Defense witness stumbles, however, when he asserts team gave Hirko time to respond.
By MICHAEL P. BUFFER, The Express-Times (Allentown, Penn.)
ALLENTOWN -- Bethlehem police officers acted appropriately during the 1997 drug raid that killed John Hirko Jr., a SWAT expert said Friday during the civil trial about the raid.
But the expert witness, Albert Preciado, contradicted police testimony when he said Bethlehem’s SWAT team gave Hirko 45 seconds to surrender. Officers have said they began the fatal raid with an immediate, forcible entry into Hirko’s rental home, 629 Christian St.
Preciado, a former supervisor of the Los Angeles Police Department’s SWAT team, testified for the defense -- the city of Bethlehem, former police Commissioner Eugene Learn and the 13 officers at the raid.
When cross-examining Preciado, John P. Karoly Jr., the attorney representing four plaintiffs seeking nearly $1 billion in damages, asked the witness how much time Hirko had to surrender.
“Forty-five seconds was indicated to me,” Preciado said.
According to police testimony, seven officers stormed into Hirko’s house after officer Todd Repsher rammed in the kitchen door. At about the same time, officer Edward Repyneck broke a porch window, and officer Joe Riedy threw a flash-bang concussion grenade through the window, officers said.
Almost immediately after throwing the grenade, Riedy opened fire with an MP5 submachine gun, officers said. Riedy has claimed he shot Hirko right after Hirko fired a handgun from inside the house.
Hirko, who grew up in Palmer Township, was shot 11 times, eight times in the back, according to an autopsy. He was 21.
Repsher claimed he was in the kitchen when the grenade detonated, heard a “pop” sound and then heard gunfire from Riedy’s gun. Repsher said he fired one shot at Hirko, who was moving in the living room and holding a gun.
Police left Hirko’s bullet-riddled body to burn in fire started by the flash-bang grenade. Hirko’s fiancee, Kristin Fodi, barely escaped the fire by climbing out of a second-floor window.
Karoly is representing Fodi, Hirko’s parents and the owner of 629 Christian Street. Claims in their lawsuit include wrongful death, excessive force, intentional infliction of emotional distress and the violation of constitutional rights.
Preciado testified Friday, the trial’s 64th day, that it was important for SWAT teams to critique their performance. When answering a question from defense attorney Stephen Ledva, Preciado said Bethlehem SWAT-team members should not have conducted an immediate critique after the Hirko raid because officers involved in a fatal incident should be sequestered until “an investigation is complete.”
During cross-examination, Karoly asked Preciado why it is important to sequester officers involved in a fatal incident. Ledva objected, and U.S. District Judge James Knoll Gardner sustained the objection.
“He did not use the word sequester,” the judge said.
Karoly protested and insisted Preciado said “sequester.” Karoly asked Preciado if he used that word, and Preciado said he did.
Gardner apologized and let Karoly ask Preciado why it is important to sequester officers.
“So they can’t speak to each other can’t give away details and taint their interviews,” Preciado said.
Karoly has claimed the officers got together and contrived a story about Hirko firing a gun before they were interviewed by state police troopers about the incident. Some officers testified that they were in the same room after the raid but didn’t discuss pertinent details about the raid before they were interviewed.
State police investigated the Hirko raid in 1997, and five months after the raid, then-state Attorney General Mike Fisher concluded the homicide was justifiable because Hirko fired a gun first. Karoly insists Hirko was unarmed and says the criminal investigation was a cover up.
The Hirko trial is scheduled to resume at 9 a.m. Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Allentown. On Monday, Gardner and the lawyers will discuss trial issues without the jury present.
When Gardner dismissed the jury Friday, some jurors asked Gardner when they needed to show up on Tuesday.
“Ah, show up whenever,” Gardner joked.
One juror got up out of his seat and immediately ran out of the courtroom. The trial began Sept. 25 and could be over in a few weeks.
The defense plans to rest its case next week, and then Karoly has the option of presenting rebuttal testimony