Results tagged “michaelpalladino”

Under intense scrutiny from the community and media, the trial of three police officers in the fatal shooting of an unarmed man started today. Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora face manslaughter charges while Detective Mark Cooper is charged with reckless endangerment in the 2006 death of Sean Bell, who was killed hours before his wedding when his bachelor party crossed paths with an undercover police operation.

The three police officers facing trial for the November 2006 shooting of an unarmed man are requesting to their trial moved from Queens. Lawyers for Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper claim they won't be able to get a fair trial in Queens, blaming media attention for "incurably poison[ing]" any potential jury pool.

Trent Benefield, one of the victims in the undercover police shooting of three unarmed men outside a Queens nightclub last year, was arrested Tuesday night for attacking is girlfriend on a street. Plainclothes officers reportedly saw Benefield yelling, "F------ bitch!" before, per the Daily News, "he leaned out his car window and punched Nyla Page-Walthrus, 19, in the throat," "smacked her with the vehicle's door, grabbed her by the neck and hit her in the face."

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The three police officers indicted in the shooting death of unarmed Queens resident Sean Bell will be headed to the Queen County courthouse today, and police presence will be increased. The lawyers for the three detectives, Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper, will be discussing issues such as change of venue, but a number of threats against the trio, including what WABC 7 describes as a "high ranking gang member" threatening to "have an associate shoot Oliver here at the courthouse during one of the hearings in retaliation for Sean Bell's death," has prompted further security.

Ronell Wilson, who was found guilty and sentenced to death in January for the 2003 murder of two undercover police officers, was formally sentenced yesterday. The prosecution and defense argued their positions on the sentence once again, and then Wilson, who did not speak during the entire trial, said:

"I would like to say that since there’s no jury here — like the prosecutors had said plenty of times that I had to prove to them — I’d like to say to the families of the victims that I’m sorry, I’m very sorry for the pain that I really caused you. I know it don't mean much and you still look at me as the lowest thing on Earth, but in my heart I tell you that I'm very sorry again...

Continue reading "Staten Island Cop Killer Faces Death"

Hot potato no more? After the local papers seized on information (leaked by police sources) that a drug dealer claimed that Sean Bell, who was shot by police in November, shot him last summer, the man has come forward to deny he identified Bell as his assailant. Anthony Jeffers told the Daily News, "Here and there I sell drugs in the neighborhood. But I didn't say nothing about Sean Bell. I don't want no trouble with any of this. I called the cops today and told them that."

Three detectives were charged in the November 2006 shooting of Sean Bell outside a Queens nightclub, and all three pleaded not guilty. Two of the police officers, Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, face serious charges that include first-degree and second-degree manslaughter (it was originally thought they would only face second-degree manslaughter), while Detective Marc Cooper faces charges of reckless endangerment. When asked how he would plea, Isnora's lawyer Philip Karasyk said, "Not guilty of each and every count of the indictment."

Update: The NYPD will have to be on alert on Monday now? Earlier, WNBC reported that the grand jury investigating the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell has reached a verdict but will wait until Monday to release it. But now a defense lawyer says the jury voted to indict three of the detectives involved: Michael Oliver who fired 31 shots, Gescard F. Isnora who fired the first of 11 shots, and Marc Cooper. Cooper's lawyer Paul Martin said, "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."

The first day of grand jury deliberations in the Sean Bell shooting case ended without a verdict, but a new witness may have emerged.

Toxicology reports now show that Sean Bell, the unarmed man who was killed in a barrage of police bullets hours before his wedding, had a blood alcohol level twice the legal limit. Which gives the groups representing the police some soundbites regarding the events of the night. The Detectives' Endowment Association president Michael Palladino said, "[This report] gives some insight into why Sean Bell acted the way he did behind the wheel. His behavior was reckless and life-threatening to the officer he hit. If the reports are true, his judgment was impaired."

On what would have been his wedding day, Sean Bell's friends and family, as well as other activists, politicians, and members of the community, held a vigil/protest/rally for Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. Bell was killed during a confrontation with the police after his bachelor party at the Queens strip club Kalua Lounge on Saturday morning. Guzman and Benefield were injured and remain in the hospital. The police fired 50 shots in less than a half minute on the friends' car; the three men were unarmed. An undercurrent of the shooting is race: The three men were black and Hispanic, while there were two white, two black and one Hispanic police officers.