Historic trial to begin over man who died in Omaha police custody

[Omaha Steve]

Former Omaha Police Officer Scotty Payne is charged with second-degree assault and weapon use in the death of Zachary Bearheels. Another former officer, Ryan McClarty, is awaiting trial on a charge of third-degree assault.

CHRIS MACHIAN/THE WORLD-HERALD


By Todd Cooper / World-Herald staff writer 16 hrs ago

It’s a trial 18 months in the making — and it promises to be historic.

This week and next, former Omaha Police Officer Scotty Payne will be on trial in connection with the June 2017 death of Zachary Bearheels, a mentally ill Oklahoma man who died after a struggle with police officers in which he was shocked 12 times with a Taser and punched 13 times.

Payne, 29, is one of the first Omaha police officers to face criminal charges out of a grand jury investigation into a death. Two Omaha police officers involved in deadly 1997 and 2000 shootings initially faced charges, but those were later dismissed. Only about a third of police officers charged in on-duty deaths from 2005 to 2017 were convicted, though some cases are still pending, Bowling Green State University professor Philip Stinson has told CNN.

That said, Payne’s trial comes as police officers are facing increasing scrutiny over on-duty deaths. In Texas, a white, suburban Dallas police officer was convicted this summer of murder after shooting and killing a black teenager in a car that was driving away from him.

FULL story: https://www.omaha.com/news/courts/historic-trial-to-begin-over-man-who-died-in-omaha/article_4f22f78f-f2b6-54e2-9ead-84d79e99755f.html