Five years after a Wharton School student was strangled by the man dubbed the Center City rapist, a lawsuit filed by her parents against the City of Philadelphia is now set to go to trial.
U.S. District Judge Norma L. Shapiro, in an opinion issued Tuesday, rejected a move by the city to have the case tossed out ahead of trial. With that, she disposed of the last of the pretrial motions that have tied up the lawsuit for years.
The parents of Shannon Schieber contend that the city set the stage for her 1998 murder. They say the former practice of the police rape squad of downgrading complaints from victims of sexual assault had obscured the escalating crime wave of Troy Graves, who killed Schieber after attacking four other women in 1997.
For years, the unit had a secret policy of classifying about a third of its caseload as something other than crimes, meaning the cases often received little or no investigation. It treated Graves' first two victims in this fashion.
Shannon Schieber's father, Sylvester Schieber, said he and his wife, Vicki, were ready to go to trial.
The Schiebers, of Chevy Chase, Md., contend that two police officers would have saved their daughter had they been more aware of Graves' crimes.
On the night of her murder, the officers went to her apartment in response to a 911 call from a neighbor who heard someone screaming. They left after knocking on her door and getting no response.
She was found dead the next day.
The Schiebers say the pair should have knocked down the door. But in February, an appeals court, considering the issue ahead of trial, dismissed them as defendants in the civil suit, saying their actions were acceptable, given what they knew at the time.
