Philadelphia Inquirer
Wednesday, February 18, 2004

Officers in Schieber case testify

Taking the stand in the victim's parents' suit against Phila., they explained why they didn't force a door.

By Joseph A. Slobodzian,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

Two Philadelphia police officers who responded to the 1998 emergency call at the apartment of slain Penn graduate student Shannon Schieber told a jury yesterday they had no legal justification to force her door and enter.

Testifying during the second week of the trial in the federal lawsuit Schieber's parents filed against the city, Officers Steven Woods and Raymond Scherff said there were no signs of forced entry at the door or outside window of Schieber's second-story apartment in the 200 block of South 23d Street in Center City.

Mostly, Woods and Scherff testified, they were dissuaded from breaking in by the equivocal attitude of the Schieber neighbor who called 911 shortly after 2 a.m. on May 7, 1998.

Parmatma "Parm" Greeley testified Friday he called 911 after hearing sounds of a struggle, "choking," and a woman's cries for help coming from Schieber's apartment. Greeley said he was frustrated when the officers knocked, got no answer, and refused to force Schieber's door.

Both officers said Greeley never mentioned hearing a "choking" sound. They also said he disagreed with his girlfriend about whether the sound came from Schieber's apartment or the street, and said he would be "embarrassed" if the officers broke in and found nothing amiss.

Trial witnesses have testified that while police knocked, Schieber, 23, a doctoral candidate at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, was inside, either unconscious or dead - assaulted and strangled by serial rapist Troy Graves.

The lawsuit by Sylvester and Vicki Schieber of Chevy Chase, Md., contends the officers would likely have forced the door had they been told of four similar rapes or attempted rapes in the neighborhood during the summer of 1997.

A police practice of discounting and downgrading rape complaints, the lawsuit says, led police to miss the pattern of Graves' crimes and fail to properly brief beat cops, and enabled Graves to kill Schieber.

Lawyers for the city argue that the Schiebers' legal theory is too speculative and the city should not be held liable for the acts of a serial rapist.

Scherff yesterday testified that knowledge of other, similar rapes was not as important as Greeley's attitude and the facts the officers had when they responded in May 1998: "If he was certain it was coming from Shannon Schieber's, we would have taken the door."

Graves, who was arrested in 2002 and confessed to a series of rapes in Philadelphia and Colorado and to Schieber's rape and murder, is now serving a life sentence in Colorado.

Lawyers for the Schiebers yesterday ended their case after four days of testimony. Lawyers for the city will begin today what they estimated would be four days of defense testimony.