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Bell Mystery Witness Doesn't Live Up To Hype

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Mar 16, 2007 12:40 am US/Eastern

Bell Mystery Witness Doesn't Live Up To Hype

Janitor's Testimony May Have Hurt Cops More Than Helped

CBS 2's Coverage Of The Death of Sean Bell

CBS 2 investigative reporter Scott Weinberger contributed to this story.
QUEENS (CBS) ― It was another late night of deliberations in the Sean Bell grand jury investigation. But while a decision was not made Thursday night, there are now new details about the so-called bombshell witness.

Those notorious 50 shots shattered more than just the silence of a November morning and the life of a groom on his wedding day.

The gunfire ripped a hole through our perception of cops versus criminals. Because the targets of the police gunfire were unarmed -- and the officers themselves now face the possibility of criminal indictments.

Then ... a surprise witness comes forward after the grand jury began deliberating. In an unusual move, the Queens district attorney halted the deliberations to allow the new witness to testify.

"If indictments were returned without this evidence being presented, one or more of the officers who were indicted could move to dismiss the indictment, based on prosectors' failure to submit this to the grand jury," Professor James A. Cohen said.

Attorneys for the five NYPD officers predicted the witness, a Queens janitor named Roberto Minaya, would exonerate their clients, testifying about a fourth man in Sean Bell's car and seeing him fire a handgun a police before fleeing into the night.

While grand jury testimony is kept secret, CBS 2 has learned the witness' 45-minute appearance was not the expected bombshell, and actually contradicted the officers' own statements to the grand jury.

With that, jurors resumed deliberations and the city once again braced for their ultimate decision.

(© MMVII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)

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© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.