Brother upset, still accepts acquittal

By Dan DuChene
Nov. 20, 2008    ·    2:14 a.m.

Yesterday a federal jury acquitted the man accused of brutalizing his brother and causing his death, he says he has to live with that now.

“It was the jury’s decision,” James Lee said after hearing about the verdict. “My brother is still gone.”

Lee’s brother, Clifton Lee Jr., died in June 2006 after an altercation with Washtenaw County Sherriff’s deputies near his home in the West Willow neighborhood of Ypsilanti Township. The incident started when the unarmed Lee involved himself in a traffic stop.

The cause of death, reported by Bader Cassin, Washtenaw County's medical examiner, was asphyxia due to the weight of several people pressing his chest against the ground as they were attempting to restrain Clifton Lee.

A wrongful death suit was filed by the Lee family shortly after the incident. The civil case was eventually settled earlier this year, with a $4 million payment to the family.

Joseph Eberle, one of the deputies involved in the struggle, stood trial in federal court for civil rights violations involving Clifton Lee’s death. Two more deputies were named in a separate case involving both the death and injuries to another Lee brother, Bruce.

Eberle’s trial was the first. It started last month and lasted until Monday with closing argument. It ended yesterday when the Jury decided Eberle had not violated Lee’s civil rights by over-zealous policing. He could have faced life in prison.

During the trial, video of the struggle showed a violent scene ending with several officers standing over a motionless Lee. On the tape, Eberle then kicked Lee in the head. That action had been a point in the trial.

Even though James Lee says he and his family are not happy with the acquittal, they accept it.

“We understand,” he said. “We expect this kind of stuff.”

Lee compared the events in West Willow more than two years ago and the outcome of this trial with events during the civil rights struggles of the sixties.

“It’s not like it’s something new,” he said. “I hate to see us going through this once again.”

Leading up to the night of his brother’s death, Lee said his neighborhood was often harassed by police. Since then, he said, the over-policing and harassment in his neighborhood has gone down and things have calmed. He said he’s not sure what to expect now.

Even though he said the situation in his neighborhood has improved, and a trial more than two years in the making, with little updates from officials involved, has come to a close, Lee said he and his family feel a “complete lack of closure.”

He said it is unlikely his family ever will be able to get closure from the events.

“Life goes on,” Lee said. “The Eberle’s are still living and my brother is not”