The Burlington Free Press du lieu suivant : Burlington, Vermont • Page 4

4A -fr The Burlington Free Press Sunday, December 1, 2002 For family, the emotional toll mounts TX7 Woodwards confront their grief. "We can't accept," Paul said, "and until the evidence is out, we can't forgive." Their lives remain changed in ways large and small since their son died. "I have a hard time driving through Brattleboro," said Paul, who passes the town along Interstate 91 to visit his father in Springfield. "We used to stop there for gas. We won't anymore." Joanne was at a Methodist Church service in Norwich, a few weeks ago when a man came in and announced he was the Apostle Paul.

The parishioners, briefly rattled, remained calm. The man eventually sat down and the service continued. Joanne thought of her son's final moments as she watched another man's struggles in the sanctuary of a church. "Oh," she said, shuddering at the memory, "it was not easy." Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or officers who shot Woody. The suit seeks unspecified damages for the family's loss.

The Woodwards spoke of their son as they sat in a hotel lobby during a recent visit to their hometown. Joanne, 63, would reach across the table and grasp her husband's hand whenever she felt he was becoming upset. Paul, 64, gaunt after a year of steady weight loss, occasionally put his hand to his head, revealing the dismay he feels at his son's death. Perhaps most upsetting for him is the report released in April by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell that called the shooting justified. The Woodwards didn't want to talk in detail about the life of their son a vegetarian, world traveler and pacifist who at the time of his death was working with children with disabilities near his home in Bellows Falls.

They say his story has been told often in the past 12 months. They aren't focusing on why their 37-year-old son, whose faith was a blend of Buddhism and what his father called "a little bit of every reli- By Brent Hallenbeck Free Press Staff Writer SPRINGFIELD Paul Woodward's long-dormant heart troubles returned last December when he tried to write the eulogy for his son's funeral. His heart arrhythmia put him in the hospital. Three times since then he has returned, twice more for an irregular heartbeat and once for an asthma attack. He blames those health problems on the stress he has felt since Dec.

2, the day his son, Robert "Woody" Woodward, was shot by police. The stress is compounded for Paul Woodward and his wife, Joanne, because they don't think police needed to shoot their son seven times as he wielded a knife in All Souls Church in West Brattleboro. "For three months I would wake up at night bingo I was hit with this injustice," Paul Woodward said. "I got over that. It was just time.

I've got to go on." Joanne said her doctor told her she appears to be handling "We haven't done anything but survive." Paul Woodward, father of Robert Woodward her son's death better than her husband has. "I said, 'On the surface, but you didn't see me last she said. The past year has left the Woodwards, natives of Springfield who live in Boz-rah, physical and emotional wrecks. Joanne, a retired high school English teacher, and Paul, who built nuclear reactors for the U.S. Navy, used to 'travel and hike extensively.

They climbed Mount Katahdin in Maine in September 2001. A year later, because of his heart problems, Paul had trouble climbing stairs. "We haven't done anything but survive," Paul said. The Woodwards and their daughter have filed a federal lawsuit against the town of Brattleboro and the two police The past year has emotionally and physically drained Joanne and Paul Woodward, parents of Robert "Woody" Woodward. ai eii ii DiiftSPi L.

Frpp Press "We won't know what the truth is until a trial," Paul said. "A trial would set an example, for the whole country, actually, that this was a case of overreaction and injustice. "They have a tough job. We understand that," he said of police. "They're just like me, they make mistakes.

Those two guys to me made a big mistake. What they did was final." A trial could also help the CHURCH: Parish divided a year after shooting JT Woodward case update -Kg- The Dec. 2, 2001, shooting of Robert "Woody" Woodward devastated a family and divided a church. His death also spurred a federal lawsuit, an FBI investigation, a group called Justice for Woody and a review of Brattleboro's police policies. Here is an update on those issues: LEGAL ACTION: Woodward's family filed a lawsuit in January against the town of Brattleboro and the two officers, Marshall Holbrook and Terrance Parker, who shot Woodward.

The federal suit alleges the officers acted recklessly and the town improperly trained and supervised the officers. Woodward's father, Paul Woodward, said the family would donate any monetary award to charities for disadvantaged children. The family's lawyer, Joel Faxon of Bridgeport, said the lawsuit could go to trial by the end of 2003. The FBI conducted a preliminary investigation into possible federal charges against the officers and handed the information to the U.S. Justice Department, which has yet to decide whether it will pursue a case.

JUSTICE FOR WOODY: Woodward's friends founded Justice for Woody, which has held monthly vigils in Brattleboro. The group released a report rebutting the ruling by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell that the shooting was justified. The Justice for Woody report labeled Sorrell's report "a brilliantly crafted deception." Group member Stephen Monroe Tomczak of Wallingford, said Justice for Woody will continue to hold vigils and press for state or federal charges against the officers. The group's next vigil will be at the Brattleboro Municipal Building from noon to 1 p.m. Monday, the anniversary of Woodward's death.

POLICE: The town of Brattleboro asked the U.S. Justice Department to organize several "dialogue nights" for community members to discuss police policy and procedures. Police Chief John Martin said the sessions led to 40 recommended improvements, ranging from outside evaluations of the department to improved mental-health training for officers to hiring mental-health workers in the department. Martin said the town plans to trim the list to a few recommendations the department can pursue. Holbrook and Parker, who were placed on desk duty after the shooting, are back on full duty.

He said many residents of the community don't realize how hard the shooting has been on the two officers. "There were no winners that walked in or out of that church that day," Martin said. "Everybody lost." gion," showed up in an agitated state at a Unitarian church service in West Brattleboro. They say no one knows why he was distressed, and in the end the reasons for his distress aren't important. The Woodwards are focusing on what they see as the injustice of their son's shooting.

They want his death to be a model to improve police training and prevent similar shootings. They want the lawsuit to help them do that. The Rev. Barbro Hansson, religious leader of the All Souls Church, says, "We're absolutely aware that for some people it's going to take a lot more" than vigils and prayer services to deal with the shooting incident. was using a nail gun.

"That sound of the nail gun going off was too much for some people, and they had to leave the space," Hansson said. She learned quickly that the members of All Souls Church were still traumatized. The native of Sweden learned long ago the sanctity a church holds. "The sense of a church being a safe place goes back centuries and centuries in time," Hansson said while gathered 1 1 Photos by STEVEN E. FRISCHLINQCORBIS SYGMA, for the Free Press road on a tree-lined hilltop in West Brattleboro.

a tyLd I Continued from Page 1A day. "We were saying, 'We want him out of here because we want our service. We are here to Two Brattleboro police officers were called to the scene. They shot Woodward seven times. Woodward left the church in an ambulance, mortally wounded.

His shooting left the body of the church wounded as well. "I have pulled back from the church," said Manning, a member of All Souls Church for 11 years. She thinks police were justified in shooting Woodward and that members of the church who disagree have politicized his death. "It has thwarted me from my own healing process," said Manning, who witnessed the shooting. "I don't feel safe.

I don't feel accepted." She said she recently took a job that requires her to work Sundays, in part because it keeps her away from All Souls Church. "He hijacked the service that morning and he scared a lot of people," Manning said. "I believe that Robert Woodward took a certain level of peace and left a certain amount of unrest in that space." Jerelyn Wilson thought about leaving the church, too, for different reasons. She wasn't there Dec. 2.

While she was relieved she did not witness the terrifying events, she missed something that was an intimate part of the church's history. "I felt disconnected from a group I feel very connected to," she said. Wilson said parishioners sometimes walked in the door of the church to be immediately confronted with questions about their views on the shooting. Some didn't want to talk about it. Wilson said she was distressed by the efforts of some in the church to find "a common script of what happened," a truth that would reunite them.

"We learned that we could not do that," she said. Wilson, leader of the congregation's worship committee, said church members are addressing their feelings in part through their covenant, a sort of mission statement the congregation recites at each service. The covenant says church members should "freely explore our values and honor our diversity as a source of communal strength." "It took us a long time to be sensitive to that," Wilson said. Looking at the roots Polly Wilson, no relation to Jerelyn Wilson, watched as Brattleboro police officers Marshall Holbrook and Ter-rance Parker shot Woodward. Since then, she has attended vigils and news conferences in support of Woodward and his friends' contention that he was gunned down needlessly.

She said he was disturbed and scared, threatened no one; yet was shot less than a minute after police arrived. "To me that is wrong," The All Souls Church is off a dirt Orion Barber, a member of All Souls Church for 30 years, says pain over the shooting is "unending." Polly Wilson said. "It's not just a tragedy, it's a tragedy that needs to have the roots of it looked at so it doesn't happen again." She is upset that the liberal-minded Unitarian Universalis! Church as a whole has not used Woodward's case to explore the greater issue of excessive use of force by police. That's why she has joined Woodward's friends at their vigils in downtown Brattleboro. "I tend to be the only one on the street corner from the church," Wilson said.

"I know some people from the church feel I shouldn't be there. I'm there because I feel I have to be. "For whatever reason they feel traumatized by this," she said. "They feel that they're coping with it and my perpetuating it and Woody's friends perpetuating it makes it worse for them." Church members say some parishioners have left the church; some attend more often. Some want to talk about what happened; some process it quietly.

All are dealing with something that has affected them profoundly. "It's unending," said Orion Barber, a member of All Souls Church for 30 years. "Experiences like December 2nd we're powerless to prevent. Maybe they go with being on planet Earth, I don't know." 1 last week with a small group of parishioners at the church. "When that sense is violated, it takes a long time for it to heal." "If ever," Barber added.

The church is trying to help the healing. A new Thursday night service is more about meditation than ministering. The hope is that it will provide a comfortable setting for members who might not be ready to return on Sundays. Charles Butterfield, president of the church's board of trustees, said the church has started programs to build togetherness, including a new adult-eduCation program, a collection that raises money for local charities, and small-group ministries that gather members eight at a time to tend to each other's personal and spiritual needs. "This event certainly did Li i tt not stop us," said Butterfield, who called police after Woodward arrived.

The church will host Woodward's family and friends for private meditation on the anniversary of the shooting Monday morning. That will be followed by a candlelight and prayer service at noon and a 7 p.m. service in which Hansson will discuss grief, pain and anger, both in general and specifically relating to what happened Dec. 2. "We're absolutely aware that for some people it's going to take a lot more," Hansson said.

"We're not going to wake up December 3rd knowing that all has been resolved." All Souls Church and the death of Robert Woodward are forever linked. The church's 120 members will keep trying to accept that. "It's one of those situations where there's no way around it, only through it," Barber said. "It's an exercise of survival is what it is. What survives is your sense of connectedness and the strengthened bonds of your community." Polly Wilson feels the bonds reconnecting, tentatively and as she returns to All Souls Church every Sunday morning.

"I have people that I'm very comfortable with and I think most people in the church have people they've gotten to know and feel comfortable with," she said. "There are people that I'm pleasant to and are pleasant to me. We're careful with each other, and I think that's a start in the right direction." Contact Brent Hallenbeck at 660-1844 or Jerelyn Wilson, an All Souls Church parishioner and leader of the congregation's worship committee, says parishioners are taking guidance from the church covenant, which says church members should "freely explore our values and honor our diversity as a source of communal strength." Exercise of survival The Rev. Barbro Hansson arrived at All Souls Church in September, replacing the interim minister who was there the day Woodward was shot. Shortly after her arrival, Hansson was with several church members as workers placed new floor tile in the church's foyer.

One worker 4 i' Mary Jane Goodloe, an All Souls Church parishioner, discusses the effects of the police shooting, which has driven a wedge between the parishioners and the police. i I .1" A A Charles All Souls Church parishioner and president of the board of trustees, said the congregation has started programs to build togetherness..