NYPD cop stomped on man’s head during Brooklyn arrest like he was a ‘roach’ he intended to kill, prosecutor says

from New York Daily News – April 26, 2016

The trial for an NYPD officer accused of stomping on a man’s head while trying to arrest him began Tuesday with strong opening statements from both sides.

Officer Joel Edouard’s action was like “stomp(ing) on a roach that you intend to kill,” prosecutor Marc Fliedner told the room inside Brooklyn Supreme Court.

Fliedner described the cop as “fueled by his own blind and uncontrolled anger” when he allegedly cuffed and then attacked Jahmiel Cuffee in Bedford-Stuyvesant during a marijuana-related arrest on July 23, 2014.

Read the full story on the Daily News website.

NYPD Officer Convicted of Manslaughter in Fatal Stairwell Shooting of Unarmed, Innocent Black Man

from People – February 12, 2016

Peter Liang, MARY ALTAFFER/AP

Peter Liang, the police officer who fatally shot an innocent and unarmed black man in a New York City public housing stairwell in 2014, was found guilty Thursday of second degree manslaughter and official misconduct.

Liang and his partner were conducting a so-called vertical patrol in the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York, Brooklyn, when Liang pulled out his service revolver and pushed open a door leading to a darkened stairwell, according to a press release by Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson.

…

CNN reports that Assistant District Attorney Marc Fliedner told jurors during the trial, “In fact, instead of calling for help, he just stood there and whined and moaned about how he would get fired.”

Read the full story on the People website.

Akai Gurley shooting: Jury finds police officer guilty of manslaughter

from CNN – February 11, 2016

New York Officer Charged in Akai Gurley’s Fatal Shooting Goes on Trial

from The New York Times – January 25, 2016

Officer Peter Liang, who faces charges in the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley, leaving State Supreme Court in Brooklyn on Monday. Credit Bryan R. Smith for The New York Times

At about 11 o’clock on the night of Nov. 20, 2014, Melissa Lopez was in her kitchen in the Louis H. Pink Houses in East New York. Her partner was getting ready for his workday, which started at midnight, and her two girls were in their rooms.

She heard a single gunshot from the stairwell, which was next to her apartment. A couple of minutes later there was a knock at her apartment door.

“I paused for a second; me and my husband looked at each other,” she testified Monday in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn. When she looked through the peephole, she saw a woman she knew from the building, Melissa Butler.

…

“Akai Gurley is dead today because he crossed paths with Peter Liang, who is sitting here,” Marc J. Fliedner, a prosecutor who is the chief of the civil rights bureau at the Brooklyn district attorney’s office, said in his opening statement, which at one point found him on his knees, demonstrating how Ms. Butler had bent over Mr. Gurley’s body.

Read the full story on the New York Times website.

Brooklyn creep gets 20 years for brutal plexiglass attack on transgender woman

from New York Daily News – January 14, 2016

Mashawn Sonds, 26, (in gray sweater) claimed that he knew a juror in his trial. (BYRON SMITH/FOR NEW YORK DAILY NEWS)

Before a Brooklyn man was sentenced to 20 years in prison for seriously injuring a transgender woman, he made a last ditch effort to throw out the verdict by revealing he knew a juror.

Mashawn Sonds was quickly found guilty by a jury last month for swinging a two-by-four piece of plexiglass at Kimball “Kimy” Hartman’s head in October 2014 after his co-defendant Tyquan Eversley verbally and physically assaulted her with anti-gay slurs.

…

Sonds faced up to 25 years in prison for first-degree assault as a hate crime charge, but Assistant District Attorney Marc Fliedner recommended for Justice Danny Chun to sentence Sonds to 20 years.

Read the full story on the Daily News website.

Brooklyn DA Thompson Sets Up Hate Crimes Unit

from the Wall Street Journal – September 29, 2014

DA’s Move Follows a 30% Increase in Such Offenses This Year; Prosecution Is ‘Notoriously Difficult’

Marc Fliedner will lead the new hate-crimes unit in the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office. CRAIG WARGA FOR THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson has created a unit dedicated to investigating hate crimes, coinciding with a steep rise in reports of racially and religiously motivated attacks across the borough.

While Kings County has historically been known as an ethnic melting pot, Brooklyn in recent years has consistently led the other boroughs in hate crime attacks, according to law-enforcement data.

The new unit will initially have five prosecutors and will be led by Marc Fliedner, Mr. Thompson’s civil rights bureau chief.

As part of the district attorney’s investigative division, the unit will give the prosecutors access to advanced tools more commonly used in organized crime syndicate investigations.

Read the full story on the Wall Street Journal website (subscription may be required).