The version of Eric Garner’s death that New York City Police Officer Justin D’Amico told publicly for the first time this week fell apart under cross-examination.
D’Amico was the senior officer that fateful day in July 2014 when Daniel Pantaleo placed Eric Garner in the chokehold that ended his life. The medical examiner ruled that Garner’s death was a “homicide caused by the officer’s use of force.”
The independent Civilian Complaint Review Board has charged Pantaleo with reckless use of a chokehold and intentional restriction of breathing in the 2014 death of Eric Garner. This “disciplinary process plays out like a trial in front of an administrative judge.” The police commissioner will decide if Pantaleo will face any repercussions for Garner’s death.
The NYPD office of internal affairs called Pantaleo’s maneuver a chokehold, and in 2015 Deputy Inspector Charles Barton ordered the lead investigator to recommend disciplinary charges, charges that have yet to be filed. The commanding officer of recruit training at the NY Police Academy also called it a chokehold.
Deliberate mistruth = lie.
Skilled cross-examination skewered D’Amico’s version of events.
Suzanne O’Hare, Deputy Chief Prosecutor for the Civilian Complaint Review Board, took D’Amico down, point-by-point.
First, D’Amico lied on arrest papers when he charged a dead man with a felony. The charge “would have required prosecutors to prove Garner, a small-time street hustler, had sold 10,000 untaxed cigarettes.”
Under cross-examination, D’Amico admitted it was not the correct charge and that Garner had less than 100 cigarettes in his possession when he was killed.
D’Amico knowingly created postmortem charging papers based on a lie. His deliberate fabrication was not merely an “exaggeration” or “inflated charge” as framed by mainstream news. It was a form of cover-up.
Second, D’Amico lied about being able to see Garner sell a loose untaxed cigarette.
D’Amico testified that he and Pantaleo “parked up the block, watching Garner from a distance, until D’Amico saw Garner sell a loose untaxed cigarette.”
