Jury selection begins Monday in Nick Hillary's civil trial against Potsdam police

Jun. 3—POTSDAM — Oral "Nick" Hillary's civil lawsuit against the village and three current and former Potsdam police officers will go to federal court on Monday morning.

Judge Gary L. Sharpe is scheduled to preside over the case in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of New York in Albany, beginning at 9:30 a.m. with jury selection.

Mr. Hillary, a former Clarkson University men's soccer coach, is suing the village over his treatment at the hands of the Potsdam Police Department during the investigation into the Oct. 24, 2011, murder of 12-year-old Garrett J. Phillips. Mr. Hillary was charged with the murder in May 2014 and acquitted after a three-week bench trial in September 2016. Mr. Hillary is represented by Mani C. Tafari, of Melville, and Brett H. Klein, a civil rights attorney from New York City.

Mr. Hillary alleges false arrest, unlawful search and seizure that included a strip search, and that police executed fraudulent search warrants on his home, car and cell phone. The defense will dispute that Mr. Hillary's arrest and strip search were based on probable cause, and that subsequent searches of Mr. Hillary's property were done with valid search warrants.

There are four defendants named in the lawsuit — Potsdam Police Chief Mark R. Murray, former Potsdam Police Chief Edward R. Tischler, Potsdam Police Lt. Michael P. Ames and the village of Potsdam. Their lawyer is Gregg T. Johnson, of Clifton Park.

The lawsuit centers around events that started with Garrett's death on Oct. 24 through Oct. 26, 2011, when Mr. Hillary was detained at the Potsdam police station.

These are the events that will be the subject of the trial:

The Potsdam Police Department's investigation into the Oct. 24, 2011, death, following an autopsy, turned into a homicide case. That night at 8:55 p.m., Mr. Murray requested a search or arrest warrant for Mr. Hillary, which was denied. Mr. Murray alleged in a later search warrant application that Mr. Hillary had a "significant limp" while coaching a Clarkson men's soccer game on Oct. 25, 2011. However, video footage confirms that he did not have a limp on that date.

On the morning of Oct. 26, 2011, Mr. Murray went to Mr. Hillary's home and asked him to come to the police station around 8 a.m. He was interviewed, detained and strip searched in Mr. Murray's office. Mr. Tischler later admitted that in the previous 20 years, no other individual, except Mr. Hillary, had ever been strip searched at the Potsdam police station.

Around 9 a.m., Mr. Hillary told Mr. Tischler that he would have to leave to go to work, but Mr. Tischler said he could not leave the station. Mr. Hillary was held at the Potsdam police station without a warrant while Garrett's family members went the Potsdam police station to fill out affidavits, which would later be used in support of a search warrant for Mr. Hillary.

While at the station, police seized Mr. Hillary's mobile phone and car, and investigators did not yet have search warrants for them. At the time of Mr. Hillary's detention, there were no eyewitnesses that identified him as a suspect, and no other suspects were interviewed. He also was not observed at any time at the scene of Garrett's death. There has never been any physical evidence connecting Mr. Hillary to the crime.

The defendants allowed John E. Jones Jr., considered a suspect at the time, to aid in the investigation of Mr. Hillary before he was ruled out, court documents say.

Mr. Hillary, a Black man, and Mr. Jones, a white man and a St. Lawrence County sheriff's deputy, had each previously been in a relationship with Garrett's mother. Mr. Hillary has contended that many of the reasons cited by Mr. Murray that made him a suspect similarly applied to Mr. Jones.

Video evidence later excluded Mr. Jones as a suspect, who is seen on film walking his dog near Canton-Potsdam Hospital during the time police say the murder took place at the 100 Market St. apartment where Garrett lived.