Philadelphia Daily News
Wednesday, February 18, 2004

2 cops: We followed regs in Schieber case

By JIM NOLAN
nolanj@phillynews.com

Car 919 and car 912 rolled up to 251 S. 23rd St. at about the same time - 2:12 a.m. on May 7, 1998 - in response to a report of a woman screaming in an apartment.

Police Officers Steven Woods and Raymond Scherff walked around the building to the Manning Street entrance and met Parm Greeley, the man who had placed the call at the door.

Greeley led them upstairs to the door of the second-floor apartment across from his where he thought he had heard the screams.

Woods rapped on the door with his blackjack. There was no response. He knocked a couple of more times. Still nothing.

The door was locked. There were no signs of forced entry, either at the door or outside, where the sliding glass door to the balcony appeared to be closed and the blinds were drawn.

"As far as we could tell there was no person screaming," said Woods.

What cops didn't know at the time was that the resident inside, 23-year-old Shannon Schieber, could not scream. By the time police knocked, experts believe, she was likely unconscious and dying, or perhaps already dead.

"I asked Mr. Greeley if he was certain if the screams he heard had come from the apartment," Woods testified during the fourth day of the $3.8 million federal civil-rights lawsuit filed against the city by Schieber's parents, Vicki and Sylvester Schieber.

"I don't believe he was sure."

So after checking outside and getting no response at the door, Woods and Scherff left the scene. The call, like similar reports cops receive every night, was termed "unfounded."

Yesterday, nearly six years later, the issue of whether police should have knocked down Schieber's door - and even more so, why they didn't - took center stage as the plaintiff's case drew to a close.

The Schiebers' claim that the Police Department's prior practice of downgrading sex crimes had caused cops to miss two sex attacks in summer 1997 committed by the man who murdered their daughter - Center City Rapist Troy Graves.

They claim that if the attacks had been considered with two other similar rapes in the neighborhood in August that year, police would have acted differently and might have saved their daughter's life.

In the case of Woods and Scherff, that would have meant knocking down the door. The Schiebers had tried to sue both cops as part of their case, but the claims were dismissed by an appeals court earlier this year.

Yesterday, under questioning by Schieber attorney David Rudovsky, both officers said they had been aware of two rapes in August but not of a serial rapist.

Still, they claimed that under the circumstances, they would not have done anything different at Schieber's door that night, given the lack of a response, no sign of forced entry and their belief that Greeley seemed uncertain.

"I wouldn't take the door if he's not sure where [screams] are coming from," Scherff testified.

The case is expected to go to the jury early next week.