Beating Suspects In Lineup; Detroit Stays Calm

Seven Detroit police officers were placed in lineups yesterday as investigators brought in witnesses to identify those responsible for the fatal beating of a Detroit motorist.

While the veteran officers were questioned for more than seven hours about the death of 35-year-old Malice Green, some on the force said department officials were too quick to place blame.

Four Detroit paramedics and four neighborhood residents have told investigators Green was struck repeatedly and dragged from his parked car Thursday night outside a friend's home in southwest Detroit.

"We have some very fine officers who will never recover from this," said Jack Ramsdell, attorney for the Detroit Police Sergeants and Lieutenants Association. "The department jumped the gun on this. It's scary."

Ramsdell said many in the department are angered by the quick condemnation and speedy suspensions of the officers by Police Chief Stanley Knox and Mayor Coleman Young.

Ramsdell said he believed Green may have incited the blows by resisting officers. Officer Walter Budzyn suffered severe bruises on his chest and legs - which were photographed by police, he said.

Authorities said criminal charges could be filed as early as today against two officers, Larry Nevers, 52, and Budzyn, 42.

The other five officers could face departmental discipline, including dismissal. They are not accused of striking Green, but did stand by as he was pummeled, police said.

Green was bludgeoned with fists and 3-pound steel flashlights.

Some residents in the precinct where Nevers and Budzyn patrolled said the beating death was an extreme form of police brutality they frequently witness. More than two dozen citizen complaints have been lodged against the two officers over the years, but none has been proven.

`IT GOT TOO EASY'

"It got too easy for them to rough people up," said one officer close to the murder investigation. "They had been doing it, and getting away with it, for too long."

It began about 10:30 p.m. Thursday. According to accounts from witnesses and police:

Nevers and Budzyn, in an unmarked car, pulled in front of Green's car, backed up to it, and stepped out on both sides. Nevers, a 24-year veteran nine months from retirement, asked for Green's driver's license.

With a clenched fist, Green reached for the glove box.

"What's in your hand?" Nevers shouted. "Drop it! Drop it! Drop it!"

The officers lunged into the car, beating Green's balled fist.

The violence escalated, with the officers striking Green on the head five to eight times. They would later discover he held nothing in his hand, though police did find in the car four rocks of crack cocaine and a small, folded knife in his pocket.

As Green was rolled onto the street, Officers Karl Gunther and partner Robert Lessnau drove up. They were followed by Officers Paul Gotelaere and James Kijek and supervising Sgt. Freddie Douglas.

Nevers then hailed an ambulance that was on its way to another emergency.

In the ambulance crew's presence, Nevers and Budzyn struck Green in the head five to eight more times with metal flashlights, witnesses said.

Nevers asked how Green was doing, bystanders said. After briefly examining the man, a paramedic said he wouldn't survive. Nevers sent the ambulance away. Douglas called for a second, which arrived shortly.

Green sat in the street silent and motionless.

"I kept wondering why they didn't take him away," said resident Darlene James, 28. "There was blood all over the place. I figured he must be dead." She said it was at least 15 minutes before Green was placed in the waiting ambulance.

Green was pronounced dead on arrival at Detroit Receiving Hospital. Autopsy results have not yet been released, and it's not clear whether Green was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.

The Detroit Free Press yesterday quoted Nevers as saying: "I must've done something wrong, a guy died. If I can ever sleep again I'm going to wake up and say this is a dream, it didn't happen, it didn't happen."

But he added: "Nobody knows what it's like out there."

NO PROTESTS REPORTED

The sharp similarities between the incident and the beating of a black motorist, Rodney King, in Los Angeles last year have made city officials and neighborhood advocates nervous. It was the acquittal of four officers in that case that led to rioting in Los Angeles last spring.

However, there has been no violent protest in Detroit.

"People are numb," one neighborhood resident, Florence Frazier, said yesterday. "It's like who do you lash out at? Who can you trust? I'm having a hard time dealing with another Rodney King incident where my grandson lives, where my son lives. It could have been them."

Paul Hubbard, the president of New Detroit Inc., an organization formed to rebuild the city after the 1967 riots, said the chief's quick actions have helped maintain calm.

"The community stayed cool because they felt these officers would be put into the criminal justice system," Hubbard said. "If the chief had not immediately taken action, we may have had a problem."

The dead man's father said yesterday he has urged friends to remain calm because "what's done is done."

"Whatever they do ain't going to bring him back," Jesse Green Jr. said. "I've told all his friends not to do anything about it. Just let it be."

"Let the lawyers take care. What's done is done. They made a mistake; let them pay for it." The beating victim's mother, Patricia, said she has driven by the curb twice since he died. One time she stopped and got out.

"His blood was still in the street," she said. "It was like somebody had run over a cow. I don't think he even had a good bone left in his body after they got through beating him."

-- Detroit News, New York Times and Associated Press