Ellerbe family attorney chastises coroner
In a day rife with tension, Ellerbe family attorney Joel Sansone chastised Fayette County Coroner Dr. Phillip E. Reilly, claiming he was biased and “aided and abetted state police in a cover-up.” In place of his closing remarks to jurors, Sansone requested Reilly stop the proceeding and recuse himself and dismiss the jury because he covered up witnesses and conducted the inquest in a biased manner.
“I believe you have deliberately kept facts from this jury and have aided and abetted state police in a cover-up,” Sansone said. “I want these people (the jurors) to know what they didn’t hear all day.”
State police attempted to introduce testimony from witnesses Sansone had not been made aware of prior to Monday’s inquest. Sansone’s end remarks were not the only objections he lodged during the 12-hour proceeding.
At the outset of the day’s testimony, he objected to the six men and three women who were called as coroner’s jurors because they were all white. Because there were no black members of the jury, Sansone said the jury was not representative of a cross-section of the community.
Reilly explained that inquest jurors are chosen from the county’s master jury list, which is taken by voter and driver registration records.
“I can’t assume I’m empowered to create a jury. I don’t see how I can assume that power,” said Reilly.
His contention was supported by his solicitor, Patrick McDaniel, who often during the proceedings played referee to Sansone’s many objections.
Sansone’s facial expressions during the inquest played as much a part as the verbal jabs he threw at Reilly.
During a state police expert’s lengthy testimony, Sansone sighed loudly, rolling his eyes after he objected to what he called “a lengthy self-serving epistle.”
Sansone also criticized the lack of questioning by Reilly of 10-year-old Melvin Lee Duley Jr. The youngster told police that he saw trooper Juan Curry shoot Michael Ellerbe.
All other evidence, including his own testimony, pointed to trooper Samuel Nassan as the man who fired the fatal shot.
Trooper David Davison, who interviewed Duley on two occasions, said the boy gave conflicting accounts as to how many shots were fired and what he could see from his bedroom window vantage point.
When Duley was presented as a witness for questioning and Reilly did not immediately ask him anything, Sansone told Reilly the boy was a “critical witness” and needed questioned.
“I’m sure, without thinking, I could think of 300 questions. I can’t believe you can’t think of one,” he said.
Reilly maintained his demeanor and asked Duley only if he heard differences in what he said and what Davison read.
When the youth said he had not, Reilly permitted him to leave the stand.
After his remarks at the end of the inquest and before jurors returned their verdict clearing Nassan of the shooting, Sansone said he spoke to Duley and the boy gave him no conflicting statements.
He also said he looked forward to a federal lawsuit that has yet to be filed in Ellerbe’s death. At that time, said Sansone, all the facts will come out.
“The coroner did these jurors a great disservice,” he said.