December 2, 2008
Legal battle anticipated in Bell case
In anticipation of the formal announcement of indictments against three of five city cops who fatally shot Sean Bell and wounded two of his friends in November, police critics Saturday looked ahead to the prospect of a long legal battle over the fate of the officers.
Speaking to about 50 people gathered at his National Action Network headquarters in Harlem, the Rev. Al Sharpton urged supporters to "be prepared for the long haul."
"The upside is we have our day in court. The downside is that these lawyers are going to come back and try to make these young people look like the worst people in the world," he said, referring to Bell, 23, Trent Benefield, 23, and Joseph Guzman, 31.
Sharpton said he took "no glee" when word came Friday that a Queens grand jury had indicted three detectives.
The Bell family, as well as the family of Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre Bell, plan to gather in Harlem Sunday morning before traveling to the Queens County Courthouse in Kew Gardens, where the officers will be arraigned, Sharpton said
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On Friday, lawyers for detectives Gescard Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper confirmed a grand jury had indicted their clients.
Sources close to the case said they believe Isnora, an undercover officer who fired the first shot and 10 others, and Oliver, who fired 31 times, will be charged with second-degree manslaughter, and Cooper, who shot four times, will face a charge of reckless endangerment. Michael Carey, who fired three times, and Paul Headley, who fired once, are not expected to be indicted.
Bell and his friends were shot in the confrontation with police after they left Bell's bachelor party at the Kalua Cabaret in Jamaica on the morning of Nov. 25, the same day Bell was to be married. No gun was found at the scene. Police have said that they thought one of Bell's friends was going to get a gun.
Queens District Attorney Richard Brown has scheduled a news conference Mondayy morning to announce the indictments. But the impending charges seemed to offer little satisfaction to more than 100 people gathered at a midday rally Saturday in Union Square Park.
Among chants of "No justice, no peace" and calls for Police Commissioner Ray Kelly to resign, the name of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed man fatally shot by police 19 times in the Bronx in February 1999, and Brooklyn police torture victim Abner Louima were repeatedly invoked.
Four officers charged in the Diallo shooting were acquitted in a trial in Albany. In the Louima case, one officer pleaded guilty to sodomizing Louima with a broomstick in August 1997 and is serving a 30-year prison sentence, while two other officers were convicted of conspiracy to obstruct a grand jury investigation into the attack. In 2002, their convictions were overturned on appeal on the grounds of insufficient evidence.
"We've been through this before," said City Councilman Charles Barron (D-Brooklyn). "Diallo had indictments. Abner Louima had indictments. I think they're setting this up for an acquittal."
Barron, a vocal Police Department critic, questioned how any of the officers could face only a single charge.
"How can four bullets be reckless and 31 not be reckless?" he said. "We should have had multiple indictments ... for all five who acted in concert."
Sources close to the case have said there could be additional, lesser charges against the three officers.
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