Michael Rosfeld Still Facing Civil Lawsuits After Acquittal In Shooting Death Of Antwon Rose
PITTSBURGH (KDKA) -- The criminal case in the death of Antwon Rose may be settled, but former East Pittsburgh Police Officer Michael Rosfeld still faces two civil lawsuits.
Fred Rabner is the attorney representing Rose's family in the civil cases.
"The criminal matter, they took a great blow by having Rosfeld be found not guilty. They weren't surprised by the verdict, but they aren't happy with the verdict," Rabner said.
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Rabner filed a federal lawsuit against Rosfeld, as well as a state case.
"The case against Michael Rosfeld in East Pittsburgh for the civil rights violations is in federal court. However, the case against Pitt is not based on civil rights allegations. It's general negligence and therefore that one is in state court," Rabner said.
The state case argues the University of Pittsburgh should have fired Rosfeld for incidents while he was employed by Pitt instead of letting him resign, which allowed him find another job with another department. Because it is a civil and not a criminal matter, Rabner says the rules will be different next time.
"I can explore a lot of areas to get a more three-dimensional picture of what occurred on that day than would be able to be produced in a criminal matter," Rabner said.
The Rose family says they were devastated by the verdict on Friday. They are hopeful that Rabner's civil suit will have a much different outcome.
"There's different burdens of proof in each case. There are different issues that are to be decided in each case. The civil matter is far different than the criminal matter," Rabner said.
