Originally Posted - July 16, 2006

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It was 29 years ago this month that 18-year-old Michael Niesen and Clearwater Police officer Ronald Mahoney died in Pinellas County following an automobile accident.

Did Michael Niesen die as the initial autopsy report says of severe head injuries suffered in a motor vehicle accident or as the result of a beating by officers of the Clearwater Police Department in retaliation for the death of their fellow officer as a third autopsy report completed after an exhumation suggests, saying that "Niesen received his head injuries some time after the motor vehicle accident and while in the custody of local authorities"?

Why does the initial autopsy report attribute Niesen's head injuries to surgery when Niesen never underwent surgery and a third medical examiner says that the injuries are consistent with having been inflicted with almost any blunt object including a nightstick or flashlight?

Why do the paramedics at the scene, eyewitnesses and police officers say that Michael Niesen was not ejected from the truck, was alert and talking at the scene and when they first saw him and did not have any serious visible wounds but yet the official police report says he was unconscious and never regained consciousness?

Did the Sixth Circuit State Attorney's office of Bernie McCabe and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement under former commissioner Guy Tunnell cover up the murder of the teenager and intentionally falsify reports along with the Clearwater Police Department?

Why did former FDLE director Guy Tunnell and two other high ranking FDLE supervisors allegedly admit to and investigator of the Office of Inspector General that Niesen had been murdered but that there would be no prosecution?

Can paramedics and eyewitnesses present at the fatal scene all be mistaken at what they saw the night of the accident as McCabe's office says?

Did former Pinellas County medical examiner Charles Siebert, now at the center of controversy in the Bay County boot camp death of 14-year-old Martin Lee Anderson, have a role in the death of Michael Niesen, reviewing the case for McCabe and the State Attorney's office in 2001?

Is Gov. Jeb Bush and his office involved in the cover up and why did Bush's associate general counsel Victoria Brennan tell John Niesen two weeks ago to "go piss up a rope", that his request for a reopening of his brother's case "ain't gonna happen"?

Is there a pattern of cover-ups in Pinellas County involving the state attorney's office of Bernie McCabe, the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's office and the FDLE which also administers the Florida Medical Examiner Commission?

For 29 years, Michael's brother, John and his mother Mary Riley have sought the truth about the death of their brother and son. They have been stonewalled, threatened, lied to, called delusional and conspiracy nuts. But John, a retired private investigator, has doggedly sought justice for his brother and has found eyewitnesses to the accident who dispute under sworn statement the official police report as well as a police officers and paramedics who also refute the official findings. They say the police and prosecutors engaged in a cover up of the real cause of Michael's death.

While the state attorney's office claims in their reports of 1991, 1995 and 2001 that they interviewed these witnesses and paramedics, they say that no one from any law enforcement agency ever interviewed them, indicating that McCabe's office has allegedly falsified reports in an attempt to cover up a murder.

Beginning this week, The North Country Gazette will present an in-depth review of the Niesen case "Ticket To Murder", chronicling John Niesen's search for the truth about his brother's death and what could be his final attempt with new evidence to reopen an independent and impartial investigation into his brother's death. The U.S. Department of Justice is now reviewing the matter and a former assistant U.S. Attorney coming forward to represent the Niesen family, saying its not too late for prosecutions.

Read the exclusive investigative report about the Michael Niesen case, see the photos, review the five allegedly false reports and statements of eyewitnesses and medical examiners that contradict the official reports this week here at The North Country Gazette www.northcountrygazette.org
7-16-06

© 2006 North Country Gazette