In 2006, retired FBI investigator John White came calling on the media and candidates for sheriff with theories about an assault that he says preceded the fatal midnight shooting by a sheriff’s deputy in 2003 of Nicholas Covelli, an unarmed 22-year-old. The officer said he feared Covelli was high on PCP. Autopsy reports showed the young man was not using drugs or alcohol. The Covelli family hired White to investigate reports of an assault on their son prior to the shooting, which they believe led to his disoriented behavior.

A federal jury had acquitted the officer and the sheriff’s department of inappropriate use of force in a 2005 civil trial. Many Frazier Park residents, including Michael Howard, who testified at the trial, still have questions about what happened that night.

This is part of the December 29, 2006 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.

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