MrsERod
Praying for Everyone.
Member since 5/05 26170 total posts
Name:
MrsERod™®
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Re: BELL GRAND JURY DECISION?
3 Detectives to Be Indicted by Grand Jury in Bell Case
By AL BAKER and WILLIAM K. RASHBAUM
Published: March 16, 2007
A Queens grand jury voted to indict three city police detectives — two black men and a white man — in the killing of Sean Bell, an unarmed 23-year-old black man who died in a hail of 50 bullets in November, a defense lawyer in the case said.
The looming question is what charges the detectives will face.
The detectives who will face charges, Michael Oliver, Gescard F. Isnora and Marc Cooper, were three of five officers who fired bullets into Mr. Bell’s car on Nov. 25 outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens, hours before Mr. Bell was to be married.
Detective Oliver, 35, fired 31 of the 5o bullets in the shooting and Detective Isnora, 28, opened fire first and shot 11 bullets in total.
The Queens district attorney, Richard A. Brown, indicated this afternoon that the grand jury had reached a decision but said the decision was under seal until Monday, when he scheduled a news conference for 11 a.m.
Philip E. Karasyk, a lawyer for Detective Isnora, said, “Obviously, my client is upset, and he’s looking forward to having his day in court, and we’re all confident he will be vindicated.”
A lawyer for Detective Cooper, 39, one of the five officers involved in the shooting, said he believed his client had been indicted. The lawyer, Paul P. Martin, said his client has to “surrender for a formal arraignment,” but he declined to say when that would occur.
“I am disappointed with the grand jury’s decision but this is just the first stage of a long process and I am confident that once all the facts are considered by a jury of Detective Cooper’s peers, that he will be exonerated of all charges,” Mr. Martin said. Detective Cooper fired four of the shots in the shooting, Mr. Martin said.
When asked what the charges were, he said, “I wish I knew.”
Detective Cooper was appointed to the force on July 5, 1989, and until Nov. 25 had never fired his weapon, a Glock Model 19, in the line of duty, according to police records. In fact, none of the officers involved in the shooting had fired their weapons in the line of duty.
Detective Cooper last went to the department’s firearms range for training on March 30, 2006. Detective Cooper, who is one of the three black officers who fired their weapons, was in plainclothes wearing a bullet-resistant vest, according to police records.
A person involved in the case said the three detectives who will face criminal charges will have to turn themselves in for arraignment at the Queens Criminal Courthouse on Monday. Stephen P.. Worth, a lawyer for the only police officer involved, Officer Michael Carey, said his client had not been indicted.
“I got a call from the district attorney, Charles Testagrossa, and he told me there was no true bill as to my guy,” Mr. Worth said. “Obviously, we are gratified by the grand jury’s decision as to Mike and I have always believed that he acted professionally on the night of this incident.
A lawyer for the fifth detective involved in the shooting, Paul Headley, who fired one bullet, did not immediately return a phone call for comment.
Michael J. Palladino, the president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, scheduled a news conference for 4:30 p.m. at the union’s headquarters on Thomas Street in Lower Manhattan.
The panel could have voted to indict some or all of the officers on a range of charges or decline to indict any of them.
Even as the grand jury was conducting its business today, a lawyer for Mr. Bell’s family questioned the credibility of a witness who testified on Thursday and renewed his appeal for a special prosecutor in the case.
The grand jury interrupted its deliberations on Thursday for less than an hour to hear from the witness, a law enforcement official said. By Thursday evening, the jurors had ended their second day of deliberations the same way they ended the first: without voting on whether to hand up indictments in the case.
“This has turned into a mini trial,” Peter St. George Davis, an attorney for the Bell family, said in a news conference this afternoon. “We believe that the grand jury process has taken too long at this point. We believe that they’ve heard from too many witnesses. Again, this is not a trial. This should have been over.
“And indeed if a police officer had been slain these individuals would have been indicted within a week.”
The vote of the 23 grand jurors has met as often as three times a week since Jan. 22 as it has heard evidence in the shooting, which also wounded two of Mr. Bell’s friends.
The law enforcement official confirmed Thursday that the witness was the person who — according to a lawyer involved in the case and a police union official — stepped forward at the last minute and claimed to have seen a man fire a gun at officers on the night of the shooting.
That account revived the possibility of a so-called fourth man — a mysterious figure who, in some witnesses’ accounts, might have been nearby in the moments before the shooting, and who was later sought by detectives.
Mr. Bell and several friends had just finished celebrating his bachelor party at a strip club in Jamaica when the shooting occurred, about 12 hours before his scheduled wedding. Two of the friends, Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31, were wounded. Mr. Benefield, who is also black, and Mr. Guzman, who is Hispanic, testified before the grand jury last week.
Message edited 3/16/2007 5:19:22 PM.
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INDICTED! 
