Philadelphia Inquirer
Wednesday, Feb. 25, 2004

City not liable in rape/murder case, jury decides

By Joseph A. Slobodzian,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A federal jury today cleared the City of Philadelphia of any liability in the 1998 murder of University of Pennsylvania graduate student Shannon Schieber at the hands of confessed serial rapist Troy Graves.

The civil jury of six women and six men returned the verdict at 12:04 p.m. after 11-1/2 hours of deliberations that began Monday afternoon.

The jury agreed with one claim of the lawsuit filed by Schieber's parents, Sylvester and Vicki Schieber, of Chevy Chase, Md., that during the late 1990s the Philadelphia police regularly downgraded rape and sexual assault complaints by classifying them as noncrimes.

But the jury also found that the downgrading practice was not "intentionally discriminatory" against women or sexual assault victims and did not increase the danger to or result in Schieber's May 7, 1998, rape and strangulation.

Though visibly upset by the verdict, the Schiebers said they had prepared for the possibility and vowed to continue to memorialize the name of their 23-year-old daughter and campaign for police nationwide to take seriously complaints of sexual assault.

"Shannon was hell-bent to make this world a better place," said "Syl" Schieber, his voice cracking with emotion. "She can't do that now, but we owe her."

Schieber's murder and the subsequent scandal that erupted after it became known that police had downgraded almost 25 percent of rape complaints received in 1995, 1996 and 1997 resulted in police department reforms.

Downgrading was prohibited and police officials ordered a reinvestigation of about 2,000 rape complaints and the reorganization and renaming of the former Sex Crimes Unit into the current Special Victims Unit.

Although the Schiebers have 10 days to file post-trial motions challenging the trial's verdict, Schieber said he doubted they would.

"We still feel for this family, we know they were devastated by their daughter's death," said Jeffrey M. Scott, a divisional deputy city solicitor and one of three city lawyers who worked on the eight-day trial that began Feb. 11. "But this jury listed to all the evidence that came out and decided... there was no discriminatory intent."

Chief Deputy City Solicitor Shelley R. Smith said the verdict "really vindicated the police department. They have taken a real beating over this issue."

Members of the jury could not be reached immediately for comment.

The Schiebers' lawsuit sought $3.8 million for the death of their 23-year-old daughter, a brilliant doctoral candidate at Penn's Wharton School at the time she was murdered in her Center City apartment.

The Schiebers' lawsuit contended a police practice of downgrading rape complaints enabled Graves to prey on women in Center City during 1997 and ultimately to murder Schieber eight months later.

Lawyers for the city argued that the theory behind the Schiebers' lawsuit was too speculative and that the city should not be held liable for the assaults of a cunning serial criminal like Graves.

After his 2002 capture in Colorado following eight sexual assaults, Graves, 25, was convicted of attacking four Center City women in 1997, murdering Schieber, and attacking a sixth Philadelphia woman in 1999. He is now serving a life prison sentence in Colorado.