Minyard leaves cause of death in Glover case as ‘undetermined’
7th April 2014 · 0 Comments
Orleans Parish Coroner Dr. Frank Minyard has decided to leave Henry Glover’s death as “undetermined.” After reaching out to the State Attorney General’s Office and even the FBI for additional evidence, Minyard believes there’s nowhere else to go with the case, FOX8 News reported.
Minyard promised to give the case another look this past December after members of the Glover family and a group of about 200 civil rights leaders, community activists and supporters stormed the Orleans Parish Coroner;s Office and demanded that Minyard reopen the case and investigate Henry Gkiver’s death less than a week after Hurricane Katrina. The family sought to have the cause of death changed from “undetermined” to “homicide: so that Orleans Parish District Attorney Leon Cannizarro could file state charges against former NOPD officer David Warren.
Warren was convicted in 2010 for his role in the death of Henry Glover but was granted a new trial and acquitted late last year.
Glover, 31, was shot by Warren in the parking lot of a West Bank strip mall on September 2, 2005. A good Samaritan, William Tanner, gave Glover a ride to an Algiers school being used by police as a temporary station so that he could receive medical assistance. Glover’s charred remains were later found in Tanner’s burned car which had been abandoned on a Mississippi River levee. Glover’s skull was initially photographed in the burned car but was later removed by someone and has not been recovered.
Dr. Minyard told the Glover family and others in December that it would complete its investigation into Glover’s death in two weeks but later said the Feds would not allow him to review transcripts from the first trial in 2010. A week after agreeing to reopen the case, Minyard locked the Glover family and several reporters who had come by to pick up copies of documents promised to them by Minyard at the first meeting out of the Coroner’s Office and had NOPD officers posted outside of the building. That same week, Minyard announced that he would withdraw from the coroner;s election set for Feb. 1.
Minyard reached out to Louisiana AG William “Buddy” Caldwell about three months ago telling him of the difficulty he had encountered in getting the Feds to cooperate with his investigation and asking the AG how to proceed with his probe in a letter dated March 25, Louisiana Attorney General William “Buddy” Caldwell will not get involved. He said the Orleans Parish District Attorney should be the one to guide the coroner on how to proceed in determining a cause of death.
On top of that, Minyard said in a statement the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the FBI declined to present his office with additional evidence to re-evaluate the case.
Back in December, after a second trial, former NOPD officer David Warren was acquitted of federal civil rights charges for shooting Glover in the days after Hurricane Katrina.
Glover’s death is still considered ‘unclassified’. His family has demanded it be ruled a homicide since Warren admitted to shooting Glover, but said he did it in self defense.
“This matter has been going on since 2005 and we are in 2014,” NAACP New Orleans Branch president Danatus King told FOX 8 News Monday. “ If there’s anything that should be noted, it is that we are not going to let this thing die. We are not going to let it be forgotten.”
“Minyard’s motives are very transparent,” W.C. Johnson, a member of Community United for Change and host of the local cable-access show “OurStory,” told The Louisiana Weekly Wednesday. “Minyard has been a major reason why Blacks in New Orleans have had a terrible time getting resolution to police terror. Once the coroner refuses to do his or her job, everything else is an uphill battle. Blacks in New Orleans have allowed the racist criminal justice system to get away with murder. Four years ago, New Orleans’ Black community was given its last reprieve from police terror. The federal government was the last hope for New Orleans to return to a civil society. But with the neglect of the federal government to take a firm hold of the situation, New Orleans’ Black community is left with street justice as its only recourse.
“Minyard has had a long career and has proven repeatedly that he can do whatever he wants without any fear of reprisals,” Johnson said.
Johnson said part of the blame lies with the U.S. Attorney’s Office and its lack of commitment to protecting the constitutional rights of Black New Orleanians.
“It is a sad day in hell when a Black U.S. attorney stops his driver on the way to the airport to make a photo-op cameo appearance at a funeral for a Black youth to tell the family they can be somebody,” Johnson told The Weekly. “Jesse Jackson’s ‘I Am Somebody’ speech went out when hip hop came in. Kenneth Polite could do a lot to address New Orleans youth violence, but community organizations have been shut out of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. CUC tried several times to secure an appointment with Kenneth Polite and could not get as much as a phone call from the U.S. Attorney’s Office. As hard as it is to get the media to accentuate the positive of Black youth in New Orleans, Polite and his office could walk on water with all of the power his office holds.
“Instead of telling the Black youth that they can be somebody, Kenneth should be telling the Black youth that he will clean up New Orleans for the youth to have a better environment, conducive for healthy living,” Johnson added. “With that he should have announced his office was indicting Jim Letten for malfeasance in office and all of Jim Letten’s staff who broke the law. If you want a good youth population, you must provide a solid adult population.”
FOX 8 News said it has reached out to the D.A.’s office for comment, but have not heard back from a spokesperson.
For the time being, Henry Glover’s cause of death will remain “undetermined.”
Minyard told FOX 8 News that if new evidence is presented to his office, he will evaluate it.
“It is most unfortunate to talk with family members who have been denied the love of their loved ones due to the white supremacist society Blacks are forced to live with every day,” Johnson told The Louisiana Weekly. “I know the Grimes, the Glovers, the Goodmans and the survivors and their families of the victims of the Danziger Bridge Massacre. Cancer, as bad as the disease is and can be, has nothing on the pain and debilitating conditions of being robbed by the police and told there is nothing that can be done.
“With the failure of the federal system, these families are left without a pot or a window,” Johnson added. “All that is left is a return to the 60’s where Black folks took to the streets. As bad as it sounds, Black folks have been left to their own devices.”
“This is a fight and a battle that we can’t afford to walk away from,” the Rev. Raymond Brown, a community activist and president of National Actional Now, told The Louisiana Weekly. “We can’t allow ourselves to be discouraged or intimidated by the powerful forces we are up against. We have no choice but to stand up for justice and fight like our lives depend on it — because they do.
“This isn’t just about justice for Henry Glover, Ronald Madison, James Brissette, Adolph Grimes III, Wendell Allen or Justin Sipp,” Brown added. “It’s about justice for all of us.”
Additional reporting by Louisiana Weekly editor Edmund W. Lewis.
This article originally published in the April 7, 2014 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
