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."
Benefield denied the charges and his lawyer Sanford Rubenstein said his client was being unfairly targeted because Benefield is testifying against the police. Benefield was wounded in the November 2006 shooting (a barrage of 50 bullets) which killed his friend Sean Bell, the night before his wedding, and wounded their friend Joseph Guzman. Benefield's girlfriend Page-Walthrus had no signs of injury and refused to cooperate with police but court papers say she admitted to being shoved and that she recommended counseling for Benefield. She also allegedly received an order of protection against Benefield as well.
The Post reports a police source's story that Benefield told authorities he was unemployed because "Sharpton and my lawyer don't want me to work" and that "Whatever I want they give me - whatever I need. Every month they give me whatever I need." Rubenstein said that the his client is receiving aid from the Reverend Al Sharpton's National Action Network's victim assistance fund. Rubenstein and Benefield's other lawyer MIchael Hardy vehemently denied giving him money from their own pockets.
The Detectives' Endowment Association president Michael Palladino, who has supported the undercover officers who fired upon Bell, Benefield and Guzman, said, "I'm not surprised by the arrest. Benefield, Guzman and Bell all have criminal histories and that's why they ran from police that night."
Three police officers were indicted in Sean Bell's death earlier this year. They have all pleaded not guilty.
Photograph of Trent Benefield leaving the hospital last December
