NEW YORK _ The long-awaited disciplinary trial of NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the "chokehold" death of Eric Garner began on Monday with both sides quoting Garner in their opening statements, but it took an emotional turn when a video of the encounter was shown.
It likely will be the most closely watched disciplinary trial in NYPD history, given the global attention Garner's death has attracted since 2014. The incident was captured on cellphone video and fed into a national debate about the use of excessive force by police when dealing with members of minority groups, particularly black men.
Pantaleo is charged with one count of attempted reckless assault and one count of strangulation in the July 17, 2014, incident on Staten Island. Pantaleo, then 29, had joined Officer Justin Damico to deal with ongoing quality of life issues on Bay St. in Tompkinsville, including the selling of loose cigarettes.
In the melee that ensued, Garner, then 43, was brought to the ground and went into medical distress, pleading 11 times, "I can't breathe." Garner lost consciousness and was declared dead about an hour later at Richmond University Medical Center
Lawyers for both sides used Garner's own words in their opening statements _ albeit to achieve different ends.
"I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe. I can't breathe,' said Jonathan Fogel, a lawyer for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, which is prosecuting Pantaleo. "Eric Garner pleads for air and he's ignored. Instead of giving him aid, Officer Daniel Pantaleo buries this helpless man's head in the pavement, pushes his face into the ground, indifferent to his cries for help. Minutes later he would go unconscious. Minutes later he would die."
"He gave the victim a death sentence over loose cigarettes," Fogel said. "He applied pressure to his neck and he did not let go."
Pantaleo's lawyer Stuart London quoted Garner as saying during the incident, "'Every time you see me, you want to mess with me. I'm tired of it. This stops today. I'm done.'"
"These words, your honor, constitute the beginning of his efforts to resist arrest," London said. He then argued that Pantaleo had used an NYPD-approved takedown technique because he was afraid they were going to crash though a store window. He said Pantaleo never constricted Garner's breathing.
He said that when Pantaleo had his hands on Garner's face when Garner was down, it was part of department approved training. "The expression goes, control the head, control the body," he said.
The video was taken by Garner's friend Ramsey Orta. Published by the Daily News, it sparked protests marked by the rallying cry: I can't breathe. Protesters accused police of brutality, not immediately providing medical aid, and not promptly calling for an ambulance.
Orta, for his part, said that while he himself had bought loosies int he past from Garner when police arrived Garner had just broken up a fight between a man he knew as Twin and another man. Garner, he said, was not selling loosies that day though he said Damico insisted that was the case.
Both sides tried to use the video to bolster their cases when it was shown on Monday. CCRB lawyers slowly went through the video, pausing it at times so Orta could explain what was happening. Orta watched the video and offered details via a video link from an upstate prison where he is serving four years for gun possession, menacing, drug possession and sales and possession of stolen property.
Orta hung his head at times as the video played, and he appeared to be crying. He buried his head in his hands.
The video showed Pantaleo with his arm around Garner's neck for about eight seconds. As it played, Garner's mother Gwen Carr was reduced to tears, and his sister Ellisha Garner sobbed when her brother told cops, "I can't breathe." Carr twice left the courtroom, the second time with Ellisha Garner, along with the Rev. Al Sharpton.
London tried to portray Orta, now 27, as unreliable. Orta testified that he had been paid $2,000 by the Daily News for the video and that he receives royalties when it is played. Under questioning by London, Orta said he has earned $15,000 from selling the rights to the video.
To win the case, the CCRB has to convince NYPD Trials Commissioner Rosemarie Maldonado that Pantaleo went beyond violating the patrol guide and committed a crime. The NYPD banned the use of chokeholds in 1993.
Pantaleo's lawyers have to convince Maldonado that he did not use a chokehold or intend to kill or injure Garner in the encounter. They will also argue that Pantaleo was merely following his NYPD training.
Garner's mother Gwen Carr wants Pantaleo fired, and she wants Sgt. Kizzy Adonis tried for her role in the encounter. Carr also wants the other officers who responded to be disciplined for failing to intervene. Notably, a sergeant named Dhanan Saminath who allegedly said in a police report that Garner "did not appear to be in great distress," a claim that is widely disputed by Garner's supporters.
