Milton Hall's mother files wrongful death lawsuit against Saginaw, nine police officers

SAGINAW, MI — The mother of Milton Hall, a homeless Saginaw man shot and killed by Saginaw police officers in 2012, has filed a federal wrongful death lawsuit against the city and nine police officers.

Detroit attorney Hugh M. Davis on Friday, Sept. 27, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Bay City on behalf of Jewel Hall, seeking “full and fair compensation” as well as punitive damages.

Attorneys for the city and the officers have yet to respond to the complaint and will have 21 days to do so once they receive a summons that federal court officials filed Monday, Sept. 30.

“The individual officer defendants on July 1, 2012, were on duty and acted in concert with each other to cause the wrongful death of (Milton Hall) and then conspired to distort and conceal the actual facts and circumstances regarding said death,” Davis alleges in the lawsuit.

Six Saginaw police officers fired 47 times at the 49-year-old Hall, striking him 11 times, in the Riverview Plaza parking lot on West Genesee as he wielded a knife and acted aggressively, according to then-Saginaw County Prosecutor Michael D. Thomas.

After review of the incident, Thomas determined that there was no criminal intent behind the officers' actions.

Davis alleges the officers' actions “amounted to an execution by firing squad.”

“The acts of the individual officers on the scene were intentional, malicious, reckless, grossly negligent, and undertaken with deliberate indifference to and callous disregard for Hall's health and well being, entitling his estate to punitive damages,” Davis writes.

Saginaw Mayor Greg Branch said city leaders have known for some time that a lawsuit like the one filed by Hall’s mother was likely.

“I’m not surprised, I guess,” Branch said. “We obviously knew it was coming.”

Jim Tignanelli, president of the union that represents Saginaw’s police and command officers, said he is not yet sure what the union’s role might be in the lawsuit.

“I trust the system and I respect their right to pursue the matter any way the law allows,” Tignanelli said. “We’ll do our part as the representatives. That’s what we’re sworn to do.”

“He was well known to the police officers of Saginaw prior to July 1, 2012, as a person with a mental illness,” Davis writes. “Hall had been approached, contacted, and/or detained by officers of the city on several occasions without incident prior to this date, largely as a result of behaviors related to his illness. As a result, (the officers) knew or should have known of his disability and had a duty to accommodate that disability in their dealings with him.”

In the complaint, Davis writes that then-Saginaw Police Sgt. Anajanette “A.J.” Wojciechowski responded to the parking lot first, and dispatched to fellow officers that Hall was not “looking so nice,” requested assistance, and stated “without provocation or reason, that if the other officers did not respond promptly, she was “going to have to shoot this guy.”

Davis writes that Wojciechowski, formerly known as A.J. Tuer, recently had returned to road patrol after serving as the police department's head of internal affairs. Wojciechowski subsequently was demoted to officer after Hall's death, sued the city over the demotion, and retired as part of an out-of-court settlement.

When the other officers — Patrick Busch, Jeremy Holden, Bradley Holp, Nicholas Olivo, Roger Pate, Richard Thompson, and Jeffrey Wenzell, each of whom are listed as defendants in the lawsuit — arrived, they “immediately surrounded Hall with their weapons drawn and aimed at him,” Davis writes. Wenzell, the attorney continues, “repeatedly and aggressively taunted and threatened Hall with a police dog, which frightened and agitated him further.”

Hall, Davis writes, called 911 and requested a police supervisor be dispatched to the parking lot because he was surrounded and was defending himself with a pocket knife.

“Hall's call ... went unheeded while (the officers) on the scene, without provocation, rapidly, recklessly, and needlessly elevated through the force continuum, culminating with deadly force being used by (the officers),” Davis writes.

Davis also lists Lt. Paul Crane as a defendant. Crane that day was acting as the shift commander and, the attorney writes, “emblematic of the lack of control and supervision which characterized the actions of all of the involved officers, Crane spoke only with two dispatchers and none of the officers at the scene.”

Davis writes that the city and the supervisory staff failed in multiple areas regarding training and equipping officers properly.

Hall's death also drew widespread criticism, attracting national attention and civil rights leaders Jessie Jackson and Al Sharpton to Saginaw for visits. Citizens banded together to bring attention to the case and put pressure on the Saginaw Police Department and city leaders to make changes in the wake of the killing.

Branch said a lot of changes at the city’s police department were spurred on by the incident, from the disciplinary action taken against some officers involved to new policies for use of force and how to use video and audio recording equipment.

“Quite a few things have happened,” Branch said, “that were either a direct result of or got front-burnered by that.”

As far as what impact the lawsuit will have on Saginaw, Branch said it remains to be seen.

“We’ll just have to wait and see what happens,” he said.

Saginaw attorney Debra Freid is listed as co-counsel for Jewell Hall. Freid in July said she planned to offer a proposed legal settlementto city officials by the end of July. The City Council has not approved any settlements regarding Hall's death.

— Andy Hoag covers courts for MLive/The Saginaw News. Email him at ahoag@mlive.com or follow him on Twitter @awhoag