Prosecutors drop charges against Selimaj

Concern for children of slain ice cream truck driver cited; widower still may pursue suit

Sat, May 3, 2008 (2 a.m.)

HEATHER CORY / Home News

Zyber Selimaj reacts to the coroner’s inquest ruling that a Henderson Police officer was justified in shooting and killing his wife, Deshira. Misdemeanor charges against him, including obstructing an officer, have been dropped.

The Death of Deshira Selimaj

All it took was one quiet court filing, a few papers slipped to a clerk Thursday afternoon, and the charges against Zyber Selimaj were dropped.

The motion for dismissal is only a few pages long, but it may signal the Selimaj family’s move out of the courts and out of public consciousness.

Unless, of course, the widower pursues a lawsuit against Henderson Police and Luke Morrison, the officer who shot and killed Selimaj’s wife, Deshira, in February.

Selimaj hasn’t made up his mind. But charges for the actions that ultimately set the shooting into motion, and the obstruction charge that came afterward, are gone.

Assistant Henderson City Attorney Robert Zentz, in a court document, suggested the decision was made with Selimaj’s three young children in mind. Penalizing the father with his pending charges, Zentz wrote in the motion, “would have little rehabilitative value and in fact would impose undue stress and hardship upon the innocent children of the defendant.”

Selimaj, an ice cream truck driver, was pulled over Feb. 12 for speeding and failing to obey a stop sign. A distraught Selimaj, according to officers who testified at a coroner’s inquest, refused to sign the tickets and then called his wife to the scene, at Sunridge Heights and Pecos Ridge parkways. Deshira Selimaj arrived in her own ice cream truck with two of the family’s three children and allegedly threatened officers with a knife, prompting two to fire Tasers at the 42-year-old woman, and one — Morrison — to shoot her in the stomach.

While Deshira Selimaj was taken to the hospital in an ambulance, Zyber Selimaj was taken to jail and booked on both traffic charges plus a third for obstructing an officer, because, police alleged, he became combative after his wife was shot.

While the misdemeanor charges were making their way through Henderson Municipal Court, the police and the Selimaj family were gearing up for a coroner’s inquest into Deshira’s death. On April 11, after two days of testimony, with accounts from witnesses who disputed the police version of events, as well as those from officers who said the woman put their lives in danger, a jury unanimously ruled the shooting justified.

Henderson prosecutors can decide to dismiss charges independent of police. The Henderson city attorney’s office is closed on Fridays, and Zentz was not available for comment. Neither were police.

Attorneys representing Selimaj in the municipal case initially filed an extensive request for documents, internal police communications and physical evidence from the day of the shooting, in an effort to defend Selimaj’s actions that afternoon.

Jim Jimmerson, the family’s lead attorney on the case, said the dropped charges indicate “police recognized that they were in for a real war in trying to prosecute these phony charges.

“Also, somebody within the city of Henderson woke up and realized that with the loss that Mr. Selimaj sustained, it was absolutely against common sense to try and prosecute these claims,” Jimmerson added.

District Attorney David Roger said he could not think of a time his office had dropped charges because of concern for a defendant’s children, though he also could not rule out the possibility it has happened. Each case is different and negotiated individually, said Roger, who would not comment on the Selimaj case.

If the charges hadn’t been dropped, Selimaj would have faced at least 30 days in jail, a penalty stemming from an earlier arrest. In December 2007, two months before the shooting, Zyber Selimaj pleaded no contest to assault charges for allegedly punching a juvenile ice cream truck customer. The judge granted Selimaj a suspended 30-day sentence, providing the father did not get arrested within the following year.

So the February arrest could have landed Selimaj in jail for 30 days, plus any time he would have to serve for the traffic and obstruction charges. This would have meant that his three children, the eldest of whom was 11 at the time of the shooting, would have been without their sole parent for as long as Selimaj was behind bars.

Selimaj and Jimmerson will now have to decide whether they still want to pursue his federal lawsuit, the attorney said.

If Selimaj drops the lawsuit, the dismissal stands to be the final court action stemming from the shooting.

Discussion: 11 comments so far…

By GOD

5/3/08 at 10:35 a.m.

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My heart just sinks when I see Zyber Selimaj driving around Henderson in his ice cream truck, still trying to support his children, even after the Henderson police brutally murdered his wife like the cowards they are.

I witnessed a simple police stop this week and the HPD still treat everyone like hardened criminals with one officer at the passenger window and another standing in good shooting position with his hand on his gun ready to draw and murder again.
By henderson

5/3/08 at 10:46 a.m.

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Mr. Selimaj has himself to blame for his wife's death. He should have signed his citation like a man instead of throwing a tantrum. You would think he'd be grateful for his "American Freedom" after spending years in an Albanian prison, but he's already been charged twice with battery of a minor on 2 separate occasions for assaulting his ice-cream truck customers, and he has established a pattern of ignoring stop signs, school zones, and other traffic laws while operating an ice cream truck that attracts children by design. Clearly the anger management classes he was court ordered to take didn't help. I think the police showed a great deal of patience with this man by allowing him to wait for his wife rather than hauling him to jail. Can you imagine their surprise when she showed up and proved to be crazier and angrier, and armed with a knife? These people are nuts, these are not the kind of people we should swing open the borders for. Psychiatric evaluations should be a requirement for all newcomers. He thinks he can assault the children that provide him a nice living, ignore laws, refuse to sign tickets like the rest of us. These people have spit on our country, our laws, and our police men and woman. How dare anyone suggest that our police officers should risk even getting a papercut to keep these crazy, thankless, scumbags from getting themselves shot. I'm appalled that he is still allowed to operate an ice-cream truck!
By LKM

5/3/08 at 5:22 p.m.

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When this story first appeared, the Henderson police claimed that Mrs. Selimaj put a knife to the throat of one of her children. By the time it got to the inquest, there was no mention of a knife to a child's throat. If Deshira Selimaj had done this, you can bet that police would have used the information to clear Luke Morrison at the hearing. And if she didn't do this, why were police officers on the day of the shooting saying that she did? By the time of the inquest, had they come up with a story that the eyewitnesses could not disprove?
By revbobdobbs

5/4/08 at 1:15 a.m.

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Stop making excuses for yourselves you pansy-a** Henderson cops.

Yeah, you put your life on the line everyday (although, I have to admit it is pretty scary down there in Henderson), but damn, more taxi drivers get killed than you do. More construction workers get killed working on your infrastructure. More people get killed in random accidents than officers killed in the line of duty.

You really come off as a bunch of trigger happy yahoos. At the very least your young cop, fresh of the quagmire of Iraq, should be held accountable. Mistakes happen. Admit it, deal with it and move on.
By Tortuga_one

5/4/08 at 8:34 a.m.

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I feel for both sides of this terriable tragedy.The children now will have to live without a mother for the rest of their lives.The father for who could have just abided by the traffic laws and excepeted the ticket.The officer`s for having to live with the aftermast of their desision.
And now for the acts of what is going on....The cops think they can do what ever the Heck they want and the people are just to take it,i don`t think so.Far to long have the police,not just HPD,but all officers get away with crimes and murder against the people that allow them to hold the ranks and positions they are in.Do you know who those people are? Guess what,it is us,(WE THE PEOPLE), need to take a stand and say enough is enough. The cops killed a person,Why?,Her husband did not sign a ticket for a traffic offence...boo hoo....how many of you out there see cops drive worse than any others on the road.I see it all the time,the disobay what they what to, because their cops,that is not the way it works....You are there to uphold the law,not to break it.Think of all the past crimes that have been due to or done by the police ,bet it will take awile wont it......Well in conclusion i only have 2 thinks to say....1. The people have to make the police understand that they work for US.we pay your bills and salary...2 YOU ARE NOT THE LAW. YOU ARE THERE TO UPHOLD THE LAW..SO DO YOUR JOB AND STOP THINKING THIS IS THE WILD WEST..PROTECT THE PEOPLE ,DON`T TREAT EVERYONE AS A CRIMINAL,FOR EVERONE IS INNOSIENT UNTIL PROVEN GUILTY IN A COURT OF LAW....SHOW SOME MODESTY FOR SOME DAY YOU TO MAY WANT THE SAME.
By azsk8fan

5/4/08 at 10:05 a.m.

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Henderson, very well put and I couldn't have said it any better!
By NLVResident

5/5/08 at 7:43 a.m.

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I've given this situation a lot of thought, and I keep thinking about policies regarding car chases. Let me explain: many police departments have instituted policies regarding car chases to lessen the deaths of innocent people. Too many deaths resulted from chases for minor traffic infractions and the public reacted strongly. In this instance, I cannot help but think: why didn't the Henderson Police Department just back down? We hold police officers to a higher standard, and in this situation, the police officers held the key to defusing it simply by walking away. They had the driver's name, address, etc. Why didn't they say, "hey, this is for a minor traffic offense. Let's do this by mail or have the DA's office issue a summons." They should have risen above the fray and walked away. I understand this woman was frantic, and perhaps there were some language misunderstandings. Still, there was a better, less violent way to address this traffic violation other than to kill this woman. And we, as a society, need to stress to all officers that killing someone over a traffic citation is never acceptable. While I understand that refusing to sign the ticket is cause to arrest a driver, why bother? Under no circumstances should an officer be so rigid during a minor traffic stop that he or she actually aggravates the situation to the point that it ends as this tragedy did. I'm tired of hearing police officers defend what the HPD's actions. There were alternatives but it would have required the HPD to back off and find another way to cite Mr. Selimaj. But the problem with my theory is that it requires these proud, and often arrogant, officers to take the higher road by walking away, and that's something these officers would consider weak.
By darthbry

5/7/08 at 1:37 p.m.

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Henderson Well put. As for backing down, we are not allowed to as police officers. The NRS would hold the department,city and individual officers liable if the officers walked away. When a felonius act is being committed (having a knife and threatening officers and others with death is a felonius act), state statutes require police to intervene or be held ultimately accountable for any action that happens after choosing to walk away. It all falls back on Zyber. Sign the tickets and go on your way, you receive a court date to have your case heard. If you present your facts well, it may be dropped. Zyber is a chronic law breaker who was again caught. I have a better and easier idea. Obey street signs and traffic law. So for those who don't know what police are required to do in certain situations, don't assume we can choose to ignore it. I agree the loss of life is a tragedy. No child should be without there parents. But the end result is due to Zyber (a chronic law breaker who should not be allowed to drive any vehicle much less an ice cream truck)and Zyber alone.
By USNBMC

5/8/08 at 5:36 p.m.

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Non-Lethal Force. Hello???
By Lenny_V

5/10/08 at 11:11 a.m.

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Unless the icecream woman had a gun in her hand she should not have been shot dead.