LITTLE ROCK — A federal judge Monday granted a request from opposing parties to try to settle a pending lawsuit involving a 2010 police shooting that left a Little Rock man dead.
U.S. District Judge Brian S. Miller said in granting the request for a settlement conference with the plaintiff, officer Troy Ellison, whose father was killed, and the city, two other officers and the father’s apartment complex, that he was referring the case to U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerry Cavaneau.
The parties had sought a hearing on Dec. 12, when an out-of-state attorney intends to be in town for another reason. The order said that Cavaneau’s court will issue an order setting the time and other details of the conference.
If the parties cannot agree to a court-mediated settlement, the case is scheduled to be tried by a jury in Miller’s court beginning May 13.
Little Rock officer Donna Lesher, working off-duty at the Big Country Chateau Apartments at 6200 Colonel Glenn Road, shot Eugene Ellison, 67, inside his apartment on the night of Dec. 9, 2010.
Lesher and a fellow off duty officer, Tabitha McCrillis, later said they went into the apartment to check on Ellison’s welfare after they found the door ajar and the apartment in disarray, even though he told them he was fine.
They said he became violent and attacked them, forcing them to use pepper spray, which was ineffective, and then lethal force.
The lawsuit contends the officers violated Eugene Ellison’s civil rights by entering the apartment without a warrant after he said he was fine, and that deadly force was unnecessary and negligent.
The officers didn’t know that the man was the father of two police officers - Troy Ellison and his brother, who had already left the department at the time of the shooting.
Troy Ellison’s attorneys have questioned whether Lesher and McCrillis actually tried to subdue the elder Ellison with pepper spray before resorting to gunfire.
Arkansas, Pages 10 on 11/27/2012