NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A New York City judge on Friday ruled Mayor Bill de Blasio, and both the current and former NYPD Commissioner, will not have to testify in a judicial inquiry into Eric Garner’s 2014 chokehold death.
Judge Erika Edwards has excused the New York City mayor, former NYPD Commissioner James O’Neill, current Commissioner Dermot Shea, the city’s chief medical examiner and other high-ranking officials from testifying.
However, in her ruling, Edwards noted that cops at the scene when Garner died and some other top brass – including PBA President Pat Lynch – will have to testify.
Attorney Gideon Oliver, who is representing Garner’s mother Gwen Carr, says the inquiry will provide many answers – but no justice.
“It’s a sunlight inquiry, not the kind of proceeding where there’s a finding of liability at the end, but sunlight,” Oliver said.
Carr said in a statement Friday that she was disappointed that de Blasio and Shea won’t have to testify but, is glad that the city will now have to turn over many undisclosed documents related to her son’s death.
Daniel Pantaleo, the officer who placed Garner in the fatal chokehold will also not be testifying. The NYPD fired him in 2019 after a department disciplinary trial.
The Garner inquiry is focused on several main issues, including the factors leading to his stop, arrest and the use of force, whether officers lied on official documents, the leak of Garner’s arrest history and medical conditions, and allegations that officers failed to provide Garner with medical care.
The city sought to cancel the judicial inquiry, but a state appeals court ruled last week that Garner’s death was the “rare case in which allegations of significant violations of duty” warranted such a review.
During his weekly appearance Friday on WNYC radio, de Blasio spoke about the ruling that exempted him from testifying about Garner’s death.
“The inquiry is about what happened at the scene and the court's going to determine who needs to be a part of that discussion. But, it is not in the eyes of the court, about people who were not there and had nothing to do with the moment. It is about what happened in that horrible, painful moment,” de Blasio said.
Bystander video showed Pantaleo, who is white, wrapping his arm around the neck of Garner, who was Black, as they struggled against a glass storefront window and fell to a Staten Island sidewalk. Officers were trying to arrest Garner for selling loose, untaxed cigarettes.
Garner’s dying gasps of “I can’t breathe” became a rallying cry among police reform activists.
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)