Two years after son's death, parents still seek answers

Narves and Jonny Gammage Sr. will remember their son today with a service and candlelight vigil in Syracuse, N.Y. The remembrance is another step in a two-year ordeal they say still seems far from resolution - they've seen no justice and had no clear answer as to why their son had to die.

Around 2 a.m. Oct. 12, 1995, Brentwood Police Lt. Milton Mulholland stopped a navy blue Jaguar on Route 51 in the Overbrook section of Pittsburgh. Driving the Jaguar was Jonny Gammage Jr., 31, a black businessman and cousin to Ray Seals, then a defensive end for the Pittsburgh Steelers. The car belonged to Seals.

What happened next has been the subject of two criminal trials and two federal lawsuits. It grabbed the attention of the national media and touched off a wave of protests over alleged police brutality and racism. Soon after Mulholland stopped Gammage for erratic driving, four other South Hills officers arrived as back-up. A melee ensued between Gammage and the officers that resulted in Gammage's death.

"My son was murdered and it seems like they all are going to get away with it," Jonny Gammage Sr. said last week from his Syracuse home.

An autopsy showed Gammage died of asphyxiation caused by compression of the neck and chest that apparently occurred when he was lying on his stomach while officers tried to restrain him. The officers claimed that Gammage was the aggressor in the struggle, that he lunged at the officers and that while Brentwood Police Officer John Vojtas attempted to handcuff him, Gammage bit Vojtas' thumb.

Vojtas, Mulholland and Baldwin Borough Police Officer Michael Albert were tried for involuntary manslaughter in Gammage's death. In October 1996, the trial of Mulholland, 58, and Albert, 32, ended in a mistrial. Vojtas, 40, was acquitted in a separate trial a month later. Two Whitehall police officers, Sgt. Keith Henderson and Officer Shawn Patterson, were not charged.

In April, Allegheny County Common Pleas Judge David Cashman ruled that Mulholland and Albert cannot be retried. Allegheny County District Attorney Robert Colville appealed that decision to the state Supreme Court, which heard arguments last month and is yet to render a decision. "I was discouraged at what happened at the trial," said Patrick Thomassey, attorney for Mulholland.

Thomassey said people accused him of having engineered the mistrial, which Cashman declared after Allegheny County Coroner Cyril Wecht testified that Mulholland should take the stand. That statement, ruled Cashman, infringed on Mulholland's constitutional right against self-incrimination. "It's just been awful. I would have preferred to go to verdict," said Thomassey.

Mulholland, said Thomassey, is "doing horrible. He has this blemish on him. It's always hanging over his head."

Brentwood officials rarely discuss the case publicly, but like a recurring nightmare, it is never out of mind. "It is frustrating that we have to deal with the judicial system. The judicial system being as complicated as it is, we have to be patient. We wish it were behind us instead of in front of us," Brentwood Mayor James Joyce said in an interview last week. "I never thought in a million years we would be in litigation for this long," said Joyce.

But Baldwin Borough Police Chief Chris Kelly said the public "feeding frenzy" and "media frenzy" surrounding the case guaranteed a protracted legal fight. Kelly said no one ever bothered to investigate Albert's role the night Gammage died, and noted that Albert left the scene for 13 minutes while Gammage struggled with the other officers. "Everybody still looks at the entire scenario that happened Oct. 12, and nobody looks at Officer Albert's actions individually," said Kelly.

Albert remains on active duty while he awaits the Supreme Court's decision.

Acting U.S. Attorney Linda Kelly said the FBI and the U.S. Department of Justice currently are investigating Gammage's death to determine if any federal civil rights laws were violated.

Mulholland retired from the police force in February. He now works as a custodian for the Brentwood Borough School District. In May, Brentwood Council promoted Vojtas to sergeant. Seals now plays for the Carolina Panthers.

In January 1996, Brentwood Council fired Police Chief Wayne Babish, who promptly sued the borough in federal court, alleging he was fired without due cause by a council that wanted to punish him for cooperating with the investigation into Gammage's death. That suit has further sullied the reputation of the borough's police department. In pretrial depositions, Brentwood police officers admitted under oath to drinking on duty and using racial slurs.

The Gammages filed a federal civil rights lawsuit and wrongful death lawsuit against the officers and Brentwood, Baldwin and Whitehall boroughs.

Like Joyce, Kelly and Thomassey, Jonny Gammage Sr. thinks the fight over what happened to his son has gone on for too long. "I wasn't looking for it to go on as long as it did. They admitted to what they did. I never will believe it was an accident."

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