Lawyers update judge on status of civil suit against Jackson Police Department

The Cape Girardeau County judge presiding over a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by the mother of Aaron Hemingway, a man who shot two Ameren workers near Center Junction in 2009, set a new court date Monday after attorneys updated him on the status of the case filed Feb. 24.

Attorneys for the plaintiff, Norma Baer, and the defendants, three Jackson police officers, are in the discovery phase, according to Circuit Court Judge William L. Syler. No action was taken at Monday's hearing, he said.

In the lawsuit, Baer questions the circumstances of her son's death Feb. 27, 2009, and alleges it was due to negligence on the part of Jackson Sgt. James Barker, Capt. Robert Hull and Larry Miller, defendants in the case. The officers are represented by Keith Henson, a lawyer with the St. Louis firm Paule Camazien and Blumenthal.

Baer alleges Jackson police used "unnecessary and excessive deadly force." Police say that Hemingway shot himself in the head with a 12-gauge shotgun after shooting and injuring two Ameren workers repairing a substation in Jackson. Incident reports from the Jackson Police Department say officers located Hemingway through witnesses' descriptions of the shooter's vehicle and a license plate number that checked back as belonging to Baer's son.

Miller, the first officer to spot Hemingway and approach his truck, said he found Hemingway dead with a self-inflicted gunshot would to his right temple.

Based on crime scene photographs, which show the way the shotgun was lying in the vehicle, Baer suggests Hemingway wouldn't have been able to shoot himself in the head. She also says in the 15-page civil suit, the "deadly force" used by officers was not justified, as Hemingway wasn't a threat at the time he was stopped. Baer continues to say police stopped her son without doing a thorough investigation on whether he had been involved in a crime.

There is no mention of officers using "deadly force" in the more than 20 pages of incident reports obtained by the Southeast Missourian from the Jackson Police Department after the lawsuit was filed.

Follow-up reports filed by officers indicate the victims and several witnesses, other Ameren workers, were interviewed about the incident. They all relayed similar stories to officers -- that a maroon S-10 pickup pulled up, a man got out and began shooting.

At the time the lawsuit was filed Jackson police chief James Humphreys said his officers handled the incident professionally. Henson said he wouldn't comment on the pending litigation. Norma Baer's attorney, Charles Frahm, didn't return phone calls about the hearing Monday.

Another status hearing for the case was set for Sept. 12.

ehevern@semissourian.com

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