04.21.2000
BOB KERR: This conclusion
brings no end
to the Young case
PROVIDENCE -
Atty. Gen. Sheldon Whitehouse is right. No one knows as much about the fatal shooting of Sgt. Cornel Young Jr. as the police officers, prosecutors, and grand jurors who investigated it. Others may claim to know more, through some process of experience and intuition, but they don't. They can't.
More than 50 witnesses, more than 100 documents and exhibits -- all were pored over, examined, and reexamined by people who had to know that a great many of their fellow citizens would not like the conclusion they reached.
Unfortunately, the process that led to that conclusion has its own built-in block on explaining itself.
After announcing that the grand jury had decided not to criminally prosecute the two officers involved in the Young shooting, Attorney General Whitehouse walked out of his press conference Tuesday without answering questions. And that means that the biggest question of all -- the one that must be answered to remove doubts and suspicions -- cannot be answered. Not officially, anyway. The grand-jury process prevents the release of information that would tell us how the decision was reached.
And in the Young decision, the "how" is more important than anything else. As long as the investigation can't be shown to have been absolutely unbiased, some people will assume that it wasn't.
There might be some compelling piece of evidence that would make it clear why the shooting occurred, and disprove charges that it was racially related. But grand-jury secrecy, so necessary to protect witnesses and reputations, makes it impossible to reveal the things that could ease public concern.
And the lack of explanation of the factors determining that Officers Carlos A. Saraiva and Michael Solitro III would not be prosecuted leaves a lot of room for people to move in and work the uncertainty that remains.
U.S. Rep. Patrick Kennedy, for example. He wasted no time in playing on what appears a residue of distrust and disappointment in some parts of the black community over the grand jury's decision.
Kennedy pulled out the stops this week after Whitehouse's announcement. He used his growing political clout, maybe even his family name, to bring the kind of high-powered attention to the Young case that not every congressman could. He persuaded the telegenic Eric Holder, U.S. deputy attorney general, to weigh in. On Wednesday, Holder held a telephone conference with Kennedy and others gathered in Kennedy's Pawtucket office regarding the Young case.
And next week, Kennedy; Sergeant Young's father, Maj. Cornel Young Sr.; and a group of Rhode Island ministers will go to Washington to ask the U.S. Justice Department for a civil-rights probe of the investigation. They don't say why, or offer anything specific as to what they think is flawed in the investigation. They're just going -- and keeping the suspicions alive.
Eventually, there will probably be a chance to learn some lessons from what happened to Sergeant Young. It would seem the finest tribute that could be paid him if his death could be the cause of greater understanding. There is clearly a racial divide in Rhode Island, and the questions raised by Young's death provide a unique opportunity to begin closing it.
But the lessons will apparently have to be put on hold while people go shopping for the decision they want. They didn't get it in Rhode Island, so they're going to Washington. The old distrust will probably prevail while they're gone.
Without a clear understanding of why the grand jury did what it did, this kind of justice shopping is probably inevitable. Some people weren't ready to accept any conclusion to the Cornel Young investigation other than murder indictments for Solitro and Saraiva.
And as long as there is no clear explanation for the decision not to indict these officers, people can probably make a case for justice denied -- as many times as it suits them.
Bob Kerr can be reached by e-mail at bkerr@projo.com
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