NEW YORK (WCBS 880) — A panel of judges on Thursday rejected Daniel Pantaleo’s bid to get his NYPD job back, saying his dismissal was a fair penalty for putting Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in 2014, according to a report.
Pantaleo filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against the NYPD in August 2019 after the department fired him for violating its chokehold ban.
Three Appellate Division judges on Thursday backed the NYPD’s decision, the New York Post reported.
“Substantial evidence supports respondents’ conclusion that [Pantaleo] recklessly caused injury to Eric Garner by maintaining a prohibited chokehold for 9 to 10 seconds after exigent circumstances were no longer present, thereby disregarding the risk of injury,” the judges wrote in their ruling, according to the outlet.
“Conduct far less serious than [Pantaleo’s] has been found by the Court of Appeals to have a ‘destructive impact… on the confidence which it is so important for the public to have in its police officers,” they added.
An attorney for Pantaleo on Thursday told the outlet the former officer was “obviously disappointed” with the ruling, adding that they would “carefully examine the decision to determine our next course of action.”