DA: no charges against police in CAPA student beating

PITTSBURGH (AP) — A local prosecutor won't bring charges against three Pittsburgh police officers who allegedly used excessive force against a student who claimed he was wrongly beaten.

Allegheny County District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. said at a new conference Wednesday there isn't a prosecutable case against the officers.

“The use of force does not lend itself to a criminal prosecution, which is something I obviously need to proceed,” Zappala said.

Jordan Miles, 20, was a student at the city's performing arts high school at the time of the 2010 beating.

The officers contend Miles ran and resisted after appearing to have a gun, but it was a bottle of soda. Miles denies even having the bottle and claims he was targeted simply because he was a young black man.

“You know when you have a DA that won’t prosecute police officers, it gives them a license to come into neighborhoods like this and just do whatever they want to do because they know there’s no punishment,” Jordan’s mother, Terez Miles, said.

Last year the Justice Department chose not to file criminal civil rights charges against the officers.

Councilman Bill Robinson said he thinks Zappala’s office goes too easy on white officers accused of beating African-Americans.

“We didn’t expect him to prosecute the police officers. This is not a shock at all,” Robinson said.

Terez and Jordan Miles said they filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the officers and the city. The case is set to go in front of a federal jury in Pittsburgh in July.

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