Victim’s family critical of inquest proceedings
A Michigan attorney representing the family of Kermith Sonnier Jr., who was shot and killed during a police chase near Brownsville in May, criticized some of the rules in Thursday’s coroner’s inquest into the shooting. And, Robert Giroux, who works in national defense attorney Geoffrey Fieger’s practice in Southfield, Mich., also said he plans to file a wrongful death suit, probably in federal court, after he receives and reviews police and autopsy reports.
Giroux and Sonnier’s father, Kermith Sonnier Sr., spoke to reporters during a recess in the inquest, which started at 9:30 a.m. and continued late into the night Thursday.
“I think he was murdered,” Sonnier said about his son.
Sonnier Jr. was killed during a pursuit involving Brownsville police officer Autumn Fike, who received backup from Redstone Police Capt. H. Dennis Field and rookie officer Joshua Mrosko, as well as Centerville Borough police officer Mark Costello.
Field and Fike declined to comment about the inquest, and neither testified during the inquest.
An inquest rule that Giroux said he did not like prohibited him from directly asking questions to witnesses. He said he was informed about that rule Thursday.
In addition, Giroux said he was required to submit his questions in writing for approval before the inquest.
Attorney Edward Borkowski, the chief prosecutor in the Allegheny County district attorney’s office, was the only person who questioned witnesses.
Uniontown attorney Patrick McDaniel, the solicitor for Fayette County Coroner Phillip E. Reilly’s office, said some questions from Sonnier’s legal team were submitted in advance, but they were allowed to add questions as the inquest proceeded.
McDaniel said Sonnier’s attorney wrote questions that he thought of during the inquest. McDaniel reviewed the questions first and then handed them to Borkowski.
McDaniel said he believes Borkowski asked every question received from Giroux.
“They posed relevant questions,” McDaniel said, noting that Sonnier’s legal team was informed about the procedure in advance of the inquest.
McDaniel said one attorney asks all the questions in an inquest to ensure that all the questions are clear and easily understandable to the jurors.
The goal is to obtain facts “directly relevant to the incident,” he said.
If the attorney representing different parties in cases were all allowed to question witnesses, they could pose the questions in ways to support their own purposes and possibly confuse the jury, he said.
District Attorney Nancy Vernon said she thought the questioning was “extremely thorough.”
Giroux said he also was angry that Field and Fike were permitted to exercise their Fifth Amendment right not to testify or incriminate themselves when the jury was not in the courtroom.
“The two officers took the Fifth. That means they don’t want to incriminate themselves,” Giroux said. “They excluded the jury from hearing the officers take the Fifth.”
Sonnier said he hoped Field and Fike would testify.
McDaniel said the officers’ attorneys stated their clients’ intentions to use their Fifth Amendment rights, and doing so without the jury present is normal procedure for inquests.
Vernon said it is done to avoid influencing the jury.
Giroux said he was told that the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s office are investigating the case and he was glad that other agencies were looking into it.
He said the inquest also raised some questions and concerns, including testimony that Sonnier Jr. could have survived if he received medical treatment within two hours.
In other testimony, witnesses stated that Sonnier Jr. was driving 40 mph when the shooting took place, but, Giroux said, he went to the scene and believes the condition of the road is too poor to drive that speed.
“There’s no way you can go 40 mph on that road.”