Closing arguments heard in Jordan Brown's civil trial against troopers who charged him with murder when he was 11
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — Closing arguments were made on Wednesday in the Jordan Brown federal civil trial against four former state troopers.
Brown is suing the four, claiming sloppy and biased police work resulted in a murder conviction against him when he was only 11 years old — a decision overturned in the state Supreme Court.
Brown's attorney told the panel that based on the evidence presented, the state police rushed to judgment in arresting Brown for killing his stepmom. The troopers' attorney told the jury they didn't want to arrest Brown, but the evidence led only to him.
Nicole Boland, defense attorney for retired Troopers Janice Wilson, Jeffrey Martin, Troy Steinheiser and the estate of Robert McGraw, who has since died, told the jury their job wasn't to determine who killed Kenzie Houk in Feb 2009 but to determine probable cause.
Boland tore into Brown's team's contention that the investigators had no probable cause and fabricated evidence. Boland told the jurors that "nothing was fabricated" and based on their investigation and documentation of evidence the troopers would "make the worst conspirators ever" and "if they were trying to frame Jordan Brown, why would they have kept any records?"
When it was Jordan Brown's turn, his lawyer Alex Wright told the jury, "the troopers acted with malice" and "reckless disrespect for his [Brown's] rights."
Wright said the testimony of Brown's stepsister that she allegedly heard a boom in the house right before she and Brown left for school was the seventh interview of the day and the only time she mentioned a boom. Wright questioned the reliability of her statement saying she was 7 at the time of the interview and had been awake for 17 straight hours and "her statement was "literally inadmissible."
