Garner Inquest to Begin In State Supreme Court

A long-sought inquest into Eric Garner’s death will start Monday, more than seven years after the Staten Island man’s fateful confrontation with NYPD officers. 

The summary inquiry, pressed for by Mr. Garner’s mother and others, will take place remotely,  to the dismay of the petitioners, who had sought in-person appearances and testimony from city and police officials and requested a postponement until courtrooms were once again fully functioning. 

Allege Lack of Transparency

Twelve current and former NYPD officers are scheduled to take the stand during the proceedings before State Supreme Court Justice Erika Edwards, and recount what they recall about what precipitated the 43-year-old Mr. Garner’s showdown with officers on July 17, 2014 when they sought to arrest him for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes in Staten Island’s Tompkinsville neighborhood.

Mr. Garner's mother, Gwen Carr, and the other petitioners claim that city and police officials have not been transparent about either the circumstances that led to Mr. Garner’s death or what took place afterward. Among other matters, they contend that city and police officials filed false documents regarding Mr. Garner’s arrest and made deceptive statements about the NYPD’s investigations into the incident.

They are also seeking clarity about the medical care requested and provided to Mr. Garner as he lay lifeless following his struggle with several officers and a chokehold applied by Officer Daniel Pantaleo, a sequence of events captured on a friend’s video in which Mr. Garner was heard gasping “I can’t breathe” 11 times, and which helped galvanize the Black Lives Matter movement. Officer Pantaleo was fired by then Commissioner James P. O'Neil in August 2019 following an administrative trial that spring. The presiding Judge, Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado, had concluded that the Officer's use of the department-prohibited chokehold “was reckless”  and “constituted a gross deviation” from what's expected of city police.

Focus on 'Other' Cops

While there is a substantial record of that summer day’s events and their aftermath, Alvin Bragg, one of the petitioners’ lawyers and the likely next Manhattan District Attorney, said the inquiry would focus on the actions of the other officers present, which has been a central concern of Ms. Carr and others. She and advocate organizations have claimed those officers were at least in part also responsible for Mr. Garner’s death and have called for their firing as well. 

“We’re going to be probing that and finding out what steps were taken—and not—by our city,” Mr. Bragg said following the Oct. 15 hearing at which Justice Edwards ruled that the proceedings would be conducted remotely rather than in-person. “That’s the nature of this very, very important provision of our Charter Commission—it allows us to examine city officers for violations of duty and neglect of duty. And that is not just the day of the killing, that is all that which took place after that.”

The summary inquiry’s conventions, first outlined in an 1873 city statute enacted in response to corruption during the Boss Tweed era, entitles and enables residents to seek answers from officials when wrongdoing or irresponsibility is suspected. The Garner inquiry is thought to be the first of its type in over a century in the city. 

“While we don’t believe that there is a need for the Summary Inquiry to go forward as so much has already been made public about this tragic event, we look forward to the hearing and satisfying the Court’s order for further transparency concerning the nature and scope of the Department’s investigation into Mr. Garner’s arrest and death,” a city Law Department spokesman, Nick Paolucci, said in an emailed statement. 

Officials Won't Testify

Among those on the witness list are Police Officer Justin D’Amico, the partner of Officer Pantaleo, whose chokehold was cited by the city Medical Examiner as a determining factor in Mr. Garner's death; Sgt. Kizzy Adonis, who arrived at the scene moments after Mr. Garner was taken down by Officer Pantaleo and others; and Lieut. Christopher Bannon, a supervising officer at the 120th Precinct in Staten Island. The Police Benevolent Association’s president, Patrick J. Lynch, who had been on the witness list, has been excused. Police unions did not respond to requests for comment. 

The petitioners had sought testimony from Mayor de Blasio, Chief Medical Examiner Barbara Sampson and top police and fire officials but Justice Edwards nixed those requests, ruling in July that others have better knowledge of the incident and what took place afterward.

“The Mayor was a part of this from the very beginning when my son was murdered,” Ms. Carr said following the hearing earlier this month, adding that Mr. de Blasio knows “the details” of the incident’s aftermath, which she and advocates have said formed part of a cover-up. But she said she was confident that Mr. Bragg and his colleagues would secure needed answers to outstanding questions. 

Mr. Bragg, though, referring to the Mayor and other top officials, said that evidence as a result of questioning “may give us a grounds to re-ask for those witnesses....We may be back before the court for a motion for reconsideration if we’re able to develop additional facts to show her what we believe, which is that they are essential witnesses.”

Seek Compelling Evidence

While the proceeding is not a trial, the petitioners hope that elicited testimony will compel prosecutors to take action against officers who were present during Mr. Garner’s arrest as well as those involved in the incident’s aftermath and investigation.

Joo-Hyun Kang, the director of the advocacy group Communities United for Police Reform and one of the inquiry's eight petitioners, said that although it would be conducted remotely, the inquiry would shed needed light on internal city protocols following serious incidents involving police. 

“We know that is actually dangerous for all New Yorkers if we can’t get transparency or officers fired for misconduct in the most high-profile police murder in New York City in this generation,” she said following the Oct. 15 hearing. That in itself, Ms. Kang said, should demonstrate how difficult it is and would be to secure accountability and transparency in cases of police brutality that do not have the visibility of the Garner case. 

City Sought to Stall 

The city has tried numerous times to forestall the inquiry, principally by appealing court decisions, arguing in part that the matter has already been the subject of numerous investigations, including by the NYPD, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the Staten Island District Attorney’s office, a Staten Island grand jury and the U.S. Department of Justice, and Officer Pantaleo’s administrative trial. 

In July, a four-Justice Appellate Court panel found that the Garner matter as presented by  the petitioners' request was “the rare case in which allegations of significant violations of duty, coupled with a serious lack of substantial investigation and public explanation, warrant a summary inquiry to bring transparency to a matter of profound public importance: the death of an unarmed civilian during the course of an arrest.”

The proceedings are expected to last two weeks. 

Another of the petitioners’ attorneys, Gideon Oliver, said he also was disappointed that the proceedings would not be held in person, noting that he would be in Criminal Court three times during that week to attend to more-routine matters. 

“There is some tension, I think, between the decision that was made and what's going on in the courts in terms of capacity to handle other matters and business,” he said. Still, Mr. Oliver said, “we need all eyes to be on these virtual proceedings...It’s just as important that people show up that way as it would be to show up in person.”