'Leaks, lies and no answers': Family still demanding justice 6 years after Eric Garner's death
NEW YORK — There have been “leaks, lies and no answers” for six years about the death of Eric Garner at the hands of NYPD officers, lawyers for the Staten Island man’s family argued Monday.
Like this oft-repeated detail: Garner was selling untaxed cigarettes before his caught-on-video bust.
“One officer from a football field away said he saw Eric Garner selling smokes,” lawyer Alvin Bragg said at a virtual court hearing. “Another said he saw Eric Garner trying to break up a fight. Allow us to explore the underlying facts that have not yet been determined.”
Bragg’s impassioned plea to Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Joan Madden came during the second day of oral arguments concerning a proposed judicial inquiry into Garner’s death.
The suit brought by Garner’s mother, Gwen Carr, his sister Ellisha Flagg-Garner and six other allies and police reform advocates demands an inquiry be held to investigate, once and for all, the circumstances surrounding the stop, arrest, and death of Garner on July 17, 2014.
Mayor Bill de Blasio, former police Commissioner James O’Neill and FDNY Commissioner Daniel Nigro are all named as respondents in the suit, court papers show.
Ex-cop Daniel Pantaleo’s May 2019 departmental trial culminated in his firing, yet yielded few answers to outstanding factors in the case, Carr said Monday.
“That was just a little justice,” the slain man’s mother said at a virtual news conference Monday. “There were so many other officers. There were officers who lied on the official report.”
The suit also seeks answers surrounding subsequent probes of alleged police misconduct and the lack of medical care Garner received at the scene, lawyers say.
Carr and the other petitioners are not asking that a judge make any factual or legal determination in the notorious case.
They just want the facts on the record.
“There are questions about what happened leading up to Eric Garner’s death, including why the officers were really there, what they were doing, what they saw and didn’t see,” Gideon Oliver, who represents the petitioners, told the New York Daily News.
“The videos don’t show him selling untaxed cigarettes, and the statements on the videos say that he was trying to break up a fight — and that’s what witnesses also say. The people who say something else happened are the police. Including a police officer who lied in official paperwork and never faced any consequences.”
That officer, Justin D’Amico, filed a tax law felony charge against Garner after his death alleging he was in possession of at least 10,000 cigarettes, 22,000 cigars or more than 400 pounds of tobacco, court papers show.
In reality, Garner was carrying four sealed packs of untaxed Newports, plus a fifth pack that had been opened and had 15 cigarettes in it, according to authorities.
Deputy Commissioner Rosemarie Maldonado, who oversaw Pantaleo’s departmental trial, found D’Amico had not been truthful in filing the paperwork — but he never faced disciplinary charges.
City Law Department attorney Stephen Kitzinger on Monday doubled down on his previous arguments, claiming city leaders did not neglect their duties in failing to seek discipline for the other officers as they were not obligated to do so.
“It’s not a duty,” he said. “It’s discretionary.”
Following the hearing, Garner’s family members said they were “floored” by the lawyer’s characterization.
“It’s very disturbing to hear that this is the way that they think about things,” Ellisha Flagg-Garner said. “We need some better leaders inside the Police Department, because obviously, the ones we have are trash.”
Madden did not indicate when she would issue a written decision in the case.
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