Probe Into Maryland Custody Death Slows

MICHELE NORRIS, host:

From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.

ROBERT SIEGEL, host:

And I'm Robert Siegel. In Maryland, hundreds of people attended funeral services today for Police Corporal Richard Findlay. Findlay was killed last week when the driver of a stolen truck ran him over. Now state police and the FBI are investigating the death of that man, the one who allegedly killed Findlay. Less than 36 hours after his arrest, he was strangled to death in a county jail cell. NPR's Libby Lewis reports on the latest in that investigation.

LIBBY LEWIS: Last night, before Rich Findlay's funeral, police and firefighters streamed in for a viewing and service at a Prince George's County funeral home in his honor. The overflowed crowd listened over speakers outside. Al Schwartz, who's chief of the Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department where Findlay served for 20 years...

Chief AL SCHWARTZ (Beltsville Volunteer Fire Department): You know, whatever shift he was working, you'd better hoped you worked the same shift. Because if not, he was going to wake you up and talk all night long telling stories and joking. Rich was a handful. That's for sure.

LEWIS: Last Friday, Richard Findlay was tracking a stolen truck when the driver ran him down trying to escape. Officers found 19-year-old Ronnie White hiding in an apartment nearby and arrested him for Findlay's murder. They took him to the Prince George's County Jail. Sunday morning, a jail officer found White slumped in his maximum security cell. The state medical examiner concluded he was strangled to death. Investigators have focused on the correctional officers who had access to White's cell. Some of the officers on duty then have refused to talk to investigators. Yesterday the county's public safety director urged their cooperation. So far, Prince George's County officials have taken no administrative action against the officers who've refused to talk.

Glenn Ivey is Prince George's County state's attorney. He described the investigation so far as a mixed bag.

Mr. GLENN IVEY (Prince George's County): You know, at this point I think they're making some headway, but there are some - there's some resistance to cooperation in some quarters there, and we just have to find ways to work around that.

LEWIS: Ivey said he believes Ronnie White killed Richard Findlay, but no one, he says, had the right to murder Ronnie White.

Mr. IVEY: We can't have vigilante justice on the streets or in the jail.

LEWIS: While state police conduct a criminal investigation into White's murder, the FBI is conducting a civil rights probe into his death. Richard Findlay was white. Ronnie White was black. By the time he turned 19, Ronnie White already had stacked up a significant criminal record - drugs and weapons and charges of grand larceny, among others. Bobby Henry is a lawyer for White's family. He refused to talk about Ronnie White's background. To do that, he argued, can lead some to rationalize White's murder.

Mr. BOBBY HENRY (Attorney): This case is ultimately going to be about the faith and the confidence that the community can place in its law enforcement officials. That's it.

LEWIS: Henry says he never got to meet Richard Findlay, but he says he knows Findlay was a good and giving man. He says if Ronnie White was murdered in the name of Richard Findlay...

Mr. HENRY: What does that do?

LEWIS: That question will have to wait, as Rich Findlay's family and friends celebrate his life and mourn his death. Kathy Cokely(ph) of Beltsville put it this way at yesterday's service...

Ms. KATHY COKELY: I'm just focusing on, you know, his wife and children and helping, down the road, raising funds for that, and for his police and firefighter brothers and sisters who are in pain. You know, that's all I care about at this point in time.

LEWIS: Beltsville's fire chaplain, Harry Hetz, told the mourners that sometimes life doesn't make sense.

Chaplain HARRY HETZ (Chaplain): The past few days have given heavy hearts to all of us. Let us not remember these days to memorialize Rich Findlay.

LEWIS: Instead, he said, remember all the days that came before. Libby Lewis, NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.