Indictment due in Miami in black man's death

A Federal grand jury is expected to indict a former policy officer today (July 28) for conspiracy to violate the civil rights of an individual and as an accessory after the fact in the death last December of black businessman Arthur McDuffie. The officer, Charles Veverka, was a key government witness at the trial in which four white officers were acquitted and was given immunity from state prosecution for his testimony. The acquittals on May 17 touched off three days of rioting in Miami.

Mr. Veverka admits he punched Mr. McDuffie after a high-speed chase. He says he then tried in vain to pull him from a crowd of officers beating him, but wrote false accident reports at the instruction of his superiors to try to cover up the beating.