NYPD Judge Calls for Firing Officer in Eric Garner Chokehold Case

(Bloomberg) -- A New York Police Department administrative judge ruled that a white officer should be fired for his actions five years ago for the choking of Eric Garner, an unarmed black man whose death while under arrest helped ignite the national Black Lives Matter movement.

NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, who presided over disciplinary hearings in May, recommended Officer Daniel Pantaleo be dismissed for the July 2014 incident, according to the board. Garner, 43, was killed in a confrontation with police on a Staten Island sidewalk for selling untaxed cigarettes. A viral video showed Pantaleo subduing Garner with a chokehold, which the department prohibits, as Garner cried, “I can’t breathe.”

“Today’s decision confirms what the Civilian Complaint Review Board always has maintained: Officer Daniel Pantaleo committed misconduct on July 17, 2014, and his actions caused the death of Eric Garner,” the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which prosecuted the case said Friday in a news release. “The evidence the CCRB’s prosecutors brought forth at trial was more than sufficient to prove that Pantaleo is unfit to serve.”

A final decision on the officer’s future will be made by Police Commissioner James O’Neill later this month. Since the incident, Pantaleo has been on modified desk duty, drawing salary and benefits totaling more than $100,000 a year. Effective today and pending O’Neill’s decision, Pantaleo has been suspended without pay for 30 days, as is the longstanding practice in these matters when the recommendation is termination, said police department spokesman Phillip Walzak.

The deaths of Garner and Michael Brown, an unarmed black 18-year-old shot by a white police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, served as flash points, prompting nationwide demonstrations. Garner’s death also has harmed Mayor Bill de Blasio’s relationship with the department’s rank-and-file officers, as the mayor pushed to equip officers with body cameras and institute department-wide sensitivity training to de-escalate hostile encounters.

The incident has drawn national attention to de Blasio’s record as mayor as he embarks on a long shot presidential campaign. During this week’s televised debate between Democratic candidates for 2020, rivals said he should have fired Pantaleo five years ago. Demonstrators disrupted the debate shouting “Fire Pantaleo!” and “I can’t breathe!” until they were removed from the audience.

A Staten Island grand jury declined to prosecute Pantaleo in 2014, and last month the U.S. Justice Department also said it would not charge the officer after a five-year review. De Blasio said he regretted waiting for those agencies’ to review the case before instituting disciplinary action. The mayor has repeatedly said federal prosecutors asked him to defer any action while they reviewed the case.

In January 2015, James McGovern, the chief of the Justice Department’s criminal division under then President Barack Obama “requested we hold our process while they conducted their own” and Attorney General Loretta Lynch repeated the request six months later, de Blasio press secretary Freddi Goldstein said.

“Today for the first time in these long five years, the system of justice is working,” de Blasio said during a City Hall news conference. “Today we finally saw a step toward justice and accountability. We saw a process that was fair and impartial and I hope that this will now bring the Garner family a sense of closure.”

Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, continued to blame de Blasio and the police department who she said “put up roadblocks and delays at every step of the way.” She also demanded disciplinary trials for at least three other officers involved in arresting her son.

Pat Lynch, president of the Police Benevolent Association, the patrol officers’ union, vowed to appeal the decision in court if O’Neill doesn’t reverse it, calling it “pure political insanity” in response to pressure from the mayor.

“If allowed to stand,” he said, “it will paralyze the NYPD for years to come.” Citing state and federal prosecutors’ decisions not to charge Pantaleo with a crime, Lynch said “this judge ignored the evidence and trampled P.O. Pantaleo’s due process rights.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Henry Goldman in New York at hgoldman@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Flynn McRoberts at fmcroberts1@bloomberg.net, Michael B. Marois, William Selway

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.