Mom of teen who died in jail sues Prince George’s County

By Hayley Peterson
The Examiner
Jul. 07, 2009

The mother of a teenager who died in jail 34 hours after he was arrested in the killing of a police officer sued Prince George’s County for $153.6 million Tuesday, and her attorneys suggest the case, at its core, is about civil rights.

“[Prince George’s] County is the bastion of the fruits of the civil rights movement,” said Angela White’s attorney Bobby Henry, who announced the suit. For that reason, Henry argued, the county couldn’t overlook 19-year-old Ronnie White’s death in the county jail last year.

The 12-count wrongful death suit blames jail guards for White’s death and claims violations of his constitutional and civil rights.

In June 2008, White was accused of driving a stolen pickup truck that hit and dragged to death Cpl. Richard S. Findley. The driver of the truck plowed into Findley after officers cornered the vehicle, which police believed was stolen.

But the suit alleges White was not driving the truck that day.

Evidence to prove he was a passenger is “forthcoming,” Henry said.

“This lawsuit is about what America stands for,” Henry said, citing Martin Luther King and the struggles of the civil rights movement. “Every man is innocent before proven guilty.”

Barely a day after White was jailed on suspicion of killing Findley, a guard said he found White hanging from a bedsheet in his cell.

The state coroner ruled White’s death a homicide.

A subsequent investigation by Maryland State Police and county prosecutors produced no suspects. And a grand jury assessing evidence in White’s death never came to any conclusions.

According to the suit, White was “assaulted and killed by the very same correctional officers who were supposed to be there to insure his safety.”

Clothilda Harvey, a lawyer who represents the county union for correctional officers, said the evidence supports “more suicide than murder. They have no murder here.”

When pressed for evidence that the guards murdered White, Henry’s co-counsel said the coroner’s finding was enough. “What else do we need?” Hassan Murphy asked.

Harvey said it was in Angela White’s and her attorneys’ best interest to claim murder so they could recover more money, but “the coroner’s report is just that. It’s not conclusive.”

Defendants include the Prince George’s County government, correctional center, police department, director of the county jail, several guards and a police officer.

As for the price of White’s death, Murphy said: “This was a tragic event that shocked the state, the county and the country. We are asking for an amount that will shock the state, the county and the country.”