Second in a series
Re “Original Lawyer in Armory Murder Case Sues Victim’s Brother”
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Mr. Bennett
Robert H. McNeill, prominent downtown attorney suing a murder victim’s brother for $200,000 in a case of defamation and libel, would not have been the first choice to represent his family, says Gerald Bennett.
Days after JoAnn Crystal Harris, 29 and pregnant, was killed by her married National Guard veteran lover, Aug. 24, 2007, at the Guard Armory, Culver City, Ms. Harris’s mother, the late Martha Lou Harris, sought out Mr. McNeill to file a wrongful death suit against the state and the Guard.
[img]1967|right|Mr. McNeill||no_popup[/img]Mr. McNeill was selected, according to Mr. Bennett, because “he had a relationship with my aunt, who is deceased now. My mother and aunt had a relationship with (Mr. McNeill’s eponymous firm) Ivie, McNeill & Wyatt, dating back 15 or 20 years.
“Personally, I don’t like black attorneys,” said Mr. Bennett, who is black. “They tend to not hold as much prestige in a courtroom, not as much as a Jewish attorney or a Caucasian attorney would.
“They tend to want to go in there and make deals because they know if they get in a situation and it is an all white jury, they figure they are not going to be able to win, no way.
“They go in to be dealmakers, and they do a bad job of that.
“To me, I was skeptical because (Mr. McNeill) lied to us for three years,” Mr. Bennett said.
“He told us he was going to sue (the city of) Culver City and the Culver City Police Dept. because they had forewarnings (from a National Guard associate of convicted killer Sgt. Scott Ansman early in August 2007). They could have prevented it, and they didn’t.
“He did not sue nobody.”
(To be continued)
