Jordan Miles will have another day in court--three-and-a-half years after an encounter with police left his face swollen and bruised.
The young African American man from Homewood, who claims he was wrongly beaten by three plainclothes white Pittsburgh police officers in January 2010, will have a new trial on two of his three civil rights claims starting July 8.
Miles was an 18-year-old honors student at Pittsburgh Creative and Performing Arts (CAPA) high school when he was arrested by officers who said they thought he was prowling the Homewood neighborhood with a gun bulging in his coat pocket. The police say the "gun" turned out to be a soda bottle — though Miles denies prowling or even having the bottle. Miles contends he was walking from his mother's house to his grandmother's home and said he didn't know the three were police officers.
An eight-member federal jury in August found the officers didn't maliciously prosecute Miles, but couldn't decide whether Miles was wrongly arrested or whether officers used excessive force.
City of Pittsburgh Solicitor Dan Regan maintains the officers' response was reasonable based on their training. But Miles' attorney J. Kerrington Lewis says he expects to prevail in a second trial.
