Court Refuses To Block New Trial Against Cops In Teen's Suicide

(Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) The family of a teenager who killed himself after two police officers threatened to tell his parents he was gay will be allowed to launch a second wrongful death suit.

A federal appeals court has rejected an appeal from the Minersville, Pennsylvania Police Department and several officers who sought to block the suit by the family of 18-year-old Marcus Wayman.

Wayman, a high school football player, shot himself in the head in his home in 1997, hours after officers who arrested him on an underage drinking charge threatened to go to his family and tell them he was gay.

Wayman's mother, Madonna Sterling, filed the first civil suit over his death, charging that the borough and three officers F. Scott Willinsky; his father, Police Chief Joseph Willinsky; and Thomas Hoban violated Wayman's right to privacy.

A jury decided in November 2001 that the officers did not violate Wayman's rights.

Sterling asked U.S. Magistrate Arnold C. Rapoport to set aside the verdict and grant a new trial because evidence presented to the jury did not support the verdict. The judge agreed.

Philadelphia attorney L. Rostaing Tharaud, who represents Minersville and the officers, had asked the appellate court to reverse Rapoport's decision and to reinstate the jury's verdict in favor of the borough and the police.

The appeals court ruling clears the way for the family to go back to court.

No date has been set for the second trial.

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