Timeline: Events in the Jonny Gammage case
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Oct. 12: Jonny Gammage, 31, a black businessman and cousin of then-Steeler lineman Ray Seals, dies after a seven-minute fight with five white police officers during a traffic stop. An autopsy determines Gammage suffocated after pressure was applied to his neck and chest.
Nov. 3: After a three-day open inquest, a coroner's jury recommends that homicide charges be filed against Brentwood Lt. Milton Mulholland, Baldwin Borough Patrolman Michael G. Albert, Brentwood Patrolman John Vojtas and Sgt. Keith Henderson and Patrolman Shawn Patterson, both of the Whitehall force.
Nov. 27: District Attorney Bob Colville announces he will file charges against only Mullholland, Albert and Vojtas. No charges are filed against Henderson or Patterson.
Oct. 15: Mulholland and Albert go on trial at the Allegheny County Courthouse. Vojtas is to be tried separately. All face a charge of involuntary manslaughter.
Oct. 18: Judge David R. Cashman grants a mistrial a day after Dr. Cyril H. Wecht on the witness stand suggests that Mulholland take the stand and explain his actions.
Nov. 4: In his opening statements in Vojtas' trial, defense attorney Alexander H. Lindsay says an adrenaline rush, exhaustion or cardiac arrest could have caused Gammage's death.
Nov. 13: An all-white jury finds Vojtas not guilty of involuntary manslaughter.
April 22: Cashman bars the Allegheny County District Attorney's Office from retrying Mulholland and Albert on involuntary manslaughter charges in Gammage's death.
Oct. 10: The state Supreme Court unanimously reverses Cashman's ruling and clears the way for Mulholland and Albert to be retried. The justices remove Cashman as the trial judge and designate James E. Rowley of Beaver County, retired president judge of state Superior Court, to preside in the case.
First Published October 12, 2005 12:00 am
