Dec 30, 2014 2 min read

PITTSBURGH – Lawyers for a black man left paralyzed after he was shot by a white Pittsburgh officer during a traffic stop want a judge to determine whether Allegheny County prosecutors have been fair in delaying a decision whether to retry the man on some remaining criminal counts.

Attorneys for Leon Ford, 21, of Shaler Township, said in the motion there is no good reason for the district attorney to delay a decision on the retrial.

Common Pleas Judge Lester Nauhaus has yet to schedule a hearing on the motion filed Monday. The district attorney’s office isn’t commenting.

Ford was acquitted in September of aggravated assault, for allegedly endangering officers who pulled him over in November 2013. But a jury couldn’t decide five other counts: resisting arrest, escape and three counts of reckless endangerment, which police filed when Ford’s car drove away with Officer David Derbish in it. Derbish shot Ford five times, causing him to crash seconds later.

Police and prosecutors contend Ford was trying to flee, but Ford testified the still-running car got knocked into gear as police tried to pull him from it after a contentious 15-minute traffic stop.

Ford and his attorneys contend he was wrongly pulled over – purportedly for running a stop sign – because the first officer who saw Ford’s car, Michael Kosko, mistakenly thought Ford was a wanted gang member with a similar name, Lamont Ford. Leon Ford contends he politely provided several pieces of identification to the contrary, but Kosko would not accept he wasn’t Lamont Ford and began cursing before Kosko and two others tried to pull him from the car.

Ford’s attorneys claim he needs follow-up medical care for his wounds, and risks complications or even death by delaying those procedures until he sees whether prosecutors will retry him.

District Attorney Stephen Zappala Jr. said he has a year to make that decision, but Ford’s attorneys say such decisions are normally made much faster than that. They want a judge to hear evidence and arguments about whether Zappala’s office is delaying the decision in bad faith.

Ford, who has a federal civil rights lawsuit pending against the city and the three white officers involved, has been a focus of recent demonstrations in the city following the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Mo.