GIST: "The 11 News I-Team reveals new questions about the death of a man in Baltimore County police custody almost 20 years ago.
It is among the cases that could now be audited as part of a review of autopsies, signed by former Maryland medical examiner Dr. David Fowler.
That audit comes after Fowler's controversial expert testimony in the George Floyd case.
Chereka Rainey is the only child of Albert Covington III, the only parent, she remembers. "He was affectionately known as 'Al,'" Rainey said. "He was a single parent, so, he raised me on his own."
In December of 2001, Rainey got a call to go to Northwest Hospital. Her father had been taken there after an encounter with Baltimore County police officers. He did not survive.
"They never told me what happened to him. They just told me that they responded to a call and that he was deceased. But they never told me anything," she said.
Ronnie Moore remembers that night when Covington came to the door in his Woodlawn neighborhood.
"This whole ordeal was about three-hour ordeal," Moore said. "An erratic guy came knocking on my door in the middle of the night saying he needed help."
A few minutes later Covington broke into the house next door, Moore said. No one was home. Police were called. "And the next thing I know, he breaks through the front door and then he just goes through the whole house breaking windows," Moore said.
Moore estimates as many as six police officers responded to the call.
A police report the I-Team obtained said Covington "...did not comply with orders to show his hands," and "...continued to fight violently. It took several officers to subdue him." The report went on: "Once subdued. Mr. Covington became passive and appeared to lose consciousness. Officers checked his pulse and found none." No other details about the restraint were included.
"And the ambulance came, and they pronounced him dead at the hospital," Moore said.
The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner issued an autopsy report on Covington's death.
The autopsy report showed multiple injuries. Contusions and hemorrhage to the scalp, neck and torso. Several areas of hemorrhage were noted to the muscles of the chest, and both sides of the back.
According to the autopsy, the cause of death: cocaine-induced excited delirium during restraint.
It was signed by three pathologists, including Fowler.
Fowler's work is now under scrutiny after his testimony in defense of former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin -- then accused in the murder of George Floyd.
Fowler claimed Floyd died of a heart problem, refuting other experts who said Floyd died as result of the compression on his neck.
In the Covington case, forensic pathologist Dr. Cyril Wecht questioned Fowler's finding of cocaine induced excited delirium.
The 11 News I-Team asked Wecht to review the autopsy the report.
"To get these kinds of extensive hemorrhages in the deep muscles, soft tissues of a person, that shows you there had to have been significant weight placed on the victim in those areas over a sustained period of time. This is not just some little, as I say altercation, skirmish, in which they were wrestling and subduing this man," Wecht said.
In Wecht's opinion, Covington died because his positioning during restraint prevented him from being able to breathe.
"I would sign this case out as compression, positional asphyxiation, and I would call it homicide," Wecht said.
"At the very least to be most benign, the manner of death as undetermined to be followed up on by further investigation," Wecht said.
The manner of Covington's death was ruled undetermined in the autopsy signed by Fowler.
Rainey filed lawsuits in state and federal court in 2003 and 2004 against Baltimore County, the police officers involved and others. Each was dismissed. Records show the federal case was dismissed when the lawyer handling the case failed to respond to a court order.
An audit of death in custody cases handled by Maryland’s medical examiner during fowler's tenure is about to begin.
Might that cause the death of Covington to be reopened?
A spokesperson for the Baltimore County Police Department told the I-Team: "Until a complete audit is performed of Dr. David Fowler's autopsy findings, it's simply too soon to provide a definitive answer due to the nature of these investigations. Any decision to reopen a case would first be dependent on the cause and manner of death determined by the Office of the Medical Examiner. Additionally, input from the State's Attorney's Office would need to be considered."
Rainey is still waiting for answers she's never received. She has responded to the attorney general's office, which is organizing the audit.
"It was disheartening because my father was gentle. if he asked for help, he needed help. he wasn’t a violent person," Rainey said. "I just want closure. I just want to know what happened and I can pretty much accept everything. But if, if it was at the hands of the officers, just please admit that it happened. But just not to know is the hardest things, even so many years later. I just need closure."
Fowler is now in private business. he told the I-Team he does not recall the Covington case, and has no access to that file."
https://www.wbaltv.com/article/new-questions-about-police-in-custody-death-of-albert-
