Razzle Dazzle
Bell Cops Consider Climate

By RICHARD STEIER

Add to the list of ways that the criminal case against the three Detectives indicted in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell differs from the one against the four Police Officers who killed Amadou Diallo the fact that the defense attorneys will not make a change of venue their first objective.

"It's something we are going to actively consider, no question about it," acknowledged Phil Karasyk, the attorney for Det. Gescard Isnora, who is charged with manslaughter for firing the initial shots during the Nov. 25 confrontation with Mr. Bell and two companions outside a Queens strip club.

But, he added, he and his fellow lawyers - in contrast to those who successfully defended the Diallo cops once the case was transferred to Albany - will first see whether "we could get a jury that was objective and fair and untainted" before asking the Appellate Division of State Supreme Court to move the case outside Queens.

Sharpton Plays Noncooperation Card

A possible shift became the first battleground following the March 19 unsealing of the first-degree manslaughter indictments against Detectives Isnora and Mike Oliver and one for reckless endangerment against Det. Marc Cooper. Queens District Attorney Richard Brown insisted that the three cops could receive a fair trial in his borough, while the cops' lawyers and the Detectives' Endowment Association indicated they weren't convinced that was true.

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has been particularly prominent in stirring up the sentiment that concerns the DEA and the lawyers, raised the rhetorical ante by threatening to withhold the testimony of the two key prosecution witnesses who were with Mr. Bell when he was shot, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, if a change of venue was granted. It's Mr. Sharpton's favorite card in high-profile trials, going back to the Howard Beach murder in late 1986, when he and two lawyers for the black men assaulted by a white mob succeeded in having then-Queens DA John Santucci bounced from the case in favor of Special Prosecutor Joe Hynes, but it hasn't worked particularly well since then.

Mr. Karasyk and DEA President Mike Palladino say they fear that what has worked is the Reverend Sharpton's whipping up of public sentiment against the three Detectives through street rallies and radio appearances.

The Chief-Leader/Pat Arnow 'EVERY COP'S NIGHTMARE': Detectives' Endowment Association President Mike Palladino says his three members facing criminal charges in the fatal shooting of Sean Bell outside a Queens strip club are enduring 'every cop's nightmare. They left their homes thinking they were going to enforce the law, and before the end of the tour the law was being enforced against them.'

Mr. Palladino is also concerned about the impact of the over-the-top statements made by Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron, who's campaigned hard for the role of Toxic Avenger with statements like, "If the system doesn't protect us, we have to protect ourselves from killer cops by any means necessary."

"At least Sharpton has some type of strategy," Mr. Palladino said during a March 21 interview. "Barron has no strategy other than to threaten the public with violence or rioting. The problem is, when you are going to a grand jury process and you have a controversial case like this one, even influencing one or two jurors can make a big difference."

He was referring to the fact that the Bell grand jury made its decisions based on a majority vote. Even in a criminal trial, where the verdict has to be unanimous, Detective Palladino said, "The threat of violence can be like the threat of a strike, where the threat is more effective than the strike itself."

Concerned by Mayor's Early Remarks

He said he understands that much of the potential jury pool in Queens is unlikely to be influenced by Mr. Sharpton, and that Mr. Barron would sway even fewer people. Of greater concern to Detective Palladino is the impact of Mayor Bloomberg's remarks to this point about the case.

Two days after the shooting last November 25, the Mayor said it was "hard to understand" why cops had fired 50 shots at Mr. Bell and his companions, adding that it "sounds excessive."

Although that reflected the sentiments of many New Yorkers who did not yet have many of the details of the incident, Mr. Palladino argued that Mr. Bloomberg was not in a position to react like the average person on the street.

"He relinquished that [right] when he became Mayor," he said. "He's a good Mayor and he's a popular Mayor, and people listen. I wish he would have just remained neutral. 'Inexplicable' and 'excessive' were very damaging words."

Mr. Karasyk declined to cite Mr. Bloomberg by name, but he said he believed "the conduct of the politicians in this case has been just as prejudicial" as that of Messrs. Sharpton and Barron. Both he and Mr. Palladino mentioned the City Council's hearings on the shooting, which Speaker Christine Quinn turned into Town Hall meetings at which the public has been invited to speak, as contributing to an atmosphere that is biased against the Detectives.

Referring to "Sharpton and his crew," Mr. Karasyk said, "They originally tried to play the race card until they realized that wasn't going to work," because three of the five cops involved in the shooting - including two of those under indictment - are black. "So then they put the whole department on trial. They were calling for these officers' heads before they knew even 1 percent of the facts. That's their move before every case unless the perp had a gun in his hand at the time."

Costly Meal for Oliver

Those looking to sway public sentiment against the cops got some unexpected help from Detective Oliver, who the night after it was disclosed that he would be indicted was the guest of honor at a $4,200 dinner at Nello's. Mr. Palladino and Mr. Karasyk contended that he was pilloried in the media for something that should have no bearing on the case.

The two prime outlets in highlighting his big night out were the Post and the Daily News, both of which have generally been sympathetic to the cops, and it was mentioned to Mr. Karasyk that they played up the story because that's what the tabloids do when a juicy lapse in judgment occurs, whether it was Detective Oliver's dinner or Laura Blackburne's $3,000 pink couch when she ran the Housing Authority.

"But that has an effect," Mr. Karasyk said. "It may be 'what they do'; it doesn't mean that it's right."

Mr. Palladino is particularly sensitive to the way perceptions are shaped for reasons that go beyond his role as head of the union representing the three Detectives. "I've stood there in their shoes," he said, noting that 25 years ago, as an Anti-Crime Unit cop assigned to the 52nd Precinct in The Bronx, he had to go before a grand jury following a fatal shooting, and was cleared of any wrongdoing.

'Manslaughter Excessive'

"My position from the beginning of [the Bell case] was the officers were justified, so I was optimistic that reasonableness would prevail and there would be no [charges brought]," he said. "I was surprised not only that the indictments came but that there was Manslaughter 1," referring to the top count against Detectives Isnora and Oliver. "I thought that was excessive."

The legal definition of manslaughter is having the intent to cause serious injury but with death resulting. Detective Palladino remarked, "Any time you've made the conscious decision to use your weapon, I don't know too many gunshots that wouldn't be intended to cause serious injury."

He added, in what sounded like a preview of the defense case at trial, "It was Bell's actions that caused the officers to rise to that level and use their weapons. Everybody tries to draw a comparison with Diallo, but I think their actions are more justified [than those of the Street Crime Unit officers who confronted Mr. Diallo not because they believed a deadly crime was imminent but because they thought he fit the description of a rape suspect]. Bell was intoxicated. Obviously his judgment was impaired and he disregarded the undercover's instructions, struck him with the vehicle and then hit the police van."

The public reaction to the Diallo shooting was aimed at least as much toward then-Mayor Rudy Giuliani and his policing policies as it was toward the four SCU cops who fired 41 shots at an unarmed man. Public opinion was shaped after that shooting eight years ago not by a sitting Mayor but by the large number of elected officials - including former Mayors David Dinkins and Ed Koch, a longtime Sharpton antagonist - who joined Reverend Al in daily protests outside 1 Police Plaza and were arrested for doing so.

Although Bronx juries have long been widely regarded as less sympathetic to cops than those elsewhere, the lawyers for the Diallo cops did not look to move the case to another borough, or a neighboring jurisdiction such as Westchester County. Nor did they seek to have the cops tried by a judge in the city, as was their right. Instead they went directly to the Appellate Division arguing that the pre-trial publicity made it impossible for their clients to get a fair hearing anywhere near New York City. The Appellate Division, rather than asking them to at least try to empanel a jury here before concluding that the pool had been poisoned, granted a change of venue to Albany, where the jury pool was bound to be whiter and more pro-police. The trial judge, Joseph Teresi, had a reputation for being biased toward cops, one he did nothing to dispel following their acquittal when he attended the officers' victory celebration.

Pro-Police, or Just Tough?

The Queens Supreme Court Justice chosen at random to try the Bell case, Arthur Cooperman, was labeled "tough on those who hate police" by a Daily News headline. The accompanying article cited the long prison sentence he imposed 17 years ago for a man convicted of murdering two Detectives, and his giving the maximum sentence of one year to a man convicted of shooting a cop after then-Justice Blackburne had freed him on a technicality.

But he also sent to prison two cops convicted of using a stun-gun to torture a suspected marijuana dealer in 1985 in the 105th Precinct stationhouse. And so it may be that rather than having pro-cop tendencies, Justice Cooperman is tough on anyone whose misdeeds warrant it.

Mr. Karasyk, who noted that a trial is probably a year away, said if the attorneys for the Detectives opted to take their chances in Queens, having Justice Cooperman decide the case would eliminate worries about a jury being influenced by Mr. Sharpton and his associates. Detective Cooper's attorney, Paul Martin, told the News that he is considering having his client's case severed from those of his colleagues facing more serious charges.

All three cops, Detective Palladino said, are "very, very concerned. It's every cop's nightmare when you're labeled a defendant. They left their homes thinking they were going to enforce the law, and before the end of the tour the law was being enforced against them. It's not just their careers or their pensions - they're facing serious prison time."

'Deserve Benefit of Doubt'

Actually that's true primarily for Detectives Isnora and Oliver, who could face up to 25 years behind bars if convicted of the top charge; Detective Cooper would get no more than a year for a reckless endangerment verdict. "They should be given the benefit of the doubt," the DEA president insisted. "You have only a split second to make a decision, and you act on what you've perceived. Good faith should yield a margin of error. I'm worried about the message that it sends to law-enforcement, because [future] hesitation could cost someone else their own life."

He summed up, "It's not a video game - you can't press re-set."