John Crawford family lawyer questions Beavercreek police chief

Attorney Dennis Mulvihill said Beavercreek police Detective Rodney Curd also was deposed for about an hour about the death of Crawford, who was shot to death by officer Sean Williams on Aug. 5, 2014 in Beavercreek’s Walmart.

Williams and Sgt. David Darkow were dispatched to Walmart after a lone 911 caller said a man was waving a rifle at people including children. Crawford was shot after police said he twice didn’t respond to drop a BB/pellet gun he picked up from a store shelf.

Mulvihill said the legal battle to force Williams and Sgt. David Darkow to be deposed is ongoing, in part because the U.S. Dept. of Justice has an open civil rights investigation into the case. U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Michael Newman ruled Dec. 31 to allow a 90-day stay of the depositions after which the officers can ask for an extension. The civil case's discovery deadline is Aug. 31, 2016.

“These (police officers) have already spoken a great deal about this,” Mulvihill said Tuesday by telephone from Cleveland. “They were interviewed by their own department and didn’t take the Fifth Amendment. They were interviewed by the BCI and didn’t take the Fifth Amendment and … both Darkow and Williams testified before the grand jury.”

Williams was cleared of state criminal charges by a Greene County special grand jury in September 2014, but the U.S. Department of Justice has yet to release any information about the civil rights investigation it is conducting or when that may be complete.

“Now whether or not they invoked the Fifth Amendment in the grand jury, we have no idea because that’s a secret proceeding, but they did testify,” Mulvihill said. “So, it’s not clear to me why (Beavercreek) thinks that they can talk to friendly folks but then maybe when the questioning gets a little more probative, that they think that they don’t have to talk.”

Mulvihill said scores more people will be deposed including more police officers, Walmart customers and Walmart employees. But he said memories may be fuzzy a year and a half later: “That’s one of the reasons we want to talk to Williams and Darkow sooner rather than later.”