Justice Department review sought in shooting

SEATTLE – The Justice Department has been asked to review an investigation by the local U.S. attorney’s office into the fatal shooting of a black man by a white King County sheriff’s deputy.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Attorney General John D. Ashcroft, Bradley R. Marshall, a lawyer for the family of Robert Lee Thomas Sr., wrote that the probe was biased in favor of deputy Melvin Miller, who shot Thomas to death in a confrontation nearly three years ago.

According to Marshall’s letter, someone in the U.S. attorney’s office wrote Miller’s lawyer on Dec. 14 to “instruct and assist Deputy Miller’s attorneys on how to overcome physical evidence problems they have within their case.”

The letter also made “false representations and conclusions” about the case, Marshall asserted, adding that he received it by accident from Miller’s lawyers in a related civil case.

Emily Langlie, a spokeswoman for the U.S. attorney’s office, said the agency’s letter was sent to obtain permission from Miller and his lawyer to include personal information in a letter to the local chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.

She said the agency’s probe was “careful,” “thorough” and “unbiased,” adding that she had not seen a copy of Marshall’s complaint.

Thomas, 59, who had a record of assault convictions, was sitting in a pickup truck with his son and his son’s girlfriend in a rural area near Miller’s home when neighbors asked the deputy to investigate on April 7, 2002.

He was wearing civilian clothing and did not identify himself as a sheriff’s officer before opening fire when – by his account – Thomas drew a gun. Thomas’s son, who was wounded in the hand, and the son’s girlfriend denied that Thomas drew a gun.

Investigators said Thomas was highly intoxicated and had traces of cocaine in his blood at the time.

The shooting was one of several episodes in which white officers shot black men to death in the Seattle area and drew extended protests and demonstrations, including a march in which Interstate 5 was blocked for a time in the downtown area.

A county inquest jury issued findings that largely favored the deputy, and on Dec. 15, based on the findings of the U.S. attorney’s office, Justice Department officials decided not to pursue criminal charges against Miller.