Originally Posted - July 29, 2006

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It's been 29 years.

Michael Niesen's brother and his mother know the truth about his death.

Now they want justice. They want the persons responsible for his death held accountable.

But they're battling falsified and manipulated reports they say have been perpetuated and restated over the past 29 years to cover up what they say was the murder of the teen by police, those reports being the original police report, the initial autopsy report and three reports prepared by the Pinellas County state attorney's office.

They say that every time they present new evidence and ask to have the case reopened, their efforts are stymied.

The official report of the Clearwater Police Department from 1977 says that 18-year-old Michael Niesen was ejected from his vehicle, was found unconscious at the accident scene on Memorial Causeway on July 13, 1977 at 9:50 p.m. by the first responding officer, Mark Cairns. Cairns' report says Niesen never regained consciousness and died of head injuries sustained in the accident.

Niesen's family say the teenager was killed as the result of a beating administered by police in retaliation after Clearwater police officer Ronald Mahoney was fatally injured in the accident after Mahoney initially stopped Niesen to issue him a traffic citation for careless driving and then learned through a computer check of the pickup truck's license plate that the 1968 pickup with Georgia plates had been reported stolen.

After receiving the stolen report, as Mahoney approached the truck, Niesen sped off and Mahoney jumped on the tailgate. The pickup began fishtailing and Niesen lost control, with the truck traveling on two wheels and then rolling over about 1000 feet down the road, throwing Mahoney from the truck bed. Mahoney was struck by the truck and died approximately an hour and a half later. Niesen died at 3:05 p.m. the following day of serious head injuries, injuries which paramedics, eyewitnesses to the accident and the second officer at the scene say that he did not sustain as a result of the accident.

The Neisen family says the Clearwater Police Department, the Pinellas state attorney's office, the Pinellas County Medical Examiner's office and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement have engaged in a cover up of the real cause of Michael's death.

Not only do paramedics at the scene that fateful night and numerous eyewitnesses seem to support the family's charges, but so does a third autopsy completed in 2001 and renewed statements about the case made by a forensic pathologist last month.

But regardless of the new evidence found including alleged wrongdoing by one of the medical examiners involved in the Niesen case, state and county law enforcement agencies are refusing to reopen the investigation. While Gov. Jeb Bush has been criticized for performing his statutory and constitutional duties in the Terri Schiavo case, his legal counsel has been less than helpful and forthcoming in the Niesen case, according to the Niesens.

Three weeks ago, John Niesen, Michael's brother, says associate general counsel Victoria Brennan of the Governor's office told him that his problem was that he refused to accept the prior determinations and that there would be no new investigation, telling him that it just "ain't gonna happen" and he could go "piss up a rope".

However, not all roads end in Tallahassee. Jeffrey Del Fuoco, a former assistant U.S. attorney, now in private practice, has entered the case to represent the Niesen family and a U.S. Department of Justice official has confirmed that the agency is now reviewing the Niesen case.

For 29 years, Michael's brother 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. Journalists who have tried to conduct investigative reports about the deaths of the police officer and teen have been stonewalled and denigrated, including a former executive producer for ABC Action News who sued the Clearwater Police Department which settled the claim out of court.

But John, a retired private investigator, has doggedly sought justice for his brother and closure for his family. Sworn statements from four paramedics at the scene, the second police officer who arrived within minutes of the accident and at least nine eyewitnesses say that Michael Niesen was not ejected from the truck, did not have serious head injuries when they first saw him and evaluated him. They say that the teen was conscious and sitting at the time they initially saw him. Nevertheless, the state attorney's office under the direction of Bernie McCabe, has refused to reopen an investigation into the matter, saying in essence that the paramedics, a police officer and all the eyewitnesses are mistaken, that only the first responding police officer, Mark Cairns, a good friend of Officer Mahoney, is telling the truth, an officer who witnesses said had to be restrained at the scene and removed by other officers along with a woman who witnesses heard screaming for officers to stop beating Michael because "you're going to kill him".

The heart of the controversy centers around the initial reports of the Clearwater Police Department and state attorney's office, hurriedly marking the case closed with virtually no interviews or written statements of eyewitnesses or paramedics with a conclusion that Michael Niesen died as the result of injuries suffered in the accident. Although additional cosmetic claims of investigations were performed by the Pinellas County state attorney's office in 1991, 1995 and 2001, although the SAO investigators cite statements they claim were obtained by interviewing various individuals, those individuals state no representative of any law enforcement agency ever contacted them, indicating that the statements attributed to them by McCabe's office are allegedly falsified.

Sgt. Paul Meissner was one of the Clearwater officers in charge the night of the fatal accident, the officer who Inv. Charles Butler says "advised" him of the facts of the case. Paul Meissner Jr. is now the division chief for the Clearwater office of the Pinellas County state attorney's office, the agency which has steadfastly refused to reopen an investigation into Niesen's death, even in the wake of substantial evidence which conflicts with the original autopsy and police reports.

According to reports, representatives of the state attorney's office were on the scene of the accident. At the time, James Russell was the state attorney and Bernie McCabe was an assistant in the office.

From 1972 through September 1992, McCabe held the positions of chief assistant state attorney, executive assistant state attorney and division director in St. Petersburg and in Pasco County.

Butler's report says he was called at home about 10:30 p.m. on July 13, 1977, about 40 minutes after the accident occurred. According to his report, he never went to the scene but instead went to the police department, arriving about 11 p.m. where he says he was told of the incident by Meissner. Although Butler's report is the official finding and with a determination that the case was closed by exceptional clearance due to the death of the suspect, it is based on hearsay of other officers without supporting written sworn statements of witnesses or paramedics, after another detective "filled him in". The conclusions of his alleged investigation are seemingly not based on evidence but rather on his subjective opinions, hearsay reports and his "feelings". Butler's report also fails to mention the mysterious breakdown of the C&R Ambulance in front of the Fort Harrison Hotel, three blocks from the hospital, the ambulance which was transporting Michael Niesen.

Butler's report makes no mention of the transfer of Niesen to a rescue vehicle of the Clearwater Fire Department. Although the hospital was only minutes and several blocks away, a significant lapse of time occurred before the fire vehicle arrived at the hospital. C&R personnel say after their vehicle was repaired, they proceeded to the hospital to file their run report, a report which has disappeared as have the reports from the run sheets from the fire department despite it being a double fatal accident.

While the police report says that Niesen would have been charged with the murder of a police officer had he survived and others say he was handcuffed and in custody at the scene, there is no indication in any of the reports that a police officer accompanied him in the ambulance and both the ambulance driver and attendant say that no police officer rode in the ambulance with him.

In fact, both the driver and attendant state that Niesen did not have head wounds when they first came in contact with him at the scene and paramedic Denise Kingsley says that she was "totally surprised" on her return to work several days after the accident to learn that Niesen had died. She said that when he "left my ambulance to be transported by the Clearwater Fire Department, he was in serious condition but I didn't think it was fatal". She says that when she first saw him at the accident scene he was conscious, sitting up and appeared alert and not in need of immediate medical attention. She says that when she first saw Michael at the accident scene he "was sitting and/or standing. When leaving, he was lying on a stretcher".

Steve Lovengouth, driver of the C&R ambulance, says that they were "kept away" from Niesen by law enforcement. He says paramedics were told not to approach Niesen and that it appeared that his condition "deteriorated considerably from the time we arrived until we departed". He too says Niesen was conscious at the time they arrived and did not have the serious head wounds from which he died.

Cairns, the first police officer on the scene, who says he witnessed the accident and who claimed that Niesen was unconscious and never regained consciousness, later left the Clearwater Police Department and became a firefighter. He retired from the Clearwater Fire Department, the department which transported Niesen to Morton Plant, with full pension in 2005.

Although The North Country Gazette filed a public information request with the Clearwater Police Department in an attempt to obtain copies of all police reports for the accident, including that of Cairns and Butler, the department refused to provide them. The request, submitted July 19 was acknowledged by Heather Petsch, senior staff assistant to Clearwater Police Chief Sid Klein, who said that the request had been forwarded to the records department. No response was received from that department. However, copies of the reports were obtained from other sources.

In addition to Cairns, at the heart of the controversy is Bay County medical examiner Dr. Charles Siebert (left), currently at the center of an alleged falsified autopsy report in the matter of Martin Lee Anderson (right), a 14-year-old who died at the Bay County boot camp in January during an altercation with guards. Siebert, formerly a medical examiner with the Pinellas County medical examiner's office and involved in the Niesen case, ruled that Anderson died from the sickle-cell trait, a blood disorder but a second autopsy performed following an exhumation indicated that the teen had died from suffocation at the hands of the officers.

Siebert reviewed the Niesen case in 2001 at the request of Bernie McCabe and the state attorney's office on direction from the Governor's office. Niesen says that Siebert quashed the state investigation of his brother's death, supporting the finding of the first autopsy that contained an admitted error.

Siebert based his opinion on the original autopsy report which attributed the severe head injuries, one a four inch opening and the other a five inch open wound, to surgery. However, the hospital report indicates that Niesen had the head wounds upon his arrival at the Morton Plant emergency room and never underwent surgery. Although the Pinellas County medical examiner's office later claimed that the statement contained in the original autopsy report is a typographical error, both former District Six medical examiner Joan Wood and current ME Jon Thogmartin refused to correct the report.

Following the findings of the second autopsy in the Anderson death, Florida attorney general Charlie Crist called for an investigation of Siebert, looking for "fundamental flaws" in other autopsies conducted by Siebert, including the review of Michael Niesen's autopsy.

In a letter to the Florida Medical Examiners Commission several months ago, Crist asked the state agency, headed by Dr. Stephen Nelson, to decide whether Siebert violated state law while performing at least three autopsies "and any other flawed autopsies of which we might not be aware". Nelson has said the commission would look into the cases but to date, the commission has issued no report.

Niesen has filed a complaint against Siebert with the Florida Department of Health and along with others, wants Siebert removed as a medical examiner.

Siebert has his roots in Pinellas County where he served in the District 6 Medical Examiner's office with Thogmartin until 2003 when he received the Bay County assignment. Thogmartin was handpicked by McCabe following the resignation of former Pinellas County ME Joan Wood, forced out of office by McCabe as the result of the 1995 death of Lisa McPherson, a Scientologist whose last known address was coincidentally the Fort Harrison Hotel, a Church of Scientology property. She died of severe dehydration in December 1995 after 17 days in the custody of Scientologists after suffering minor injuries in an automobile accident. When McPherson became critical, instead of transporting her to the nearby Morton Plant hospital, Scientologists took her to a hospital 24 miles away where she was pronounced dead on arrival.

The McPherson matter was also investigated by the Clearwater Police Department. Initially, felony charges were brought against the church but McCabe then dropped them, refusing to prosecute, after Wood changed her autopsy findings and McCabe said that she could not be counted on to confidently testify, even though the criminal charges were abuse of a disabled person and practicing medicine without a license. Wood's resignation was forced by McCabe.

Siebert's former boss, Thogmartin, is a member of the commission which operates under the direction of the FDLE. Other commission members include District Six public defender Bob Dillinger and a representative of the Attorney General's office.

The Anderson death would not be part of the commission inquiry regarding Siebert as Crist said doing so could impede an "ongoing criminal investigation".

Niesen and two other families came forward and joined with the Anderson family at a press conference after it was learned Siebert's autopsy determination in the Anderson case was wrong. Benjamin Crump, the Tallahassee attorney who represents Anderson's parents, said that the families had come as victims of Siebert's autopsy findings. "They believe Dr. Siebert always covers up for law enforcement. The first time is an instance, the second time is an occurrence. But the third time is a pattern".

The legal basis for the Medical Examiners Commission is found in Section 406.02 of Florida Statutes. Its members are appointed by the governor and includes two physicians who are active medical examiners, one member who is a licensed funeral director, one state attorney, one public defender, one sheriff, one county commissioner, the attorney general and the deputy assistant Secretary for Health.

The Medical Examiners Commission is created within the Department of Law Enforcement, therefore is under the direct control of the FDLE commissioner. The Department of Law Enforcement by law also employs the staff for the medical examiners commission.
http://www.flsenate.gov/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0406/ch0406.htm

Another common denominator in the Anderson and Niesen cases is Guy Tunnell, then commissioner of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement who had established the Bay County boot camp when he was Bay County sheriff. Tunnell had tried to prevent the release of the videotape which showed the boot camp guards beating Anderson. He resigned earlier this year as a result of his role in the controversy. While the Department of Justice is currently reviewing the Niesen case, a federal probe into Anderson's death has been initiated by the U.S. Attorney's office in Tallahassee and DOJ's Civil Rights Division.
http://www.northcountrygazette.org/articles/052806AnatomyCoverup.html

Tunnell was forced to resign in April by Gov. Bush after he made racist remarks about activist Jesse Jackson and U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill. Unbelievably, after Tunnell's ouster from the FDLE, he was then appointed by Bay County state attorney Steve Meadows to be the coordinator of cold case squads in the 14th judicial circuit's six counties which includes Bay County.

In August, 2003, a group of 20 Bay County citizens had tried to block Tunnell's appointment by Bush as FDLE commissioner, saying that based on findings in federal court, there was evidence that indicated that Tunnell was not qualified for the job and that Judge Steven Minkle had identified substantial evidence of racism on the part of Tunnell involving an African-American business in Panama City.
http://www.myflorida.com/myflorida/cabinet/agenda03/0826/trans.html

FDLE spokesman Tom Berlinger has said that the FDLE had done follow up work in the Niesen case in 2005 and January 2006 when Tunnell was still in command.

Berlinger claimed that "a review of John Niesen's recent complaint revealed no new evidence that would warrant a reopening of the investigation by the FDLE", He claimed that a special agent wrote that no prosecutors are willing to take this case because of a "lack of evidence and the expiration of the statute of limitations".

However, according to a taped statement given to John Niesen by Dallas Johnson, that special agent who was an investigator of the Office of Inspector General, a division of the FDLE, Johnson was stymied in his attempt to reopen the Niesen investigation after John Niesen produced new evidence from a forensic pathologist. Johnson says that former FDLE director Guy Tunnell and two high ranking FDLE supervisors, chief inspector Rick Loeber and Michael O'Connell, told him as recently as last fall that Michael Niesen had been murdered but that there would be no prosecution and the matter was closed. After allegedly being ordered to close his investigation, Johnson submitted his resignation in disgust and retired.

There is no statute of limitations for murder.

A third medical examiner, not affiliated with Florida law enforcement, performed an autopsy following exhumation in 2001 and stated in writing that "Niesen received his head injuries some time after the motor vehicle accident and while in the custody of local authorities".

Dr. Gerald Gowitt, a forensic pathologist of Forensic Medicine Associates Inc. of Decatur, Georgia, says that the head injuries sustained by Michael Niesen likely did not occur as a result of the accident.

When Richard Yerby, an investigator with the state attorney's office, recounted his conversation with Gowitt last month about Gowitt's previous determination, Yerby misrepresented Gowitt's findings, precipitating Gowitt to state in writing in late June that Yerby had misrepresented his statement and that the head injuries suffered by Michael Niesen were "consistent with having been inflicted with almost any blunt object including a nightstick or flashlight".
PDF Of June 28, 2006 letter

In his report, Gowitt had said that "It certainly appears to the undersigned that the injuries causing Mr. Niesen's death are inconsistent with descriptions of him at the scene. He probably was not ejected from the truck when it rolled over. It is extremely difficult to imagine that he was talking, conscious and able to sit under a tree with the amount of head injury described in the initial autopsy report and to some degree, found at the third autopsy. More likely, Niesen would have been rendered unconscious and would have been severely bleeding from the left side of his scalp had these injuries occurred because of the motor vehicle accident. Since these scalp lacerations would have freely bled, it is inconsistent that so many observers did not notice any blood on his person as he was sitting under the tree Furthermore, at least one witness indicates that he was surrounded by police officers with raised nightsticks suggesting that the scalp lacerations and some of the head injuries may have occurred after the accident".

"Based on the witnesses' descriptions of Mr. Niesen, the first and third autopsy findings and my training, education and experience, it would be highly unlikely that Mr. Niesen sustained the injuries described in the first autopsy from the motor vehicle accident. More likely than not these wounds resulted from some altercation after the initial rollover of the pickup truck. If these injuries did not occur at some later point in time, I would be forced to ignore the statements of several eyewitnesses that failed to describe serious trauma or bleeding with respect to Mr. Niesen and found him in the motor vehicle after the accident".   7-29-06

NEXT:    A comparison of the police and prosecutor's reports with those of paramedics and eyewitnesses, including witnesses who were willing to take a polygraph test and witnesses who police refused to interview, untruthfully telling them that Niesen was dead at the scene. Part II will be available only to subscribers. To subscribe, see our Home Page.

© 2006 North Country Gazette