Comments on Frederick case aren't going to end

Maybe Paul Ebert would have been content if nobody had uttered a peep after a Chesapeake police detective's slaying.

The Prince William County commonwealth's attorney was called in to handle the murder prosecution of Ryan Frederick after Chesapeake's top prosecutor recused herself. Ebert has pointedly criticized the continuing publicity about the case and has taken the extremely rare step - for prosecutors, anyway - to seek a change of venue.

During a court hearing this week, he said there's plenty of "misinformation" about the case and that Frederick has made "self-serving statements."

Ebert is a smart man, a prosecutor for 40 years in Prince William. So he can't honestly believe that a case such as this, with so many troubling questions surrounding it, would not receive scrutiny and comment from the local media, bloggers, Chesapeake residents and others.

Many of them are saddened by the death of 34-year-old Detective Jarrod Shivers, in a Jan. 17 drug raid at Frederick's home in the Portlock section. But they're also questioning why and how the police targeted Frederick, now 29; the large show of force when the narcotics warrant was executed; exactly what role informants played in this case - and drug investigations in general; and why such a small amount of marijuana was ultimately recovered.

About a dozen officers came to Frederick's house at night searching for pot. Prior court testimony indicated they had repeatedly announced they were police at the front door and used a 40-pound battering ram that busted out a door panel.

In earlier interviews, Frederick has said he had been asleep, didn't know there were police out front, and fired two shots through the front door at what he thought were intruders. One shot from a .380-caliber handgun hit Detective Shivers in a side area of his body that wasn't protected by his vest.

Frederick is now charged with capital murder, use of a firearm and possession with the intent to distribute marijuana.

Ebert hasn't returned my last two calls to his Northern Virginia office, including one on Thursday. But in an interview in June, he scoffed at the defendant's prior comments.

"You can't take what he says to be true, at this juncture," Ebert said then.

"... The press in general has been tough on the cops," he added. "When the case goes to trial, I'm sure it will be enlightening."

But it appears prosecutors are taking the word of at least one police informant - who hasn't been identified - as gospel.

Prosecutors said this week in court that more than one person broke into Frederick's detached garage days before the shooting, taking about half of the marijuana growing inside. Frederick, prosecutors said, contacted one burglar, made threats and indicated he knew who they were.

Frederick reportedly told the burglar: "I know police are coming to my house. I know why they're coming to my house, and I have a plan for them, too," according to Richard Conway, who's assisting Ebert in the case.

Police have said that a confidential informant told them about the marijuana-growing operation. But if you add up some of the known details from that night, the scenario prosecutors have rolled out raises even more questions.

So, at the risk of "speculating":

How was Frederick supposed to know what time and what day the Chesapeake police were coming to raid his home?

If he indeed knew police were outside his house, and he fired shots, wasn't he risking a fusillade of police bullets?

If he was prepared to confront police that night, he changed his mind rather quickly: At a preliminary hearing in late May, a police officer testified that Frederick surrendered about 5-6 minutes after he fired shots.

I understand the police and prosecutors don't want to jeopardize their case, can't always release information when the public desires it, and want to bring to justice the man who killed a police detective. That's not going to stop the comments from the public, however, and it's not going to stop the scrutiny over every angle of what happened the night Jarrod Shivers was killed.

Roger Chesley is associate editor of The Pilot's editorial page. Reach him at (757) 446-2329 or at roger.chesley@pilotonline.com.