ACLU and family of Anton Black reveal new evidence in case against Maryland Office of the Medical Examiner

MARYLAND-  Coalition for Justice for Anton Black, joined by the Maryland ACLU are updating their lawsuit to reflect new evidence uncovered during the discovery phase of the civil suit the group has brought against the Maryland Office of the Medical Examiner.

They say the new evidence show proof the office failed to perform its duty, including evidence that medical examiners made knowingly false allegations to shield police and government agencies from responsibility in the killing of the 19-year-old.
Including the office claiming Anton was high on drugs even when medical evidence proved from autopsies from the office showed otherwise.

“the state knew that Anton was not on drugs and had toxicology reports that concluded he was not on drugs yet included information in its official report,” said Maryland ACLU Senior Staff Attorney Sonia Kumar.

Kumar tells 47ABC the evidence also shows Black’s case does not stand alone, and instead falls into a pattern where the office routinely failed to rule interactions with police as homicides where car crashes or use of a firearm were not present, despite other means of force being used against the subjects.

“The medical examiner’s office has almost never concluded that deaths in police custody are homicides we found 57 cases 88 percent of which were not ruled homicides, and there was a racial component in those numbers as well with black victims being more likely to be not ruled [homicides],” Kumar said.

Kumar says that information as part of the civil suit helps them establish a pattern in the department, which they say strengthens their case, with the ultimate goal to give additional relief to the family of Anton Black and create reforms in the office to prevent future abuses. 

“We thought the information was so significant and compelling that it was important to update the filing to update the court of this factual information,” Kumar said.

That factual information includes a video where police officers can be heard starting to come up with a story of Anton being high on drugs laced with “spice” and exhibiting “superhuman” strength. That information was repeated in official reports written by the Medical Examiner’s Office and was given to State’s Attorney when they declined to convene a grand jury.