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Defense Undercuts Key Witnesses
Undermined Witness Mr. Palladino alluded to the success defense attorneys had during their cross-examination of the two other men in the car with Mr. Bell, Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, as well as testimony by other prosecution witnesses that appeared to establish justification for the cops' actions during the Nov. 25, 2006 shooting. He said he believed there was a strong likelihood of acquittal without taking the risks inherent in opening the three Detectives to cross-examination. Mr. Palladino predicted the defense would rest its case either the following day - as this newspaper appears on the stands - or on April 10 following a one-day court recess. The DEA leader said there was a chance that the trial, which is being held without a jury before Queens Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman, could produce a verdict by the end of the week. Dets. Gescard Isnora and Michael Oliver have been charged with manslaughter by the Queens District Attorney's Office and would face up to 25 years in prison if convicted. Det. Marc Cooper was indicted on the lesser charge of reckless endangerment. Cop Backs Isnora After nearly six weeks of presentation by the prosecution, the defense case began April 3 with testimony from Police Officer Michael Carey, who fired three of the 50 shots discharged by police that left Mr. Bell dead and Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield seriously wounded. He was not criminally charged. Officer Carey contradicted the claims made by several friends of Mr. Bell, as well as by his two passengers, that when Detective Isnora approached their car near the Kalua Cabaret in Jamaica, he never identified himself as a police officer. That is a crucial issue because the prosecution contends that the failure to identify himself led the three men in the car to believe they might be potential victims of a carjacking and prompted Mr. Bell to try to flee. His car struck Detective Isnora during his aborted getaway, as well as crashing into a minivan that two backup officers, Detective Oliver and Officer Carey, were in. Detective Isnora had been working undercover inside the club as part of an attempt to find evidence of further legal violations that would be enough to shut it down. He exited Kalua at the time of its closing about 4 a.m. after overhearing what he perceived as a threat, and then witnessed a loud argument in which Mr. Bell and other members of his bachelor party were engaged with another man, Fabian Coicou. Claimed Gun Threat Detective Isnora told a grand jury last year that he heard Mr. Guzman threaten to get a gun to settle the dispute. Mr. Coicou testified before that grand jury that someone in Mr. Bell's party had said they were going to "get the gat" but on the witness stand last month denied having heard such a threat. Several of Mr. Bell's friends testified that the manner in which Mr. Coicou kept one hand in his coat pocket led them to believe that he was holding a gun. It was the fear that someone with Mr. Bell would retrieve a gun from a car that led Detective Isnora, he told the grand jury, to diverge from police policy against undercovers directly confronting those they have been surveilling and follow Mr. Bell to his car. He claimed to have been wearing his badge and to have identified himself verbally as a police officer before Mr. Bell drove the Nissan Altima into him, and said that it was only after he perceived Mr. Guzman to be reaching for a gun and the car lunged at him a second time that he began shooting. Prosecution witnesses denied that Mr. Isnora ever identified himself, and one said that he addressed the occupants of the car in street slang, calling, "I wanna holler at you." Mr. Guzman contradicted several of those witnesses by saying that he never saw the Detective approach the passenger side of the Altima where he was sitting, saying he first became aware of him when he began shooting. 'Show Your Hands' Police Officer Carey, however, testified that Detective Isnora had shouted as he approached the car, "Police! Show your hands! Show your hands!" He supported the Detective's account of the sequence of events that followed, saying he began shooting only after the car lurched toward him a second time. He said that Mr. Isnora, apparently referring to Mr. Guzman, had also shouted, "He's got a gun!" twice before firing his own weapon. No gun was found in Mr. Bell's car, and on cross-examination by the lead prosecutor, Queens Assistant District Attorney Charles A. Testagrossa, Officer Carey said that at no time did he believe he was being fired upon by its occupants. Heated Interrogations Among the last two witnesses to testify for the prosecution were Mr. Guzman and Mr. Benefield, both of whom were subjected to blistering cross-examination by Anthony Ricco on behalf of Detective Isnora, James Culleton representing Detective Oliver - who fired 31 of the shots - and Paul Martin for Detective Cooper. They accused the two men of tailoring their testimony to improve the chances of a $50-million civil suit they have filed against the city along with Mr. Bell's family, cited discrepancies between what each said on the witness stand and what they told the grand jury, and attacked their characters. Mr. Benefield was legally drunk at the time of the shooting and told doctors at Mary Immaculate Hospital when he was taken there for treatment of his wounds that he drank four beers a day and had smoked marijuana daily for the previous six years. Like Mr. Benefield, Mr. Guzman had prior criminal convictions, and he served separate prison terms for his role in a 1995 armed robbery and a 2002 sale of crack cocaine near a Queens school to an undercover cop. Tripped Over Swagger Although leg injuries he sustained as a result of the shooting have left him with a limp and the need of a cane, the large, broad-shouldered Mr. Guzman displayed a distinct verbal swagger on the witness stand. The defense lawyers sought to bring out that side of him to undercut his claim that he responded to threats by Mr. Coicou in a way that cooled out the situation and removed the possibility that Detective Isnora could have believed there might be subsequent violence. Spectators who sat with Mr. Bell's parents and Nicole Paultre-Bell, whom the dead man was scheduled to marry later on that fateful day, responded audibly when they believed Mr. Guzman got the better of his verbal exchanges with defense lawyers. More than once, Mr. Ricco asked Justice Cooperman to clear the courtroom if such outbursts continued, prompting the judge to twice remind the audience that they were not watching a TV show at home and should exhibit some decorum. A small group of Detectives led by Mr. Palladino sat on the left side of the courtroom. Guzman Erupts Mr. Ricco stated while questioning Mr. Guzman that he believed the witness's truculence in dealing with defense attorneys was reflective of the way he had actually behaved in response to Mr. Coicou's posturing outside Kalua. When he asked whether it wasn't true that Mr. Guzman had told Mr. Coicou that he was going to get his own gun, Mr. Guzman retorted furiously, "Where you from? Where you from? Where I'm from, that's not a good bluff." After a break for lunch, Mr. Guzman again became defiant when Mr. Martin, implying that he had been a police informant, asked whether he had the cell-phone number of the Captain of the 113th Precinct. "Please, man!" Mr. Guzman said dismissively and challenged the defense attorney to check his cell phone's directory to see whether it contained the Captain's number. Mr. Palladino said after court recessed a short time later, "In my 28-1/2 years in the NYPD, I've never seen a court demeanor such as his. I think he gave us a little inkling of his demeanor outside the Kalua Club ... almost a street-enforcer-type attitude on the witness stand."
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