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| An image of Oral ‘Nick’ Hillary being taken into custody on May 15 by one of the officers who he filed a civil suit against in 2012 for wrongul arrest and unlawful search. |
Monday, May 26, 2014
A Jamaican man who sued the town of Potsdam in New York and its police force after he was detained in 2011 in relation to the death of a young white boy, was charged with murder just over a week ago in what his attorney and supporters say is a move to punish him for filing the lawsuit.
The case is mushrooming into a civil rights issue as supporters of the accused football coach, Oral ‘Nick’ Hillary, believe he is being held on trumped-up charges because he, a black man, dared to file a lawsuit against Potsdam and its police officers, one of whom is seen in a YouTube video taking him into custody earlier this month.
Mani Tafari, the lawyer representing Hillary in that civil suit, and who is himself a Jamaican, told the Jamaica Observer that his client was charged because he filed a civil claim in January 2012 against the police for false arrest and unlawful search.
“This case is so political because they (the police) took it personal when he dared to sue them,” Tafari told the Observer via telephone from New York.
On October 24, 2011, 12-year-old Garett Phillips was found strangled and smothered in the apartment he shared with his mother, an ex-police officer, whom Hillary had previously dated. Tafari explained that the police were at Hillary’s home within minutes of the boy’s death and he was kept under surveillance for two days before taken to the police station.
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| TAFARI... says his client was charged because he sued the police (right) HILLARY... supporters maintain that he is one hundred per cent innocent of the murder charge |
He was detained all day before being released without charge and his name was allegedly leaked to the press as someone the police suspected. According to Tafari, he filed a Federal civil rights lawsuit for false arrest and unlawful search. “I also made it clear that his reputation was tarnished by the report in the newspaper,” he said of Hillary, with whom he played college football.
The complaint filed in the Supreme Court of New York, a copy of which was obtained by the Observer, stated that Hillary was asked to accompany the police to the station some time after 7:45 am on October 24, 2011, and was later prevented from leaving for work. His phone, according to the complaint, was forcefully confiscated and he was placed in a holding area until 5:00 pm that day when he was released without any explanation. more
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