Police Officer's lawyers seek gag order in shooting suit

• Cops Shoot Unarmed, Nude Man. Police "thought he had a gun. "

The attorney for an unarmed man shot in a drug raid is trying to force a settlement by hyping the case, they said in a motion. Lawyers for a police officer who shot a naked, unarmed Bucks County man during a drug raid want a judge to impose a gag order in a federal lawsuit over the shooting. The lawyers say the injured man's attorney, Thomas Mellon Jr., has tried to force a settlement by hyping the case in the news media and by threatening to release a doctored videotape of two police officers testifying about the shooting. Mellon's client, 22-year-old James Hoskins, was shot by Middletown Township Police Detective Dale Keddie Jr. during a Feb. 6 drug raid at Hoskins' apartment in Bristol Township. Hoskins was naked, holding a wadded T-shirt to cover his genitals, when Keddie entered the bedroom. Keddie, who later said he thought Hoskins had a gun, fired once, wounding him. Hoskins, who was not a target of the drug investigation, was critically wounded in the abdomen and leg.  The shooting was justified, she said, because Keddie reasonably believed his life was in danger. [more ]