BY ADAM ATKINSON
North Country This Week

POTSDAM — Jury selection begins in Albany the morning of June 6 in a civil trial of Oral “Nick” Hillary versus the Village of Potsdam, village police department and several of its officers.

Hillary was acquitted of murder in September 2016 in the 2011 death of 12-year-old Garrett Phillips.

The lawsuit to go before the court on June 6 is one of two filed by Hillary against the parties who investigated the original case, and was originally filed in 2012. A second lawsuit filed in 2017, citing different claims, was subsequently dismissed.

The former Clarkson University soccer coach and former boyfriend of the victim’s mother essentially contends the village police involved in the investigation singled him out as a suspect in the murder on the grounds of race as Hillary is Black.

In the 2012 suit, Hillary claims investigators committed false arrest, unlawful search and seizure and fraudulent search warrants for his home, car and cell phone during investigation of the case. The claims even describe a now infamous strip search of Hillary in the police chief’s office that was detailed at the trial in 2016.

Hillary’s lawsuit has experienced many court procedural motions and hearings over the years since it was first filed.

Currently, the lawsuit which will go before U.S. District Judge Gary Sharpe on June 6 names The Village of Potsdam; current Potsdam Police Chief Mark Murray, who was an investigator during the original case; former Police Chief Edward Tischler; and Potsdam Police Lt. Michael Ames as defendants.