Philadelphia Inquirer
Thursday, May 10, 2001

Judge: Suit in student's death may proceed

By Craig R. McCoy ,
INQUIRER STAFF WRITER

A federal judge yesterday rejected the City of Philadelphia's request to dismiss a lawsuit contending that police inaction and "downgrading" of sex crimes set the stage for a 1998 murder by the so-called Center City rapist.

U.S. District Judge Norma L. Shapiro ruled that the parents of Shannon Schieber, 23, a University of Pennsylvania Wharton School student killed in her apartment, had amassed enough evidence for the jury to decide their civil lawsuit.

Peter D. Winebrake, a lawyer for the city, said the city had not decided whether to appeal the opinion to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Lawyers for Schieber's parents, Sylvester and Vicki Schieber of Chevy Chase, Md., applauded the opinion.

"We look forward to a trial as quickly as possible," family attorney Marc Fleischaker said.

DNA tests have shown that Schieber was killed by a man who had sexually assaulted four other young women before Schieber's death and one after her killing.

The police sex-crimes unit refused to classify the first two attacks of the man as sex crimes, even though one victim said the man molested her and the second said she was stripped naked.

Schieber's parents are suing the city and two police officers who came to their daughter's apartment on the night of the murder.

The lawsuit claims police blinded themselves and the public to the growing danger in Center City.

Lawyers for the city have not disputed that the downgrading of crimes took place. Instead, they contended that, as a legal matter, police cannot be obligated to protect everyone in the city from possible harm.

But Shapiro said Schieber fell into a definable group of "foreseeable victims," which she defined as "young women living within the 1,200- to 2,000-square-feet area in which the crimes allegedly committed by the Center City rapist took place."

On the night Schieber was murdered, neighbors called 911 for help after hearing screams.

Two police officers responded and left after knocking on her door and getting no answer. They told neighbors gathered there to call 911 if they heard anything.

Shapiro said two officers thus discouraged the neighbors from breaking in. She added: "The officers placed Schieber in a worse situation than if they had not responded at all."

Shapiro said the evidence so far suggested that the city had not done a good job teaching police about the rules that apply in rescues.

The judge's ruling said the suit could proceed under federal civil-rights law. However, she dismissed a part of the suit seeking damages under state law.