Amid mounting pressure, Maine Attorney General Aaron Frey agreed to review the fatal shooting of a teenager by a police officer more than a decade ago, officials said last week.
The local district attorney had called attention to the 2007 shooting by saying she's prepared to bring the case to a grand jury herself.
The forensic evidence didn’t sync with statements the police officer made about the shooting to investigators, said Natasha Irving, the district attorney for Sagadahoc, Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties.
“I’m optimistic that the homicide prosecutors will look at it and see what I see — that there’s a strong case to bring this to the jury for murder,” Irving told The Associated Press.
Frey said he decided to launch the review after listening to a presentation of new evidence about the death of 18-year-old Gregori Jackson, of Whitefield, who was accused of resisting Zachary Curtis, a reserve officer for the Waldoboro Police Department, after a traffic stop.
The presentation was made a year ago by a group that included the district attorney, a state lawmaker, another attorney and members of the victim’s family, the attorney general's spokesperson said.
There was no immediate explanation why Frey waited so long to announce his decision to investigate.
“The review of the family’s request to reopen this matter is a careful deliberative process involving experienced homicide prosecutors, and we are prioritizing the completion of this review over other matters," Frey said Thursday in a statement.
Jackson was accused of resisting and fighting with the police officer during a late-night encounter. After Jackson fled on foot, there was a second confrontation in which Jackson was shot multiple times, including three times in the lower back and once in the head. Pepper spray also was used in the clash in which the officer lost his glasses and said he was choked.
The officer’s use of deadly force was found to be legally justified by the attorney general’s office at the time, and a federal judge ruled against Jackson’s family in a wrongful death lawsuit in 2010.
But Irving breathed new life into the case, and threatened to pursue a murder charge even though the attorney general says his office has the sole authority to prosecute murders in Maine. The statute of limitations has expired for the lesser charge of manslaughter.
Curtis did not immediately respond to an email seeking comment. A working phone number for him could not be found, and it was unclear if he is represented by a lawyer.
The review of the case came against a backdrop of nationwide demonstrations against police brutality, particularly against African Americans. Both the police officer and the victim were white in this case.
The attorney general suggested there's a high legal bar to bring charges against the police officer.
"This is a case with several complicated factors, including consideration of whether or not the state can disprove self-defense beyond a reasonable doubt,” he said.
Irving said it's important to let a jury decide the facts, even if it's a difficult case to prosecute.
“It’s important that we remain steadfast and that we remind ourselves that the ultimate goal is to seek justice. We can’t just worry about what a jury is going to do," she said.
By DAVID SHARP Associated Press