Sue Hartigan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: Cochran meets with lawyers to discuss turnpike shooting case Associated Press, 05/05/98 NEW YORK (AP) - Two members of O.J. Simpson's ``Dream Team'' said Tuesday they will represent three of the four men involved in a police shooting last month on the New Jersey Turnpike. Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. and Barry Scheck met for more than three hours with Staten Island lawyer David G. Ironman at Cochran's offices in lower Manhattan to review what type of lawsuit they might file and what their investigators have learned. Two white state troopers, James Kenna, 27, and John Hogan, 28, opened fire on a van carrying three black men and a Hispanic man during a traffic stop April 23 in Mercer County, wounding three of the occupants. Two remain hospitalized. State police said the driver tried to back over Hogan as he approached the van, prompting Kenna to open fire. The two officers fired 11 shots into the van. ``These four young men were not doing anything,'' Cochran said outside his office. ``This shouldn't happen under normal circumstances and we've got to find out why it did.'' Evidence in the case will be reviewed by a state grand jury. The state Attorney General's Office is overseeing the investigation and has appointed a special prosecutor to handle the case. The occupants of the van maintain the patrol car was ahead of them on the highway and then pulled them over after they passed by, Ironman said. He has suggested the troopers stopped the van because its occupants fit a race-based ``profile'' of likely lawbreakers. State police deny making race-based traffic stops, but would not comment on the shooting victim's claims, citing the pending investigation. Cochran said he's not sure if it was a profile stop, but said, ``It has all the ingredients.'' While on the shoulder of the roadway, the driver of the van, Keshon L. Moore, 22, of New York, had trouble moving the rented van's gearshift into park, causing the van to drift backward, Ironman said. Minimal damage sustained by the van and the patrol car is evidence that the van was moving at a relatively slow speed and did not accelerate into the cruiser as police have said, he said. Examination of the placement of the bullet holes in the van show the two troopers were on the sides of the van, not directly in its path, he said. Ironman said the troopers had no reason to fear for their lives and therefore were not justified in opening fire. Cochran, Scheck and Ironman are representing Danny Reyes, 20, of Queens, N.Y., the most seriously injured passenger in the van; Leroy G. Grant, 23, of New York; and Moore, who received only a minor knee injury. Reyes and Grant remain in stable condition at Cooper Hospital-University Medical Center in Camden. The lawyers have been in contact with the fourth man, Rayshawn S. Brown, 20, of New York, but he had not yet signed on, Ironman said. -- Two rules in life: 1. Don't tell people everything you know. 2. Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues
