For The Record

A key witness in the Sean Bell case, whose credibility will be a major issue in deciding the fate of the three cops facing trial for last November's fatal shooting, was arrested last week for allegedly assaulting the mother of his infant child.

Trent Benefield, who was one of the passengers in Mr. Bell's car when undercover cops fired 50 shots, killing the driver as he tried to pull away, was charged Sept. 26 with punching Nyla Page Walthrus through his open car window, then slamming the car door into her and grabbing her by the throat.

Mr. Benefield pleaded not guilty and one of his lawyers, Michael Hardy, claimed that the complaint was "a fiction of police officers."

But a Queens judge took it seriously enough to issue an order of protection to the mother of 9-month-old Trent Benefield III.

Detectives Endowment Association President Mike Palladino, who represents the three cops facing criminal charges in Mr. Bell's shooting, said he was "not surprised at all by his arrest" and referred to the criminal records of Mr. Benefield, Mr. Bell and the third person in the car, Joseph Guzman.

"Prior to the Bell shooting, neither Bell, Benefield nor Guzman were gainfully employed or looking for employment, yet their lifestyles included fancy cars and enough money to party into the wee hours of the morning," Mr. Palladino said in a Sept. 27 phone interview. He reiterated his belief that they were supporting themselves through illegal activities at the time of the shooting.

The New York Post reported the day after Mr. Benefield's arrest that one of the Detectives who interviewed him had asked why he wasn't employed and claimed he had responded, "Sharpton and my lawyer don't want me to work. Whatever I want, they give me - whatever I need." The Detective said Mr. Benefield told him he was receiving up to $3,000 a month.

Mr. Hardy and another of Mr. Benefield's attorneys, Sanford Rubenstein, both denied giving him funds, saying that to do so would be unethical. Mr. Rubenstein told the Post, however, that the National Action Network, which is headed by the Rev. Al Sharpton, had given Mr. Benefield money from its victim assistance fund.

"That's what civil rights organizations do," Mr. Rubenstein told the Post. "They help victims."

Mr. Palladino questioned where the National Action Network was getting the money for the victim fund, saying that the lawyers might be using it as a "laundromat" to give cash to their client while they hope to collect many times that amount from the civil suit. He also asked who paid for the attorneys who have represented several other witnesses who were questioned by police about the events leading up to the Bell shooting.

The three Detectives have contended that an undercover officer approached Mr. Bell's vehicle after overhearing Mr. Guzman say that he was going to retrieve a gun following an argument with another patron outside the Club Kalua, a Jamaica bar that the cops had been staking out because of reports of illegal activities on its premises. The undercover cop who initiated the shooting said he did so after Mr. Bell ignored his order to freeze and hit him with the car, then put it in reverse and crashed into a police van.

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After last week's story about State Police openings stated that most of the jobs that would be filled are upstate, one Trooper called us to emphasize that a significant portion of them are not as far north of The Bronx as some would-be applicants might have concluded.

About one-third of the openings each year, she said, are with either Troop F, which patrols Rockland, Orange and Sullivan counties, or Troop K, which operates in Westchester, Putnam and Duchess counties.

Four of those counties, it should be noted, are close enough to the five boroughs that uniformed city workers are permitted to live in them.

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In our story last week about the Correction Officers Benevolent Association's endorsement of Barack Obama for President, we stated that union leader Norman Seabrook first met the Illinois Senator at a June rally in Hartford.

A spokesman for Mr. Seabrook called to say that their acquaintanceship actually goes back to early in the spring, when they were introduced at the California State Democratic Convention in San Diego.