Trial in teen's suicide targets 3 police officers

Friend takes stand in Minersville civil rights trial

BY RORY SCHULER, Staff Writer (Minersville Republican-Herald)

rschuler@republicanherald.com

ALLENTOWN - After drinking at a friend's house, Matthew D. M. Adamick

knew he and Marcus A. Wayman were in trouble.

"He asked me if I was gay," Adamick said. "I was just, like, What?'"

In what prosecutors say may set a precedent for police behavior across

the nation, a civil trial began in Federal District Court here Monday where

jurors will decide whether Minersville police violated the civil rights

of Wayman, who committed suicide six hours after the accusation.

According to Adamick's testimony, Minersville Police Officer J. Scott

Willinsky insisted the two boys, each of whom had girlfriends, were

about to engage in a tryst while parked near the Beer City beverage distribution

wholesaler in the borough four years ago.

The suit claims Willinsky's threats to expose Wayman, 18, as a

homosexual - Monday's testimony argued he wasn't - led to his suicide after being

released from police custody.

At no time was the possibility of an alleged homosexual encounter

officially mentioned in police reports, and the prosecution argued Monday where

they were or not is irrelevant to the issues before the court.

Jurors heard from the first five witnesses Monday in a civil case filed by

Madonna L. Sterling, Mahanoy City, (Wayman's mother) against

Minersville Borough and three of its police officers - Willinsky, his father,

former Chief Joseph H. Willinsky, and Thomas Hoban.

The trial continued this morning under Judge Arnold C. Rapoport, who

told the jury he expected the trial to last three days.

Sterling is seeking an as-yet unspecified amount of damages. An economist

will be called by the prosecution to estimate the amount Wayman's

estate would have been worth if he had not killed himself four years ago.

The prosecution's case was bolstered when the Third U.S. Circuit Court

of Appeals in Philadelphia ruled last year that a person's constitutional

right to privacy also includes protection of their sexual orientation.

On the night of April 17, 1997, the two Minersville teen-agers saw the

cops coming, so they ducked. Booze on their breath and condoms in

one of the boys' pockets led Willinsky to conclude the two young men –

one a Minersville football player - were homosexuals.

Adamick testified that Willinsky said to him, "Your buddy said you're gay."

Wayman took the accusation seriously. Six hours later, he fired a .44 Magnum

Blackhawk, single action handgun backwards, toward his own face. He missed

with the first shot, but repositioned his grip and fired again.

The morning after, Wayman's friend and fellow accused Adamick, now 22

and living in Saint Clair - originally from Minersville and 17 at the time

of incident - arrived at school to hear his friend was dead.

Both were set to graduate in less than a month. "He said he was going to kill himself,"

Adamick said from the witness stand. "He never said anything like that before."

Adamick swore under oath that Wayman died because his civil rights had

been violated by an officer of the Minersville Police Department. His

mother, Wayman's parents, and a police administration expert delivered parallel

testimonies, that not only was neither teenager gay, but that both received

threats and moral coercion.

The prosecution presented an enlarged copy of Wayman's suicide note to

the jury. "I'm sorry grandpa, I found my future," Wayman wrote. "I won't let

everyone's life be ruined by mine."

While on patrol during mid-evening to mid-night shift, Willinsky spotted a

white Jeep, with its lights out, stopped on the property of the Beer City

beverage wholesaler in Minersville. Wayman, the driver of the Jeep, moved to

Minersville six months earlier. Having consumed considerably less alcohol than his

friend, he exited the car while Adamick ducked down and hoped for the best.

Fearing an underage drinking citation, Adamick looked up, but could

only see red and blue lights reflecting off the jeep's interior. He decided it

was fairly certain they were caught - caught with alcohol on their breath.

This is where a factual dispute exists between the prosecution and the

defense. Willinsky and Hoban have sworn in a deposition that the Jeep

was parked between the building and a trailer. Adamick testified that the

young men were parked along the road.

After a brief interview, fellow officer and fellow defendant Thomas

Hoban was called to the scene, and approached Adamick. As Willinsky

questioned one at a time, Hoban stood guard. The car and both teens were searched.

On the way to the police station, Willinsky repeatedly referred to the boys'

actions as "gay" and "queer," and quoted a Bible passage, which Adamick

said "went in one ear and out the other. I didn't want to hear it."Willinsky denied

in the deposition that the comments were made. After the citations were filled

out and Adamick's mother Joanne arrived, Willinsky asked the Adamicks to

enter a back room, and insisted Matthew tell his mother what he was doing.

Then, Willinsky told Wayman that he was going to tell his grandfather, Clarence

A. Sterling, that he was gay, if he didn't do it himself.

That's when Wayman told his friend that he wanted to die.

At the time, Wayman, his step-father Mark L. Sterling, and his younger

brother and sister, all lived with Clarence (Mark's father), while Madonna

finished up employment as an elected union official in their original home

of Granger, Texas, - where Mark spent time as the town's only police

officer.

The Sterlings both testified that the now deceased grandfather was a

deeply moral man, who would have been furious, and would have made Wayman -

and possibly the whole family - move out of his home, if told he was gay.

Mark Sterling was the last to take the stand Monday.

He and Wayman's mother have since moved away from Minersville - where

Mark Sterling was born and raised. Now they live in Mahanoy City.

Sterling was followed by former New York City police officer and Temple

University criminal justice professor James J. Fyfe's expert testimony.

Fyfe has testified as an expert witness in 150-200 court cases, but

said this case stands out. "I've been in other cases where the police have screwed up,

where they've given away information," Fyfe said during a courtroom recess. "But

never one like this - it's bizarre. Cops learn all sorts of things about people,

and it's none of their business."

Defense attorney Robert G. Hanna, Jr., Hershey, has called on Fyfe in past

cases of his own. After prosecuting attorney, David Rudovsky, asked Fyfe to render an

expert opinion in the matter, he said, "Police are not supposed to be the

monitors of anyone's morality. Their job is to enforce the law."In Fyfe's opinion, the

officers, and their acting chief - fellow defendant and Willinsky's father, former

Chief Joseph H. Willinsky – are guilty for not having had the proper amount of

training in how to deal with and release private information, like sexual orientation.