Chief Dwayne Miedzianowski
By Rosemary Horvath – The Clare Sentinel – rosemary@claresentinel.net
CLARE – Two new witnesses who dispute Clare Officer Jeremy McGraw and Clare Police Chief Miedzianowksi allegedly shot and killed William “Bill” Scozzari in self-defense Sept. 18, 2007, at the Lone Pine Motel has prompted Michigan State Police to investigate.
Detective 1st Lt. Cameron Henke from the 6th District Headquarters in Kent County will supervise the follow-up investigation.
Mount Pleasant Post Commander Lt. Christopher Stolicker said in an email Jan. 20 the two witnesses will be interviewed in Henke’s follow-up investigation.
A police report will be turned over to Clare County Prosecutor Michelle Ambrozaitis for review.
Hugh Davis, attorney representing Stephen Scozzari, brother of William, said Friday, Jan. 20, it will be up to the family to ask the prosecutor to reopen the case.
The family filed a wrongful death suit against the two officers in 2008.
Noelle Hite and Hazel Duke, tenants at the motel in 2007, were not interviewed by state police for the initial investigation.
Currently Oregon residents, the pair claim in signed affidavits seeing a police officer allegedly place a weapon near Scozzari’s body after police shot him outside his cabin at the motel.
Investigators two days after the shooting said officers were trying to talk to the 51 year old Scozzari and that during the questioning he “pulled a hatchet and a knife on them.”
Clare County Prosecutor Norman E. Gage, at the time, cleared Miedzianowski and McGraw of wrongdoing in January 2008, based on final autopsy results. The prosecutor said the two officers used pepper spray and a stun gun before opening fire on Scozzari.
Scozzari died of injuries to his chest and neck from five wounds.
Gage wrote in his final judgment he found no evil or criminal intent on the part of either officer acting in the performance of their duties.
Hite and Duke have provided signed separate sworn affidavits to Davis, of the Detroit-based Constitutional Litigation Associates.
The officers claimed qualified immunity, arguing they acted in the line of duty.
A federal district judge disagreed, finding there was sufficient evidence for a jury to consider they used excessive force in the shooting death.
Miedzianowski and McGraw appealed the decision.
The Cincinnati Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Jan. 4, 2012 affirmed U.S. District Judge Thomas L. Ludington’s denial from May 2011 that neither officer was entitled to qualified immunity.
In a recent phone interview with Sentinel Publisher Alan Blanchard, Hite recalled seeing an officer enter the cabin Scozzari had occupied as his residence.
The officer came out of the cabin allegedly carrying a hatchet that was placed by the hand of the fallen Scozzari, who had been shot and lying in a pool of blood, she said.
Her recall corroborates testimony of other witnesses, Davis said by phone Friday.
Asked to comment, constitutional law expert Robert Sedler said the appeals court decision not to grant the officers qualified immunity is significant.
“A jury will have to decide on their (police officers) defense,” Sedler said, adding that testimony from the two new witnesses can be introduced by lawyers of the estate at trial. This will carry more weight than a police investigation, he added.
