YOUNGSTOWN Civil trial on fatal shooting to continue
The case went forward with a visiting judge assigned.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Testimony was to continue today in a trial over a fatal shooting by a city policeman nearly 10 years ago.
The case centers on the shooting death of 35-year-old Bryan Houlihan of Austintown, who was killed after he led police on a high-speed chase from Youngstown's North Side to Boardman in 1995.
Houlihan's estate filed a civil lawsuit in 1996 against the city and Patrolman David Ellis, the officer who fired the fatal shot, in Mahoning County Common Pleas Court. Ellis has since been dismissed as a defendant from the suit, which seeks unspecified damages.
The case was set for trial Monday in the courtroom of Judge Maureen A. Cronin, who is presiding over a capital murder case. Rather than have the matter postponed again -- it's been postponed twice before -- Atty. Mark S. Colucci asked that it be assigned to a different judge so it could go forward.
Visiting judge
Judge Stephen Yarbrough, a visiting judge from western Ohio, already was in the county to preside over another civil trial that ended up being settled out of court. Because he was here and available, the case was assigned to him and jury selection began late Monday morning.
Because of a full trial schedule in the common pleas courthouse, the trial was to resume today in the county's area court in Canfield.
Colucci says the city was negligent in its training of officers in the use of excessive force. He says the shooting was unjustified because Houlihan was unarmed at the time, and because Ellis was outside his legal jurisdiction when he shot Houlihan.
Jury watched video
On Monday, the four-man, four-woman jury watched a videotaped statement Ellis made the day after the shooting as part of the department's internal affairs investigation.
"He made a move," Ellis said on the video, explaining that Houlihan appeared to be reaching under his coat for a weapon. "He spun at me. I jumped back and I started firing."
Atty. W. Scott Fowler, representing the city, said in court documents that the shooting was investigated by the department's internal affairs division and the county prosecutor's office, both of which cleared Ellis and the department of any wrongdoing.
He said Houlihan was a suspect in several armed robberies in the area at the time. Police went to Forum Health Northside Hospital looking for Houlihan on Nov. 7, 1995, because they'd gotten information that he was going to get some clothes from his mother, who worked there, and then leave town.
When police approached him, Houlihan drove away at a high rate of speed. The chase ended in Boardman when Houlihan crashed his car at Hopkins and Truesdale roads.
Houlihan got out of his car and as he was running away, Ellis and another officer yelled for him to stop and surrender. Fowler said Houlihan turned suddenly while raising his right arm. Ellis, thinking Houlihan had a gun, fired at him. Houlihan died hours later from his injuries.
The trial is expected to last about a week.
bjackson@vindy.com