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| NEWS > 03 March 2007 |
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Chicago police officer arreste
A police officer has been arrested in the off-duty beating of a 15-year-old high school student, the Chicago Police Department said Sunday.
Robert Gallegos, who is charged with aggravated battery, appeared on closed-circuit television Sunday afternoon in a Cook County courtroom, where a judge set bond at $100,000... Read more
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New York Times - New York,NY,U
03 March 2007
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Two Who Were Wounded Testify A
Grand jurors investigating the fatal shooting of Sean Bell heard yesterday from two prime witnesses in the case, the two men in a car with Mr. Bell and who were wounded in a hail of 50 police bullets.
The testimony by the two men, Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, signified a zenith in the grand jury process. Their appearances had been telegraphed for weeks by lawyers in the case, but a twist came when Mr. Bell’s fiancée, Nicole Paultre Bell, also arrived to testify.
Mr. Benefield, 23; Mr. Guzman, 31; and Ms. Paultre Bell, 22, entered an office building in Queens where the grand jury was seated at 10 a.m. When they left four hours later, each declined to discuss the testimony.
Michael Hardy, a lawyer for the three, said the witnesses “told exactly what happened that night.”
Mr. Guzman and Ms. Paultre Bell said it was hard to revisit the subject of how Mr. Bell was killed on Nov. 25 outside the Club Kalua strip club in Jamaica, Queens. Mr. Bell, who was 23, and his friends were celebrating his bachelor party just hours before his scheduled wedding.
“Everything I do, every day I walk, now that’s for him,” Ms. Paultre Bell said.
“I lost somebody dear to me that night,” Mr. Guzman said. “It hurts.”
The panel of grand jurors has been meeting as often as three times a week over six weeks in an auditorium-style room inside 80-02 Kew Gardens Road, a high-rise that is three traffic lights west of the criminal courthouse on Queens Boulevard. Its job is clear: to determine whether any of the five officers who opened fire on Mr. Bell’s car will face criminal charges.
The panelists, weighing evidence in the case, have seen numerous exhibits: maps, crime scene photographs, toxicology reports and 911 calls from that day. They have heard from 60 to 70 witnesses, and their proceedings are conducted in secret.
As the days have passed, the witnesses have provided for grand jurors a closer view of the center of the action in the case: Those who were outside Mr. Bell’s car spoke before those inside. What remains to be seen is whether all five officers who fired their guns that morning will sit before the panel; three of the detectives involved are planning to do so, beginning as early as Monday.
The proceedings are winding down, though when they will end is uncertain. The targets of the grand jury, the officers, can ask the panelists to hear witnesses. The prosecutors, in turn, can call their witnesses.
Michael J. Palladino, president of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, said that Detective Paul Headley would testify on Monday, followed on Wednesday by Detective Marc Cooper, and a 28-year-old detective who fired the first of the 50 shots and who has not been officially identified by the authorities because of his undercover status.
Yesterday, Stephen C. Worth, the lawyer for Officer Michael Carey, said that his client would also testify next week. “Officer Carey is relieved that the time has now come for him to tell what he knows to the grand jury,” he said.
No decision has been made about whether Detective Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the shots, will testify before the grand jury, said James J. Culleton, his lawyer.
Three of the officers involved in the shooting are black and two are white. Mr. Palladino seized on that fact to say, “It would be unfair to characterize the shooting, in any fashion, as racially motivated.”
He also defended the officers. “My position is today what it was from the beginning,” he said. “Although it is a tragic set of events, it does not rise to the level of criminality.”
The grand jury proceedings have been so secret that it is hard for anyone to tell what the panelists are doing. Still, some witnesses have spoken with reporters after testifying.
For instance, late on Jan. 29, two men emerged from the grand jury and said they had testified that the many bullets fired by the police came in two bursts.
And on Wednesday, three friends of Mr. Bell, including Jean Nelson, told grand jurors that they did not hear the officers identify themselves as the police before opening fire, according to their lawyer, Charlie King.
Yesterday, much of the emotion of the case was on display when the Rev. Al Sharpton arrived at the courthouse to pray with the witnesses before they testified. Some clasped hands. Mr. Guzman was in a wheelchair, and Mr. Benefield was on crutches.
“How 50 shots would be on three unarmed men on their way from a bachelor party, hoping a few hours later for Sean to wed Nicole,” Mr. Sharpton said. “We waited through the winter to be able to tell the truth.”
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