Lawyer in Ohio boy's hanging wants probe reopened

COLUMBUS (AP) — The family lawyer for a black teenager who died in a hanging at an Ohio church camp in 2006 asked the local sheriff today to reopen an investigation into the boy’s death after another camper invoked the Fifth Amendment during questioning last week.

In an email to Logan County Sheriff Andrew J. Smith, attorney Cliff Arnebeck said the witness’ request for protection against self-incrimination during a deposition is enough to raise new questions about the death of James McCoy III.

McCoy was found hanging from a tree in a remote area of Camp Cotubic, a Christian camp near Bellefontaine where the youth group from his Columbus-area church, Church of the Messiah of Westerville, was on retreat. It was his 18th birthday.

A 2007 lawsuit filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court by McCoy’s mother, Tonya Amoako-Okyere, alleges the boy was the victim of an asphyxiation prank that was little better than a lynching. The suit claims McCoy died as a result of his friends, who were white, playing a version of a choking game on him as a birthday prank.