Sep 8, 2007 8:05 am US/Eastern
Judge Rejects Sean Bell Case Officers' Request
Officers Will Face Criminal Charges In Shooting Death
NEW YORK (AP) ―
A judge has rejected a defense request to dismiss criminal charges against three police officers in the shooting of an unarmed man on his wedding day, clearing the way for a trial early next year.
At a brief hearing on Friday in Queens, State Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman denied the motion by lawyers for Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora and Marc Cooper.
District Attorney Richard Brown said afterward that he expects the case to go to trial on Jan. 7, 2008 -- more than 13 months after the shooting. "I'm quite satisfied with the progress of the case," Brown said.
Defense attorneys were still considering whether to ask an appeals court to move the trial out of Queens because of negative publicity, said Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association.
"That's definitely an option that is open to us," Palladino said.
Sean Bell, 23, was gunned down on Nov. 25, 2006, just hours before his wedding, as he left his bachelor party. The officers were conducting an undercover operation into alleged prostitution at the Kalua Cabaret in Queens, where the party was held.
According to police union officials and defense lawyers, the undercover officers believed Bell and his friends were going to get a gun. The officers started shooting after a car lurched forward, bumped Isnora and slammed into an unmarked police minivan, authorities said.
Isnora, through his attorney, has said he pulled his gun and identified himself as a police officer before spotting one of the men inside the car making a suspicious move.
Isnora squeezed off 11 shots, Cooper fired four times and Oliver fired 31 shots—including the one that killed Bell. Bell's friends, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, survived serious wounds, and have since claimed the officers fired without warning.
In his written decision, the judge also dismissed a bid by Cooper for a separate trial.
"The officers were working together on a team and, for the most part, were privy to the same information," the judge said. "Proof of the charges against all three defendants would involve essentially the same evidence and would be appropriately presented in the same trial."
Friday's hearing was attended by activist Al Sharpton; Nicole Paultre Bell, who legally took her fiancé's name after his death; Guzman and Benefield. "I miss Sean Bell," Benefield told reporters outside court. "We need justice."
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