SPRINGFIELD — A key prosecution witness in the long-running Nathan Bill’s bar brawl prosecution has died of COVID-19, an attorney for the family confirmed.
Jackie Ligon, 37, of Springfield, died at home on Tuesday. He was among the alleged victims in the case, sparked by a bar fight in 2015 that pitted four Black civilians against a group of off-duty police officers after one of the civilians allegedly whistled at a female cop at the popular East Forest Park neighborhood tavern.
A disagreement inside the bar led to a fight in a nearby parking lot after the pub closed. Ligon, his brother, Jozelle Ligon, cousin H. Paul Cumby and friend Michael Cintron were beaten by a group of off-duty officers, and their colleagues later staged a cover-up, according to prosecutors in state Attorney General Maura Healey’s office.
Defense attorneys for the officers and two of the bar’s managers have countered that the civilians were the antagonists and that the state has overreached in its prosecution.
Joe Smith III, an attorney for Jackie Ligon, confirmed the circumstances of his client’s death. Smith said he hopes it has no impact on the trajectory of the case, which has moved along glacially since grand jury indictments were handed up in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has contributed to delays for trials previously set for 2020.
“Justice needs to prevail now in his memory,” Smith said on Thursday.
More than a dozen current and former police officers were originally charged in the case — with groups broadly split between “assault” and “cover-up” defendants. That number has been whittled down slightly as defense attorneys have won motions to dismiss on various grounds.
A lawyer for one of the lead defendants in the case, officer Daniel Billingsley, filed a motion in Hampden Superior Court to exclude any evidence generated from Jackie Ligon, citing his death. Ligon identified Billingsley and other officers involved in the fight.
“Daniel Billingsley moves to exclude all evidence relative to any testimonial or identification procedures relied upon or referencing Jackie Ligon by the Commonwealth. Mr. Billingsley further moves to exclude all evidence pertaining to Jackie Ligon at trial,” defense lawyer Shawn Allyn wrote in a motion filed Wednesday.
During a recent court hearing, assistant attorney general Stephen Carley last month informed a judge the civilians may refuse to testify without grants of immunity protecting them from self-incrimination.
The civilians received a collective $885,000 civil settlement over the matter in 2018.
The case has become an albatross for a police department already struggling with race relations, an unflattering U.S. Department of Justice report on excessive force and other image problems during the Black Lives Matter era.
City officials have argued the Nathan Bill’s incident has been unfairly portrayed as racially motivated, since the officers allegedly involved are of several races and ethnicities.
The trials have been staggered in the interest of “judicial efficiency,” with one group slated to stand trial on Nov. 1 and another on Dec. 1. Two defendants are scheduled for jury-waived trials in Worcester Superior Court potentially sooner than that.
Contacted for comment about the potential impact of Ligon’s death on their case, a spokeswoman for Healey’s office said little.
“We express our deepest condolences to the Ligon family for their loss,” the spokeswoman said, declining further comment.
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September 24, 2021 at 04:00PM
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Key witness in long-running Springfield police brawl case dies of COVID - MassLive.com
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