyed what I do. And I don’t think anything or anyone should take that away from me. I still feel like I have a lot of good work ahead of me that I can do for this community.”

A tragedy plays out in Little Rock when a police officer kills a colleague’s father

An investigation of the shooting death of 67-year-old Eugene Ellison at the hands of a Little Rock police officer left his sons, including Little Rock police Lt. Troy Ellison, embittered, and with little resolved in the minds of the public. Troy Ellison was photographed at his father’s grave March 7. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)

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An investigation of the shooting death of 67-year-old Eugene Ellison at the hands of a Little Rock police officer left his sons, including Little Rock police Lt. Troy Ellison, embittered, and with little resolved in the minds of the public. Troy Ellison was photographed at his father’s grave March 7. (Whitney Shefte/The Washington Post)[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]By Scott Higham and Kimbriell Kelly on May 6,2016
Written for the Washington Post[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/1″][vc_column_text]LITTLE ROCK — A wide-open door at the Big Country Chateau led off-duty police officer Donna Lesher to Eugene Ellison.

Lesher was moonlighting, patrolling the crime-ridden apartment complex on foot with a partner, another off-duty female officer. Lesher saw the door on the second floor of a spare, low-slung building. The officers were immediately suspicious. Who would leave their door open on a cold December evening?

The white officers climbed the stairs and saw Ellison, a 67-year-old black man, sitting on his couch inside. In front of him was a coffee table, its glass top broken.

Standing outside the apartment, they asked Ellison whether he was okay. Ellison said he was fine. The officers were not satisfied. Something still seemed odd to them. His shirt was unbuttoned, and he appeared to be shivering. They later said they thought that he might need help or that maybe a crime had been committed and someone else was in the apartment.

When they continued to question him, he grew angry.

“Get the f— out of my house,” he said.

Lesher’s partner, Detective Tabitha McCrillis, walked into the apartment and confronted him.

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Appeals Court Orders 2 LR Police Officers to Stand Trial in Civil Lawsuit over Man’s Killing

Attorneys Flint Taylor (left) and Michael Laux speak to reporters Tuesday evening.

By Marci Manley, Reporter

ST. LOUIS, MO – Two officers with the Little Rock Police Department who were involved in the shooting death of a man in his apartment nearly five years ago will stand trial in a civil lawsuit filed in the case.

That’s the decision released today by the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals in St. Louis.

In making the ruling, the federal court affirmed a district court’s order denying qualified immunity for Donna Lesher and Tabitha McCrillis on the claims of unlawful entry and unreasonable use of deadly force.

Eugene Ellison, 67, was shot and killed inside his home at the Big Country Chateau apartment complex in December 2010 where the officers had been working off-duty as security.

Ellison was the father of one Little Rock Police officer who just left the force and another who was still employed by the department at the time of the shooting.

Officers Lesher and McCrillis said they were just checking on Ellison’s welfare when he began to attack them violently.

Mike Laux featured in Police Misconduct and Civil Rights Law Report

Attorney for Police Shooting Victims Seeks DOJ Pattern and Practice Investigation of the Little Rock Police Department

By Ben H. Elison

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