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Michael Niesen---Ticket To Murder - Part I
By
June Maxam
All Rights Reserved
July 29, 2006
It's been 29
years.
Michael Niesen's brother and his mother know the truth about his
death.
Now they want justice. They want the persons responsible for his
death held accountable.
But they're battling falsified and manipulated reports they say have
been perpetuated and restated over the past 29 years to cover up
what they say was the murder of the teen by police, those reports
being the original police report, the initial autopsy report and
three reports prepared by the Pinellas County state attorney's
office.
They say that every time they present new evidence and ask to have
the case reopened, their efforts are stymied.
 The
official report of the Clearwater Police Department from 1977 says
that 18-year-old Michael Niesen was ejected from his vehicle,
was found unconscious at the accident scene on Memorial Causeway on
July 13, 1977 at 9:50 p.m. by the first responding officer, Mark
Cairns. Cairns' report says Niesen never regained consciousness and
died of head injuries sustained in the accident.
 Niesen's
family say the teenager was killed as the result of a beating
administered by police in retaliation after Clearwater police
officer Ronald Mahoney was fatally injured in the accident
after Mahoney initially stopped Niesen to issue him a traffic
citation for careless driving and then learned through a computer
check of the pickup truck's license plate that the 1968 pickup with
Georgia plates had been reported stolen.
After receiving the stolen report, as Mahoney approached the truck,
Niesen sped off and Mahoney jumped on the tailgate. The pickup began
fishtailing and Niesen lost control, with the truck traveling on two
wheels and then rolling over about 1000 feet down the road, throwing
Mahoney from the truck bed. Mahoney was struck by the truck and died
approximately an hour and a half later. Niesen died at 3:05 p.m. the
following day of serious head injuries, injuries which paramedics,
eyewitnesses to the accident and the second officer at the scene say
that he did not sustain as a result of the accident.
The Neisen family says the Clearwater Police Department, the
Pinellas state attorney's office, the Pinellas County Medical
Examiner's office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have
engaged in a cover up of the real cause of Michael's death.
Not only do paramedics at the scene that fateful night and numerous
eyewitnesses seem to support the family's charges, but so does a
third autopsy completed in 2001 and renewed statements about the
case made by a forensic pathologist last month.
But regardless of the new evidence found including alleged
wrongdoing by one of the medical examiners involved in the Niesen
case, state and county law enforcement agencies are refusing to
reopen the investigation. While Gov. Jeb Bush has been criticized
for performing his statutory and constitutional duties in the Terri
Schiavo case, his legal counsel has been less than helpful and
forthcoming in the Niesen case, according to the Niesens.
Three weeks ago, John Niesen, Michael's brother, says associate
general counsel Victoria Brennan of the Governor's office told him
that his problem was that he refused to accept the prior
determinations and that there would be no new investigation, telling
him that it just "ain't gonna happen" and he could go "piss up a
rope".
However, not all roads end in Tallahassee. Jeffrey Del Fuoco, a
former assistant U.S. attorney, now in private practice, has entered
the case to represent the Niesen family and a U.S. Department of
Justice official has confirmed that the agency is now reviewing the
Niesen case.
For 29 years, Michael's brother and his mother Mary Riley have
sought the truth about the death of their brother and son.
They have been stonewalled, threatened, lied to, called delusional
and conspiracy nuts. Journalists who have tried to conduct
investigative reports about the deaths of the police officer and
teen have been stonewalled and denigrated, including a former
executive producer for ABC Action News who sued the Clearwater
Police Department which settled the claim out of court.
But John, a retired private investigator, has doggedly sought
justice for his brother and closure for his family. Sworn statements
from four paramedics at the scene, the second police officer who
arrived within minutes of the accident and at least nine
eyewitnesses say that Michael Niesen was not ejected
 from
the truck, did not have serious head injuries when they first saw
him and evaluated him. They say that the teen was conscious and
sitting at the time they initially saw him. Nevertheless, the state
attorney's office under the direction of Bernie McCabe, has
refused to reopen an investigation into the matter, saying in
essence that the paramedics, a police officer and all the
eyewitnesses are mistaken, that only the first responding police
officer, Mark Cairns, a good friend of Officer Mahoney, is telling
the truth, an officer who witnesses said had to be restrained at the
scene and removed by other officers along with a woman who witnesses
heard screaming for officers to stop beating Michael because "you're
going to kill him".
The heart of the controversy centers around the initial reports of
the Clearwater Police Department and state attorney's office,
hurriedly marking the case closed with virtually no interviews or
written statements of eyewitnesses or paramedics with a conclusion
that Michael Niesen died as the result of injuries suffered in the
accident. Although additional cosmetic claims of investigations were
performed by the Pinellas County state attorney's office in 1991,
1995 and 2001, although the SAO investigators cite statements they
claim were obtained by interviewing various individuals, those
individuals state no representative of any law enforcement agency
ever contacted them, indicating that the statements attributed to
them by McCabe's office are allegedly falsified.
Sgt. Paul Meissner was one of the Clearwater officers in charge the
night of the fatal accident, the officer who Inv. Charles Butler
says "advised" him of the facts of the case. Paul Meissner Jr. is
now the division chief for the Clearwater office of the Pinellas
County state attorney's office, the agency which has steadfastly
refused to reopen an investigation into Niesen's death, even in the
wake of substantial evidence which conflicts with the original
autopsy and police reports.
According to reports, representatives of the state attorney's office
were on the scene of the accident. At the time, James Russell was
the state attorney and Bernie McCabe was an assistant in the office.
From 1972 through September 1992, McCabe held the positions of chief
assistant state attorney, executive assistant state attorney and
division director in St. Petersburg and in Pasco County.
Butler's report says he was called at home about 10:30 p.m. on July
13, 1977, about 40 minutes after the accident occurred. According to
his report, he never went to the scene but instead went to the
police department, arriving about 11 p.m. where he says he was told
of the incident by Meissner. Although Butler's report is the
official finding and with a determination that the case was closed
by exceptional clearance due to the death of the suspect, it is
based on hearsay of other officers without supporting written sworn
statements of witnesses or paramedics, after another detective
"filled him in". The conclusions of his alleged investigation are
seemingly not based on evidence but rather on his subjective
opinions, hearsay reports and his "feelings". Butler's report also
fails to mention the mysterious breakdown of the C&R Ambulance in
front of the Fort Harrison Hotel, three blocks from the hospital,
the ambulance which was transporting Michael Niesen.
Butler's report makes no mention of the transfer of Niesen to a
rescue vehicle of the Clearwater Fire Department. Although the
hospital was only minutes and several blocks away, a significant
lapse of time occurred before the fire vehicle arrived at the
hospital. C&R personnel say after their vehicle was repaired, they
proceeded to the hospital to file their run report, a report which
has disappeared as have the reports from the run sheets from the
fire department despite it being a double fatal accident.
While the police report says that Niesen would have been charged
with the murder of a police officer had he survived and others say
he was handcuffed and in custody at the scene, there is no
indication in any of the reports that a police officer accompanied
him in the ambulance and both the ambulance driver and attendant say
that no police officer rode in the ambulance with him.
In fact, both the driver and attendant state that Niesen did not
have head wounds when they first came in contact with him at the
scene and paramedic Denise Kingsley says that she was "totally
surprised" on her return to work several days after the accident to
learn that Niesen had died. She said that when he "left my ambulance
to be transported by the Clearwater Fire Department, he was in
serious condition but I didn't think it was fatal". She says that
when she first saw him at the accident scene he was conscious,
sitting up and appeared alert and not in need of immediate medical
attention. She says that when she first saw Michael at the accident
scene he "was sitting and/or standing. When leaving, he was lying on
a stretcher".
Steve Lovengouth, driver of the C&R ambulance, says that they were
"kept away" from Niesen by law enforcement. He says paramedics were
told not to approach Niesen and that it appeared that his condition
"deteriorated considerably from the time we arrived until we
departed". He too says Niesen was conscious at the time they arrived
and did not have the serious head wounds from which he died.
Cairns, the first police officer on the scene, who says he witnessed
the accident and who claimed that Niesen was unconscious and never
regained consciousness, later left the Clearwater Police Department
and became a firefighter. He retired from the Clearwater Fire
Department, the department which transported Niesen to Morton Plant,
with full pension in 2005.
Although The North Country Gazette filed a public information
request with the Clearwater Police Department in an attempt to
obtain copies of all police reports for the accident, including that
of Cairns and Butler, the department refused to provide them. The
request, submitted July 19 was acknowledged by Heather Petsch,
senior staff assistant to Clearwater Police Chief Sid Klein, who
said that the request had been forwarded to the records department.
No response was received from that department. However, copies of
the reports were obtained from other sources.
In addition to Cairns, at the heart of the controversy is Bay County
medical examiner
 Dr.
Charles Siebert (left), currently at the center of an alleged
falsified autopsy report in the matter of Martin Lee Anderson (right),
a 14-year-old who died at the Bay County boot camp in January during
an altercation with guards. Siebert, formerly a medical examiner
with the Pinellas County medical examiner's office and involved in
the Niesen case, ruled that Anderson died from the sickle-cell
trait, a blood disorder but a second autopsy performed following an
exhumation indicated that the teen had died from suffocation at the
hands of the officers.
Siebert reviewed the Niesen case in 2001 at the request of Bernie
McCabe and the state attorney's office on direction from the
Governor's office. Niesen says that Siebert quashed the state
investigation of his brother's death, supporting the finding of the
first autopsy that contained an admitted error.
Siebert
 based
his opinion on the original autopsy report which attributed the
severe head injuries, one a four inch opening and the other a five
inch open wound, to surgery. However, the hospital report indicates
that Niesen had the head wounds upon his arrival at the Morton Plant
emergency room and never underwent surgery. Although the Pinellas
County medical examiner's office later claimed that the statement
contained in the original autopsy report is a typographical error,
both former District Six medical examiner Joan Wood and current ME
Jon Thogmartin refused to correct the report.
Following the findings of the second autopsy in the Anderson death,
Florida attorney general Charlie Crist called for an investigation
of Siebert, looking for "fundamental flaws" in other autopsies
conducted by Siebert, including the review of Michael Niesen's
autopsy.
In a letter to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission several
months ago, Crist asked the state agency, headed by Dr. Stephen
Nelson, to decide whether Siebert violated state law while
performing at least three autopsies "and any other flawed autopsies
of which we might not be aware". Nelson has said the commission
would look into the cases but to date, the commission has issued no
report.
Niesen has filed a complaint against Siebert with the Florida
Department of Health and along with others, wants Siebert removed as
a medical examiner.
Siebert has his roots in Pinellas County where he served in the
District 6 Medical Examiner's office with Thogmartin until 2003 when
he received the Bay County assignment. Thogmartin was handpicked by
McCabe following the resignation of former Pinellas County ME Joan
Wood, forced out of office by McCabe as the result of the 1995 death
of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist whose last known address was
coincidentally the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Church of Scientology
property. She died of severe dehydration in December 1995 after 17
days in the custody of Scientologists after suffering minor injuries
in an automobile accident. When McPherson became critical, instead
of transporting her to the nearby Morton Plant hospital,
Scientologists took her to a hospital 24 miles away where she was
pronounced dead on arrival.
The McPherson matter was also investigated by the Clearwater Police
Department. Initially, felony charges were brought against the
church but McCabe then dropped them, refusing to prosecute, after
Wood changed her autopsy findings and McCabe said that she could not
be counted on to confidently testify, even though the criminal
charges were abuse of a disabled person and practicing medicine
without a license. Wood's resignation was forced by McCabe.
Siebert's former boss, Thogmartin, is a member of the commission
which operates under the direction of the FDLE. Other commission
members include District Six public defender Bob Dillinger and a
representative of the Attorney General's office.
The Anderson death would not be part of the commission inquiry
regarding Siebert as Crist said doing so could impede an "ongoing
criminal investigation".
Niesen and two other families came forward and joined with the
Anderson family at a press conference after it was learned Siebert's
autopsy determination in the Anderson case was wrong. Benjamin
Crump, the Tallahassee attorney who represents Anderson's parents,
said that the families had come as victims of Siebert's autopsy
findings. "They believe Dr. Siebert always covers up for law
enforcement. The first time is an instance, the second time is an
occurrence. But the third time is a pattern".
The legal basis for the Medical Examiners Commission is found in
Section 406.02 of Florida Statutes. Its members are appointed by the
governor and includes two physicians who are active medical
examiners, one member who is a licensed funeral director, one state
attorney, one public defender, one sheriff, one county commissioner,
the attorney general and the deputy assistant Secretary for Health.
The Medical Examiners Commission is created within the Department of
Law Enforcement, therefore is under the direct control of the FDLE
commissioner. The Department of Law Enforcement by law also employs
the staff for the medical examiners commission.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0406/ch0406.htm
Another common denominator in the Anderson and Niesen cases is
Guy Tunnell,
 then
commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who had
established the Bay County boot camp when he was Bay County sheriff.
Tunnell had tried to prevent the release of the videotape which
showed the boot camp guards beating Anderson. He resigned earlier
this year as a result of his role in the controversy. While the
Department of Justice is currently reviewing the Niesen case, a
federal probe into Anderson's death has been initiated by the U.S.
Attorney's office in Tallahassee and DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052806AnatomyCoverup.html
Tunnell was forced to resign in April by Gov. Bush after he made
racist remarks about activist Jesse Jackson and U.S. Sen. Barack
Obama, D-Ill. Unbelievably, after Tunnell's ouster from the FDLE, he
was then appointed by Bay County state attorney Steve Meadows to be
the coordinator of cold case squads in the 14th judicial circuit's
six counties which includes Bay County.
In August, 2003, a group of 20 Bay County citizens had tried to
block Tunnell's appointment by Bush as FDLE commissioner, saying
that based on findings in federal court, there was evidence that
indicated that Tunnell was not qualified for the job and that Judge
Steven Minkle had identified substantial evidence of racism on the
part of Tunnell involving an African-American business in Panama
City.
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/cabinet/agenda03/0826/trans.html
FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger has said that the FDLE had done follow
up work in the Niesen case in 2005 and January 2006 when Tunnell was
still in command.
Berlinger claimed that "a review of John Niesen's recent complaint
revealed no new evidence that would warrant a reopening of the
investigation by the FDLE", He claimed that a special agent wrote
that no prosecutors are willing to take this case because of a "lack
of evidence and the expiration of the statute of limitations".
However, according to a taped statement given to John Niesen by
Dallas Johnson, that special agent who was an investigator of the
Office of Inspector General, a division of the FDLE, Johnson was
stymied in his attempt to reopen the Niesen investigation after John
Niesen produced new evidence from a forensic pathologist. Johnson
says that former FDLE director Guy Tunnell and two high ranking FDLE
supervisors, chief inspector Rick Loeber and Michael O'Connell, told
him as recently as last fall that Michael Niesen had been murdered
but that there would be no prosecution and the matter was closed.
After allegedly being ordered to close his investigation, Johnson
submitted his resignation in disgust and retired.
There is no statute of limitations for murder.
A third medical examiner, not affiliated with Florida law
enforcement, performed an autopsy following exhumation in 2001 and
stated in writing that "Niesen received his head injuries some time
after the motor vehicle accident and while in the custody of local
authorities".
 Dr.
Gerald Gowitt, a forensic pathologist of Forensic Medicine
Associates Inc. of Decatur, Georgia, says that the head injuries
sustained by Michael Niesen likely did not occur as a result of the
accident.
When Richard Yerby, an investigator with the state attorney's
office, recounted his conversation with Gowitt last month about
Gowitt's previous determination, Yerby misrepresented Gowitt's
findings, precipitating Gowitt to state in writing in late June that
Yerby had misrepresented his statement and that the head injuries
suffered by Michael Niesen were "consistent with having been
inflicted with almost any blunt object including a nightstick or
flashlight".
PDF Of June 28, 2006 letter
In his report, Gowitt had said that "It certainly appears to the
undersigned that the injuries causing Mr. Niesen's death are
inconsistent with descriptions of him at the scene. He probably was
not ejected from the truck when it rolled over. It is extremely
difficult to imagine that he was talking, conscious and able to sit
under a tree with the amount of head injury described in the initial
autopsy report and to some degree, found at the third autopsy. More
likely, Niesen would have been rendered unconscious and would have
been severely bleeding from the left side of his scalp had these
injuries occurred because of the motor vehicle accident. Since these
scalp lacerations would have freely bled, it is inconsistent that so
many observers did not notice any blood on his person as he was
sitting under the tree Furthermore, at least one witness indicates
that he was surrounded by police officers with raised nightsticks
suggesting that the scalp lacerations and some of the head injuries
may have occurred after the accident".
"Based on the witnesses' descriptions of Mr. Niesen, the first and
third autopsy findings and my training, education and experience, it
would be highly unlikely that Mr. Niesen sustained the injuries
described in the first autopsy from the motor vehicle accident. More
likely than not these wounds resulted from some altercation after
the initial rollover of the pickup truck. If these injuries did not
occur at some later point in time, I would be forced to ignore the
statements of several eyewitnesses that failed to describe serious
trauma or bleeding with respect to Mr. Niesen and found him in the
motor vehicle after the accident". 7-29-06
NEXT: A comparison of the police and
prosecutor's reports with those of paramedics and eyewitnesses,
including witnesses who were willing to take a polygraph test and
witnesses who police refused to interview, untruthfully telling them
that Niesen was dead at the scene. Part II will be available only to
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© 2006 North
Country Gazette
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/072906NiesenMurder1.html
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