USA TODAY International Edition
NYPD officer was made ‘scapegoat,’ lawyer says
The lawyer for New York police officer Daniel Pantaleo said Monday that his client has become a political “scapegoat” for the chaotic arrest of Eric Garner, a black man whose death in 2014 ignited a series of sometimes violent Black Lives Matter protests across the nation.
Members of Garner’s family wept as video of the arrest was shown on the first day of a disciplinary hearing for Pantaleo, 33. If an NYPD judge determines his actions rose to a criminal level, Pantaleo could face punishment ranging from loss of vacation to firing. The hearing is likely to last two weeks.
Pantaleo, who is white, denies wrongdoing. Months after the arrest, a Staten Island jury declined to indict him, a decision that set off angry demonstrations.
Garner, 43, was accused of selling single cigarettes outside a store on Staten Island when officers attempted to arrest him. Pantaleo tumbled to the ground while holding Garner around the head and neck area as other officers leaped into the fray.
Garner repeatedly said, “I can’t breathe” during the arrest, and the phrase became a rallying cry for the Black Lives Matter movement.
The city medical examiner cited the cause of death as “compression of neck (choke hold), compression of chest and prone positioning during physical restraint by police.” Pantaleo’s lawyer Stuart London and the police union denied that Pantaleo used a chokehold maneuver banned by the NYPD.
“We know he (Garner) wasn’t choked out because he is speaking,” London said at the hearing.
The city paid a $5.9 million civil settlement to Garner’s family. Pantaleo has been assigned to administrative duty since Garner’s death.
In 2017, the city’s Civilian Complaints Review Board determined Pantaleo used excessive force. The U.S. Justice Department has been conducting an investigation into Garner’s death.
Mayor Bill de Blasio was noncommittal about the case last week. “It’s not my place to pass judgment; it’s a full trial that needs to take place and once and for all have closure on this case,” de Blasio said on “The Brian Lehrer Show.”