NEW YORK _ The New York Police Department's chief surgeon determined that NYPD Police Officer Daniel Pantaleo didn't use a chokehold against Eric Garner, Pantaleo's attorney said Thursday.
The bombshell announcement came during a hearing at One Police Plaza, where next month Pantaleo will be tried on administrative charges that he used excessive force _ a banned chokehold _ as he took Garner to the ground during a confrontation in Staten Island.
Dramatic video of the fatal July 17, 2014, encounter _ first broadcast on the New York Daily News website _ sparked outrage around the world and fueled the Black Lives Matter movement, with Garner 11 times heard saying "I can't breathe."
Defense attorney Stu London said NYPD Chief Surgeon Eli Kleinman was asked by the department's Internal Affairs Bureau to review the Garner case file.
After watching the video, as well as a second video, apparently from inside a store, and reviewing Garner's autopsy, Kleinman, in a report dated Dec. 10, 2014, said Pantaleo never put Garner into a chokehold, according to London. Bill Bratton was police commissioner at the time.
He concluded, London said, that there were no injuries associated with a chokehold, including to Garner's trachea, and that Garner's poor health _ he was obese and suffered from asthma, hypertension and diabetes _ contributed to his death.
"It basically exonerates Officer Pantaleo," London said of the Kleinman report after the hearing. "It indicates that he didn't use a chokehold. It indicates that the prior compromised cardiovascular system of (Garner) really is what lead to his demise. And it couldn't be more positive for Officer Pantaleo.
"I think it's definitely important because if the police department thought his opinion would be not only informative but material and relevant, certainly this tribunal should feel the same way," he said.
The autopsy performed by the city's medical examiner noted Garner's health, but also ruled that a chokehold was used.
Gwen Carr, Garner's mother, pointed out that a medical expert hired by her family, Dr. Michael Baden, reached the same conclusion that a chokehold was used.
"I'm confident," she said.
Pantaleo grappled with Garner, 43, in the midst of arresting him for allegedly selling loose cigarettes in Tompkinsville.
A Staten Island grand jury declined to indict Pantaleo in Garner's death.
The Department of Justice has until July 17 to bring a civil rights case against Pantaleo. It has already reached a decision but has yet to publicize it.
Pantaleo's department trial is set for May 13 before NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado.
About 20 witnesses are expected to testify, including Ramsey Orta, who took the now-famous video, and Dr. Michael Graham, a St. Louis pathologist who is expected to argue there was no chokehold.
Maldonado on Thursday ruled against a motion, made by London, that the charges against Pantaleo should be dismissed. London said the CCRB did not have standing in the case because the complaint about excessive force was made by someone who didn't see the incident and made blatantly false claims about what happened. Maldonado said the woman who filed the complaint said she saw what happened.
