Settlement in Mt. Oliver police suit revealed
The family of an Altoona man who died following his arrest at a birthday party in Mt. Oliver will receive $850,000 in a settlement of a federal civil rights and wrongful death lawsuit, the borough solicitor said.
Mt. Oliver Solicitor James N. Parich revealed the terms of the Oct. 28 settlement Thursday in the death of Charles A. Dixon, 43, after an altercation at the Mt. Oliver Fire Hall on Dec. 22, 2002.
A forensic pathologist said Dixon was deprived of oxygen from weight placed on his back and stomach as officers tried to handcuff him.
Parich released information about the settlement to be paid by the insurance carrier for Mt. Oliver Borough after news media lawsuits demanding the public disclosure.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review had sought the release of the information under the Pennsylvania Right to Know Act and was awaiting a hearing in Allegheny County Common Pleas Court when the information was revealed.
Dixon had been told by Mt. Oliver police to leave the birthday party after his brother, Gregory, 47, of Uptown, created a disturbance in the food line.
Allegheny County Coroner Dr. Cyril H. Wecht ruled Charles Dixon died due to positional or mechanical asphyxiation when he was deprived of oxygen. Dixon died at a hospital on Dec. 23.
In the civil case, U.S. District Judge Arthur J. Schwab reported there was an "amicable resolution," after the parties met with former Senior U.S. District Judge Donald Ziegler, now in private practice, who had been appointed as mediator by Schwab.
Mt. Oliver Borough police Chief Frank Mosesso and Mayor John Smith and six Mt. Oliver and two Pittsburgh police officers were named as defendants in the lawsuit. They and the plaintiffs agreed to keep the settlement confidential.
The police officers named as defendants were: Mt. Oliver officers Matthew Juzwick, Michael DeLuca, Matthew Abel, Ronald Lacher, Mark Manno and Kevin Cummings, and Pittsburgh police officers Kevin Walter and Paul Abel, brother of Matthew Abel.
Attorney J. Karrington Lewis, counsel for the administrator of the estate, Dixon's son, Charles A. Dixon Jr., 18, said the family was "satisfied" with the settlement. The beneficiaries of the estate include Dixon, a student at Penn State University, and his half-brother, DeMarkus Dixon, 2, of Pittsburgh,
"We were collecting against the insurance policy that covers the officers," Lewis said, "and that is how we collected the $850,000."
"Justice is more important than money," Lewis said yesterday, repeating the family's wish that criminal charges be pursued in the case.
After an open inquest in February and March, Wecht ruled in July that Dixon's death was a homicide and police should be charged, but he didn't determine which officers should be tried.
The coroner urged District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala Jr. to find out which officers piled onto Dixon and to prosecute them.
Mike Manko, spokesman for Zappala, said the matter is still under review.
"I can't understand the delay," Lewis said. "If a civil case can be put together and be ready to go to trial in nine months, I can't understand with all the help and manpower that criminal cases have to move them along, nothing has been done yet."
