Subject:  Killing by security guard goes back to court today |
Author:
Chris
|
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
Date Posted: 01/11/05 5:52pm
Killing by security guard goes back to court today
Monday, January 10, 2005
James F. McCarty
Plain Dealer Reporter
A controversial slaying case from 2003 is returning to Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, where a multimillion-dollar wrongful-death trial is scheduled to begin today.
The case pits the Dillard's department store and one of its former security guards against the mother of a man killed at the company's Randall Park Mall store during a shoplifting arrest.
Advertisement
In a lawsuit, Dorothy Campbell Wills of Cleveland Heights accused Dillard's officials of failing to properly investigate the background of Jameel Talley, an off-duty police officer hired to work as a security guard at the store.
A jury convicted Talley, 37, of involuntary manslaughter for killing Guy Wills III during a struggle over a stolen leather coat in 2002. The 6-foot-5, 240-pound security guard picked up the slightly built Wills, 41, and drove him headfirst into a concrete floor, fracturing his skull and collarbone.
Wills' mother also accused Dillard's of failing to establish proper training for its guards.
Dorothy Wills previously settled her claims against South Pointe Hospital and several doctors there who treated her son's injuries. In court papers, lawyers for the hospital and doctors said expert defense witnesses were prepared to testify that Wills was treated appropriately, and no surgery could have saved his life.
Wills' lawyer is Geoffrey Fieger, the flamboyant personal-injury lawyer from Michigan, who gained fame for his defense of assisted-suicide proponent, Dr. Jack Kevorkian. Fieger won a state-record $30 million medical-malpractice lawsuit in Cuyahoga County last May.
Judge Nancy Margaret Russo will preside over the trial, which is expected to last about three weeks.
To reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
jmccarty@plaind.com, 216-999-4153
[
Next Thread |
Previous Thread |
Next Message |
Previous Message
]
| |
