Apr 11, 2007 5:42 pm US/Eastern
Sean Bell Case In Court Amid Bitter War Of Words
QUEENS (CBS/AP) ―
It was a day of scant legal developments in the case of three officers charged in the killing of an unarmed man on his wedding day, but a team of lawyers representing the victim's family still had plenty to say outside court.
The lawyers renewed accusations that police had sought to smear an innocent victim who died in a hail of 50 bullets by peddling a false story that he once shot a drug dealer during a turf war.
"We know they're behind it and it simply must end," attorney Peter St. George Davis told a scrum of reporters after making sure to mention another story with no actual bearing on the case: that one of the accused officers partied at a pricey Manhattan restaurant the day after news was leaked that he'd been indicted.
The scene outside the Queens courthouse on Wednesday reflected a bitter public relations battle over the killing of Sean Bell, a case that's sparked community outrage over police tactics.
Asked recently about the dissection of the officers' private lives, Michael Palladino, president of the Detectives' Endowment Association, complained: "All the opportunists are coming out."
On one side are union officials and defense lawyers who caution that incessant negative publicity may force the officers to seek to have the trial moved out of the city. On the other are family members and their private lawyers who -- while gearing up for a civil claim against the city -- have accused police of trying to taint the jury pool in their favor by portraying the victim as a violent criminal.
"I think it's very unfortunate that we have to face such accusations during this horrible time," Bell's fiancee, Nicole Paultre-Bell, said at one of her recurring appearances with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
Bell, 23, was killed and two of his friends were seriously wounded on the morning of Nov. 25 after his bachelor party at a Queens topless bar. The police shooters, who were conducting an undercover vice operation at the club, claim they believed Bell and his friends were retrieving a gun from his car to settle a dispute.
When one of the officers approached the car, it lurched forward and bumped him, then twice rammed into an unmarked police minivan as the bullets flew until the vehicle stopped, police said.
Last month, the two officers who fired the most rounds, Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, were indicted on manslaughter charges. A third, Marc Cooper, was charged with a misdemeanor for a bullet that struck an elevated train station across the street.
Bell was black, as are the injured men. Two of the officers are black and one is white.
The officers returned to court on Wednesday for a routine pretrial hearing where a judge asked prosecutors to turn over evidence to the defense. Another hearing was set for May 14.
Arriving in a stretch limousine for the hearing were Paultre-Bell, Sharpton and the wounded friends, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield. They and Bell's parents sat on opposite sides of the courtroom from about two dozen union officials and other supporters of the defendants.
The officers and their lawyers were allowed to come and go through a side exit to avoid the commotion out front, including a scattering of protesters. Court administration spokesman David Bookstaver denied that the officers were being given special treatment.
"There is a viable security concern when it comes to these defendants," he said.
The victim's father, William Bell, assured reporters, "I'll be here every day rain or shine ... as long as I get justice for my son."
And the claims his son shot a drug dealer in the buttocks last year? "Stupid," the father said.
News reports last month, citing unnamed police sources, said the dealer had made the accusation following his arrest for riding his bike on a sidewalk.
"I didn't say nothing about Bell," the suspect was quoted as saying in a follow-up report. "I don't want any trouble with this."
Those conflicting stories competed with nightlife dispatches detailing how Oliver -- on the day after being on indicted on charges he fired 31 of the 50 shots -- ran up a $4,200 dinner tab with another man and two women at Nello, an Upper East Side haunt.
Oliver's attorney, James Culleton, later called the reporting a case of "character assassination of my client for the sake of selling newspapers."
(© 2007 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
