Section: CAPITAL REGION
Page: B1
Date: Saturday, November 20, 1999

VIDEO KEY TO NOTICE OF CLAIM FILINGS AGAINST CITY

ELIZABETH BENJAMIN Staff writer

     The lawyer for three men arrested in the wake of a shooting of two officers last Saturday has taken the first step toward filing a lawsuit against the city.

Attorney Randall E. Kehoe on Friday filed the last of three notices of claim with the city on behalf of Warren Washington, 29; Almasi Forrest, 24; and Sean Foskey, the 23-year-old son of Common Council Member Shirley Foskey. All three men were arrested Saturday in front of Fat Dee's market at Clinton Avenue and Swan Street and charged with disorderly conduct. Foskey and Forrest were also charged with resisting arrest.      Kehoe's clients are alleging they were beaten by police officers and arrested without cause. As evidence, Kehoe said he is relying largely on a videotape of the incident recorded by a security camera at Fat Dee's market.      ``What I see on this tape is our guys not committing crimes and then clearly being brutalized,'' Kehoe said. The men, he claimed, were arrested on the pretext of resisting arrest after police beat them. The three are due to reappear in city court during the next several weeks. The arrests of Foskey, Forrest and Washington came several hours after a heavily armed special police unit swept through Arbor Hill in search of Tracy Grady, the man who allegedly shot and injured Officers Stanley Nadoraski and Thomas Shea. Uniformed officers made the arrests some time after the emergency services team left the neighborhood, police officials have said.      Police Chief John C. Nielsen declined to comment on Kehoe's filings but said four complaints of police misconduct in incidents that occurred Saturday following the shooting and the search for Grady have been made to the Police Department. The complaints are being investigated internally by the department's Office of Professional Standards, Nielsen said.      Three of the complaints are related to arrests made outside Fat Dee's, the chief said. The fourth stemmed from an incident at Garland Brothers Funeral Home, where Jeanette Garland said a police officer hit her in the face as he tried to arrest her son, Rodney, for allegedly trying to hit another police officer with his van.      The complaints were also brought to the attention of the city's Community Police Relations Board, which is in flux due to the resignation of its executive director, Angela Dixon.      Dixon, who has worked for the city since 1995 and was appointed as the commissioner of administrative services and workforce development in 1998, last Friday gave notice to accept a job at Salomon Smith Barney. Her last day will be Dec. 3. Dixon's departure comes at a time when the Community Police Relations Board is under scrutiny from community leaders, who are calling for the creation of a stronger, wholly independent body to oversee the department. Her decision is in no way related to any incident that occurred last weekend, Dixon said Friday.      The current board, which now has no director and only seven out of 11 positions filled, takes complaints from citizens and relates them to the Police Department. The board does not have the power to subpoena witnesses or conduct its own investigations.      Both Mayor Jerry Jennings and Nielsen are opposed to the concept of a civilian police review board with subpoena powers, but they have said they are willing to consider modifying their stance.      ``In my mind, something that better informs and allows more participation for citizens so they feel they have more power in these things is not bad,'' Nielsen said. ``But most citizen review boards have a history of failure, and I don't see the point in initiating something that won't work.''