Vincent Chin
The murder of Vincent Chin was an ugly chapter in history for the Detroit area. In 1982, Chin, a young Chinese-American man, was bludgeoned to death by a man wielding a baseball bat, just outside the Fancy Pants strip club on Woodward Avenue in Highland Park where he and his friends had been celebrating his bachelor’s party. The two had gotten into an argument that escalated.
It was at a dark time for the American auto industry, which had fallen on hard times. The Japanese were grabbing an increasingly larger share of U.S. sales. The two had gotten into an argument in the club, it escalated and spilled out into the street. Ronald Ebens, a Chrysler plant superintendent, beat him with the bat, and eventually had his prison sentenced overturned on appeal. Ebens, now 76, owes the Vincent Chin estate more than $8 million from a settlement in a civil suit.
Emil Guillermo and Frances Kai-hwa Wang of NBC News report:
Now Ebens, 76, whose prison sentence was overturned on appeal, wants the lien the Chin family's representatives have placed on his residence in Nevada removed, despite still owing the estate more than $8 million.
Ebens' attorneys filed the motion to remove the lien in November in Nevada, where Ebens now resides, stating the lien on Ebens' home is prohibited by Nevada's Homestead Act and was placed "with malice…to annoy and harass" him. In court documents, Ebens claims he's been harmed by his inability to sell or refinance his home. The motion also asks for attorney's fees.
NBC News reached Ebens by phone Friday, but Ebens hung up when asked about the lien.
Helen Zia, a journalist and activist, who serves as the executor of the Chin estate, told NBC News Ebens' request was upsetting.
"It is beyond outrageous that this unremorseful killer is suing for attorney's fees that would allow him to continue evading payment for beating Vincent Chin to death 23 years ago," Zia said.
Zia said the Chin estate's pro bono attorneys will challenge the claim in court. "For the estate, it means we will at least be able to get on the record why he has this $8 million judgment for taking a life and never taking full responsibility by even attempting to pay his debt to society," she said.
There are different stories as to how the fight began.
One is that Ebens instigated it by declaring, "It's because of you little motherfuckers that we're out of work!" The reference was to the Japanese, even though Chin, 27, was Chinese.
One version is that Chin started taunting Ebens and a fight spilled over onto the streets. Ebens' step-son Michael Nitz held Chin him while Ebens beat him with the bat.
The state prosecuted the case. Eben and Nitz’s entered nolo contendere pleas to manslaughter and they both got probation and were fined.
Outrage over that sentences lead to criminal charges in federal court. Nitz was acquitted. Ebens was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison. But that sentence was overturned on appeal.
In 1987, NBC reports, Ebens and Nitz settled a civil suit out of court over Chin's death. The network reported that Nitz was ordered to pay $50,000 over the following 10 years, which he did in $30 weekly installments. Ebens was ordered to pay $1.5 million to make up the projected loss of income from Chin's engineering position and the loss of Chin's personal assistance to his mother, Lily Chin, who died in 2002.
According to a Detroit Free Press article by filmmaker Michael Moore, Ebens agreed to the settlement "under which he would pay $200 a month for two years, beginning Sept. 1. Then he would start paying $200 a month or 25 percent of his net income, whichever is more."
NBC reported:
But, according to Moore, Ebens had not held a job at that point in five years since Chin's death, and told Moore that the Chin family "can't get blood from a stone," after which Moore said Ebens deadpanned, "It is my fervent wish that I live long enough to pay off the entire amount. That'll be when I'm 672 years old."
