Officers In Sean Bell Case Face Departmental Charges

Keep in mind that although the officers face departmental charges, those charges have been suspended pending a federal investigation into civil rights violations:

The three detectives who stood trial in the case — Detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were charged with “discharging their firearms outside of department guidelines. Detective Isnora was also charged with taking enforcement action while working as an undercover officer instead of letting officers who were present, and not working undercover, take control.

Lt. Gary Napoli, the ranking officer at the scene, faces internal charges of failing to supervise the operation. Sergeant Hugh McNeil and Detective Robert Knapp, of the Crime Scene Unit, were also charged: the detective with failing to thoroughly process the crime scene and the sergeant with failing to ensure a thorough processing was done.

If nothing results from the federal investigation, then the departmental charges will probably go down the drain as well.

Officers In Sean Bell Case May Be Fired

Could the officers, in the Sean Bell case, who were found not guilty by a juror face the possibility of losing their jobs. Well, that depends on what further action the police department takes:

On Tuesday, additional charges were filed accusing the three detectives and one other shooter who wasn't charged in the criminal case with firing outside of police guidelines. Isnora, who followed the men and fired first, also was charged with ''taking enforcement action while acting in an undercover capacity while other non-undercover officers were available.

In addition, the department accused a lieutenant of failing to properly plan the undercover operation, and two more detectives of failing to properly process the crime scene.

The officers are to be tried by an administrative judge, with private attorneys defending the officers. The trial commissioner makes recommendations to police Commissioner Ray Kelly, who has final say. It is unclear when proceedings would begin.

Do you think the officers should be fired?

It's Not Over For Officers In The "Sean Bell " Case

Yes, they have been acquitted, but more may be in store for these officers:

Although detectives Gescard F. Isnora, Michael Oliver and Marc Cooper — were acquitted of criminal charges in Queens on Friday, they and their three colleagues are still facing the specter of a federal civil rights investigation, and the possibility of being brought up on departmental charges. Therefore, all six officers remain in limbo, working without their guns and badges.

Could it be possible that they may be fired---or better yet, serve time in federal prison? It's not over till it's over.

Officers Accused In Sean Bell Case Found Innocent

This news should not surprise many. According to the judge, the witnesses for Sean Bell were not believable. What is ironic is that the judge must want us to believe that the officers were totally believable.

Defense Witness Testifies In 'Sean Bell' Case

Officer Michael Carey, was the first defense witness who testified on Thursday at the trial of three detectives charged in Sean Bell’s death, saying he heard the shouted identification and watched as Mr. Bell drove the car into the detective’s leg.

The Altima surged away from the curb, “the fastest it could from a parked position,” and struck Detective Isnora’s leg, causing a minor scrape, before hitting the unmarked police van in which Officer Carey was a passenger, he said. The Altima then reversed, angling onto the sidewalk near the detective before striking a security gate hard enough to shatter the vehicle’s rear windshield, Officer Carey testified.

“I still heard Detective Isnora yelling, and there were other voices at this point also yelling police commands,” Officer Carey, 27, said, adding that at that moment, he thought the situation had ended.

“I believed at this point that there was no possible way that the people in the car would make any further actions,” he said.

Surgeon Testifies In Sean Bell Case

Mr. Joseph Guzman, the passenger who was shot 19 times while riding in the car with Sean Bell, became the center of attention on Wednesday as the surgeon who kept him alive on Nov. 25, 2006, testified.

Dr. Cooper was the prosecution’s last and, coincidentally, 50th witness in the so-called 50-shot case. He was called to establish the nature of the injuries, which are the basis for the assault charges. Prosecutors rested their case on Wednesday, and the defense is expected to call its first witness, Officer Michael Carey, who fired three shots and was not charged, on Thursday.

Defense To Link Marijuana In Sean Bell Killing

Lawyers for three detectives on trial in Queens in the killing of Sean Bell in 2006 will try to link small bags of marijuana found near the shooting site to one of Mr. Bell’s friends who was wounded and who fled a short distance, perhaps tossing the drugs as he ran.

The wounded friend, Trent Benefield, ran from the back seat of Mr. Bell’s Nissan Altima as the police fired 50 rounds at the car in the belief that someone inside was armed and shooting back, the police have said. Mr. Benefield was stopped on a sidewalk of Liverpool Street, a short distance from the shooting near the Club Kalua in Jamaica, Queens.

The defense is expected to argue that if Mr. Benefield threw the marijuana away, it suggests that he knew the people shooting at them were police officers. Mr. Benefield has told investigators and a grand jury that the police never identified themselves before firing, and that he did not know who the gunmen were. He is expected to testify in the trial.

Commanding Officer At Sean Bell Shooting Testifies

The commanding officer of the detectives charged in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell testified on Friday that believing he was under fire, he drew his gun and pointed it toward the passenger windows of his car that night. He was ready not only for ambush, he said, but ready to add to the fusillade of 50 shots that claimed Mr. Bell’s life.

“If anyone came up on our car, I would have fired,” said the officer, Lt. Gary Napoli, in part of the second-by-second account he gave in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s killing after his bachelor party on Nov. 25, 2006.

The lieutenant also testified that an oft-quoted radio transmission from one of the detectives before the shooting that the situation was “getting hot” was, to his mind, a frantic call for help.

Commanding Officer To Testify About Sean Bell Killing

Lieutenant Gary Napoli, the commanding officer in charge of the accused detectives, will be the first police officer to testify who was at the shooting, as the trial zeros in on the 50 shots fired by the police at Mr. Bell and two of his friends, one of whom, officers said, was suspected of having a gun.

Lieutenant Napoli has described the evening of the shooting in interviews with police investigators. The club enforcement detail had met at the Seventh Precinct station house on the Lower East Side of Manhattan the night before.

Prosecutors contend that the detail was disorganized from the start, its members having chosen their own roles in the night’s mission rather than having received them from Lieutenant Napoli. The lieutenant is scheduled to appear on Thursday as a witness for the prosecutor, but he is expected to receive harsh questioning.

Witness Testifies at trial of Police Officers in Sean Bell Case

The testimony from the dancer, Marseilles Payne, 32, in the trial of three detectives charged in Mr. Bell’s shooting was as dramatic as it was at odds with other accounts of that early morning of Nov. 25, 2006. Ms. Payne’s version more closely resembled an account of road rage, with a single detective opening fire after a car collision, than the chaotic events that the police, prosecutors and the defense have described.

Ms. Payne said she last saw Mr. Bell turn on his car’s headlights on Liverpool Street, in Jamaica, Queens, and pull away from the curb. She was at her car and was going to follow him and his friends to a diner for breakfast after her long night of dancing, she said.

“As he came out, a minivan came from behind me and they crashed,” she said. “The driver of the minivan got out of the car. He got out and he started shooting.” She said she was close enough to see the muzzle flash from his pistol.

“I saw the fire, like, three times and I turned and I ran,” she said, adding that she crouched in someone’s shrubs. “I waited for the gunshots to stop. It was about three seconds, and I started to get up, and the gunshots started again.”

The testimony came on the busy second day of the trial, which also featured accounts of Mr. Bell relaxing and celebrating his coming wedding in what would be the last hours of his life, at the Club Kalua. As the group celebrated, a group of undercover officers was on duty at the club, where prostitution and drug activity were suspected.

Officers Accused of Killing "Sean Bell" go on Trial

Fifteen months to the day after Sean Bell was killed in a blast of 50 police bullets, and after rounds and rounds of court hearings, motions and countermotions, the trial of three of the officers who fired their handguns that cold morning began Monday in State Supreme Court in Queens.

Detective Isnora and Detective Michael Oliver face charges of first- and second-degree manslaughter. A third detective, Marc Cooper, fired four shots and hit no one, but one of his rounds struck an AirTrain terminal, and he was charged with reckless endangerment, a misdemeanor.

Veteran Judge To Preside Over "Sean Bell" Case

Justice Arthur J. Cooperman will preside over the trial of three detectives charged in the 2006 shooting death of an unarmed bridegroom, Sean Bell, outside a strip club in Jamaica, Queens.

The trial will bring more immediate attention to the 74-year-old judge than most criminal trials, because the defendants have waived their rights to a jury, leaving the verdict solely in Justice Cooperman’s hands. The trial is scheduled to begin Feb. 25.