BY CECELIA MORIARITY

PITTSBURGH - Some 150 protesters chanted "Dump Judge Cashman" as they demanded justice for Jonny Gammage at a rally October 26, on the steps of the city-county building here. Cashman had declared a mistrial in the case of the two suburban Pittsburgh cops who killed Gammage, a Black businessman, Oct. 12, 1995.

Joel Scilley, a member of the Campus Coalition for Peace and Justice, the organization that called the rally, cited several well-known cases of police brutality and killings in other cities. He mentioned the beating of Rodney King by Los Angeles cops and the most recent case in St. Petersburg, Florida, where police killed a Black driver October 24.

"Police brutality is a national issue," Scilley said, "therefore a victory in this case would be a national victory." He urged people to maintain the "public presence" at the courthouse when the trial of the third cop charged with killing Gammage begins.

On October 18, Judge Cashman declared a mistrial in the trial of two of the three cops charged with involuntary manslaughter in the beating death of Gammage.

As the rally was taking place, the judge was meeting with prosecuting attorneys and defense attorneys for the cops, to discuss whether he should excuse himself from the case. Cashman had allowed only the attorneys for the cops to meet with the Gammage jurors immediately after he had declared a mistrial.

Two of the jurors were so disturbed by this that they called the prosecuting attorney, Anthony Krastek. Krastek said he hadn't been informed of the meeting. One of the jurors reported to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette that "what they [the defense] were getting was a lot of help in their case without the prosecution being present." The two jurors said defense lawyers were clearly gathering information to help plot strategy for the retrial.

Monroe Freedman, professor of law at Hofstra University in New York, said any judge who organized such a meeting for defense attorneys should disqualify himself from the case. "He has given the appearance... that he cannot be impartial in the case," Freedman stated.

The defense attorney for the third officer charged with the beating death of Gammage filed a motion to keep jurors from hearing that Brentwood cop John Vojtas said, "I hope he dies," after hearing that Gammage was in cardiac arrest. This motion and a motion to include testimony from cops in Syracuse, New York, who had stopped Gammage in traffic in the past were denied. In January 1995, police alleged that Gammage swore at them and kicked dirt at his car. Jurors will be allowed to see a news videotape of Vojtas talking and laughing with paramedics at the scene less that an hour after Gammage was beaten and asphyxiated by the police crushing his chest.

The judge also ruled that the coroner who testified against the police at the first trial will also be allowed to testify in the trial of Vojtas even though his testimony was the pretext for the mistrial of the two cops who are being tried together. Vojtas is being tried separately.

Dee Hart from the Coalition of Afro-American Justice that organized daily noon-time protests outside the Allegheny County Courthouse during the first trial, told the rally, "We've got a fight ahead of us." Referring to the Syracuse traffic stops she said, "They're using the media to try to paint Jonny Gammage as a villain. It was just plain murder."  
 
 
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