No Delay to NYPD Trial for Officer Who Killed Eric Garner

MANHATTAN (CN) - A New York judge refused Thursday to let the police officer who killed Eric Garner with a chokehold delay his upcoming disciplinary trial.

Nearly five years after “I can’t breathe” — the last words of 43-year-old Garner — became a refrain for Black Lives Matter Movement, Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Joan Madden ruled this afternoon that the Civilian Complaint Review Board, police watchdog agency for the city, can move forward with its case against officer Daniel Pantaleo. 

"The family of Mr. Garner, who lost a loved one, and petitioner whose career and reputation are at stake, have significant interests in the trial of the issues surrounding the Garner incident going forward at this time, as the does the public since the Garner incident raises serious concerns about interactions between individuals in the community and members of the NYPD," Madden's 8-page order states.

Pantaleo's attorney Stuart London said in court Thursday that the Civilian Complaint Review Board had been "derelict in their duties" to check the credibility of civilian eyewitnesses whose complaints prompted the board to investigate Pantaleo's alleged misconduct in Garner's arrest and death outside the Staten Island Ferry Terminal.  

New York City Law Department attorney James Horton represented the Civilian Complaint Review Board at Thursday's hearing, defending the board’s jurisdiction to proceed with disciplinary proceedings.

He said Rosemarie Maldonado,  the board’s deputy commissioner of trials, made the rational decision to take the case to trial based on a phone call placed by the complaining eyewitness.

Maldonado "was able to hear the witness say ‘I saw the incident,’” Horton said Thursday.

Garner died on July 17, 2014, while police attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes in the shadow of the Staten Island Ferry Terminal. Video of the incident captured officers wrestling the to the ground, with Garner losing consciousness in Pantaleo’s chokehold after gasping, “I can’t breathe,” at least nine times.

The New York City medical examiner ruled the cause of death a homicide, but a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo in 2014.

Flanked by family members and activists at a press conference following the hearing, Eric Garner's mother Gwen Carr spoke about her family's pursuit of justice.

"The ones that pounced on him, the ones that looked the other way, the ones that even filed false reports, nothing is being done about that," Carr said.

"I'm going to continue step by step to try to get this taken care of, because it's not only about Pantaleo, it's about all the officers who was involved in my son's death that day," she continued.

Carr quoted Pantaleo's attorney Stuart London as having “said this is a ‘minor inconvenience.’”

“That’s what he called our family waiting for five years, a minor inconvenience," Carr said outside of the courthouse Thursday afternoon.

"What does that mean? Minor? To us, it’s minor? No, it's not minor. We suffered the whole five years. This is not just a news story for us, this is our life."

Carr thanked the judge for her decision not to delay the disciplinary trial.

"I mean some people can see the injustice, others just turn their head,” she said. "We gotta stop turning our heads.”

The Civilian Complaint Review Board disciplinary proceedings are scheduled to begin on May 13.

The trial is expected to last more than three weeks.

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