Earlier today, the NYT reported the jury’s acquittal on the rape and other severe charges of two NYC cops. I’ve been intrigued by this trial for a few weeks, and as I had suggested earlier on FB, I was skeptical that the gov’t was going to win this case especially without forensic evidence and with a victim who had blacked out so much of the evening’s details on account of intense alcohol consumption. The gov’t did have, however, a secret audiotape that indicated the likelihood of the principal defendant having sex with the victim; whether the audiotape indicated rape is, from what I recall, more debatable. (FWIW, the other cop was said to be either standing guard or alternatively asleep on the sofa in the living room of the victim). Despite the acquittal on the major charges, the cops were both found guilty of official misconduct by the jury, and that prompted Ray Kelly, the NYPD Commish to terminate them promptly–before they were suspended with pay. “The guilty verdicts involved violations of the officers’ oaths of office and, as a result, warrant immediate termination,” Mr. Kelly said.
So question to those who know or have basis for surmise: is an official misconduct jury finding typically sufficient to warrant immediate termination? Is there a possibility that Kelly thought this was a case that didn’t involve evidence BRD but nonetheless thought there was enough yuckiness about it that it made sense to fire the cops, one of them a 25 year vet? Was this a discretionary or mandatory firing?
update: a friend who’s a prosecutor wondered if I thought that in light of the official misconduct found by the jury and admitted by the cops we would want those cops, even absent the allegations of sexual assault. I thought the hypo was very instructive. I take it that the proven misconduct of the cops was very serious. But if you were to strip away the allegations of the sexual assault altogether, would the gov’t have brought this case? I don’t know enough to say; my guess is that absent any claim of sexual misconduct, there would have been reprimands but not termination. That’s why I asked if the terminations were mandatory or discretionary. Maybe, in light of the allegations of misconduct of which they were acquitted, the police dep’t fired these guys because there was enough evidence to think it was terribly bad judgment even if there wasn’t proof beyond a reasonable doubt of rape.
In other news:
Dave Fagundes, the Charlie Rose of the Law Review Review, has an awesome travel blog of his time in Argentina this summer. DF is justly famous not only for being the person holding the most MVP awards from Prawfsfest, and for referring to himself in the 3d person as DF, but he is also a former Let’s Go writer; unsurprisingly, his travelogue is sharp and funny. Pictures too. Keep up with him here.
Those of you who have read the important Brown v. Plata case (overview here), I’m wondering whether you had the same reaction I did to Alito’s insanely over-the-top description of the decision below, in which he stated “The three-judge court ordered the premature release of approximately 46,000 criminals — the equivalent of three Army divisions.” Alito seems either to overlook or not care that “3 army divisions” are capable of and indeed intended to perform coordinated action; there is no basis for an equivalence between that and the prisoners to be released in California. Alito’s dissent made some otherwise plausible arguments about the overbreadth of the remedy and the way the policy choices were smuggled in as facts, but I found this and other rhetorical flourishes in the opinion to be off-putting and thus less effective in making his case. I take the decision, for what it’s worth, to be good evidence of the proposition that the state can forfeit (at least partially) its warrant to engage in retributive blaming practices when it is failing to discharge its obligations of providing sufficiently decent care to offenders. Whether it marks progress from Farmer v. Brennan–that remains to be seen.
Last, and on a happier and tipsier note: for those of you attending LSA in San Fran next week (or even for those of you who are not but are still in or near SF), consider yourself invited to save the date/s! There will be a general happy hour next week with our friends from Co-Op and Glom, among others, Thurs at 9pm. Location to be confirmed imminently. It will be near but likely not in the St. Francis Westin. Relatedly, the CrimProf happy hour will be Friday at 9pm, at the Clock Bar in the St. Francis Westin. More details and location to be confirmed soon, but mark your calendar to save the date and time. All are welcome at either one. Hope to see you there. I’m begging Ethan to guide me on an underground chowhound tour, but hopefully at places about as bougie as his last batch of posh recommendations.
Posted by Administrators on May 26, 2011 at 11:49 PM