Federal prosecutors exploring civil rights case against Ray Tensing

Federal officials have started investigating whether they should bring civil rights charges against the former University of Cincinnati cop who shot and killed motorist Sam DuBose, U.S. Attorney Ben Glassman said Tuesday.

The announcement came within hours after Hamilton County Prosecutor Joe Deters declined to try Ray Tensing a third time on murder charges after two previous juries wound up deadlocked on the issue.

"My office will now undertake to acquire and review the evidence from the state court trials in order to assess whether there are possible federal civil rights offenses warranting investigation and potential prosecution," Glassman's statement said.

He gave no timeline for a possible decision.

If Tensing were charged with and found guilty of violating DuBose's civil rights, he could be jailed for any period of time up to life. And because the action resulted in the death of another, a judge could also order the death penalty – although that has never been done.

The law was actually first conceived in the Civil War reconstruction in the 1870s as a way to prosecute criminal activity when local authorities either wouldn't or couldn't convict someone committing crimes against black people.

DuBose's family plans to send a letter to Glassman, according to family lawyer Al Gerhardstein.

More:No third trial for ex-UC cop Ray Tensing in shooting death of unarmed motorist Sam DuBose

"If there was ever a case where the federal law was needed to be enforced, it was this one," Gerhardstein said. "They tried so hard to use the state process to bring justice, to no avail. This is an important issue for the feds to take up so justice can be done."

Gerhardstein said that the legal bar isn't any lower or higher for such charges as compared with state murder charges, just different.

"You have to prove different things, but we obviously think that the proof is there ... and they can take a lot more stuff into evidence that was barred in the murder trial that gets at frame of mind," he said.

The Justice Department has secured convictions against police officers in other high-profile cases.

This includes the recent conviction of a South Carolina officer who shot an unarmed man in the back in 2015. The former officer, Michael Slager, pleaded guilty to the charges, but his sentence has not yet been determined. He could face up to life in prison and up to a $250,000 fine.

More:John Cranley on decision not to retry Ray Tensing: 'It is not over.'

Perhaps the most well-known case was for the two of the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King in Los Angeles in 1991. A state court acquitted four officers of assault charges, but a federal jury convicted two of them on the civil rights charges. The judge sentenced those two officers to 2½ years each, saying he felt sympathy for them and that King had prompted their actions with his own violent reactions.

Federal officials in 2006 declined to pursue charges against former Cincinnati Police Officer Stephen Roach, who shot and killed Timothy Thomas in 2001.

Several recent media investigations have shown that the Justice Department has a spotty record on how many times they seek charges. The Chicago Tribune reported last year that none of 702 different police shootings resulted in federal charges.

DOJ officials in Washington did not return messages seeking comment Tuesday.

But in March, recently appointed Republican Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced he would be ordering that such investigations into officers and police departments be scaled back.

It's unclear whether that will impact the decision in the DuBose case.

Glassman is a holdover from the Obama administration. He was not asked to resign earlier this year, as were all Obama appointees to U.S. attorney posts, because he was not a direct presidential appointee.

That's because he was made an "acting" U.S. attorney by previous Attorney General Loretta Lynch and then made permanent by the U.S. District Court Judges for the southern Ohio district.

Yet the Trump administration could replace Glassman at any time. Both U.S. senators from Ohio – Democrat Sherrod Brown and Republican Rob Portman – have recommended former Hamilton County Commissioner Greg Hartmann for the job. 

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