Lawyer of shooting suspect seeks personnel file of cop charged, along with P.O. Daniel Pantaleo, in false-arrest lawsuits
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. -- A grand jury last week declined to indict Officer Daniel Pantaleo in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, but the cop's name surfaced again Monday in court, in an unrelated attempted-murder case from last year heading to trial.
Mario F. Gallucci, the lawyer for the defendant, Jeryl Grant, wants to see the personnel files of Officer Kristen White, who is named along with Pantaleo and nine other cops as defendants in two civil lawsuits pending in Manhattan federal court.
Officer White was the arresting and investigating officer in Grant's case, in which he's accused of shooting Darnell Brown, then 33, six times in the chest on Nov. 16 of last year. Brown survived.
Gallucci said he wants to determine whether Officer White's personnel file contains any information he could use to impeach her at trial. Pantaleo was not involved in Grant's arrest.
Gallucci made his motion in state Supreme Court, St. George, prior to the start of jury selection in Grant's case.
The civil suits, filed by Rylawn Walker, 19, and Kenneth Smith, 22, allege they were falsely arrested in connection with a 2012 drug raid in the Park Hill Apartments in Clifton. The civil cases are pending.
Gallucci said Officer White was a defendant in two other federal civil-rights lawsuits in Manhattan federal court, both of which were disposed. One settled last year for $100,000, he said.
He said prosecutors told him on Friday that Officer White had informed them she was involved in an "excessive-force" civil lawsuit.
Brown's shooting occurred down the block from the Sangita Shala nightclub at 556 Richmond Rd. about 4 a.m., according to police.
Grant, an ex-convict and Wu-Tang Clan affiliate who raps under the name Killa Sin for the "Killarmy," told detectives he had parked behind the nightclub earlier in the evening, and when he returned, he found people congregated around his truck, according to a law enforcement source.
"What's up?" he asked, and got a response from someone, presumably Brown, saying, "What the [expletive's] up with you?" according to the source. Grant told detectives that gunfire broke out shortly afterward, the source said.
According to Advance reports, Gallucci said his client denies the allegations, and that he's seen video stills footage of the incident that show the victim was armed.
Grant is charged with attempted murder, assault, criminal use of a firearm and criminal weapon possession.
In the civil cases, Smith and Walker are represented by the same lawyer and their claims are nearly identical.
They contend they were "walking lawfully" near 225 Park Hill Ave., not far from their homes.
Both were approached, arrested and charged because of "false representations" by Pantaleo that they possessed marijuana, and that they were present during a raid on a sixth-floor apartment at 225 Park Hill Ave., the lawsuits allege.
Smith and Walker allege that Pantaleo "misrepresented facts" in police reports and other documents "with the acquiescence" of Officer Walker and nine other cops, including two sergeants, a lieutenant and a captain.
Marijuana charges against them were dismissed during their arraignments, their lawsuits maintain.
Justice William Garnett said Gallucci can request Officer Walker's personnel file from the NYPD.
If police agree to provide the file, the judge said he would review it privately and advise the lawyers whether it contains impeachable materials.
He adjourned jury selection for several days.
Grant, who was wearing a charcoal suit, black shirt and charcoal tie, did not speak during the proceeding.
He has contributed to several albums by the borough's globally known Wu-Tang Clan, and his track, "The Archer," can be heard on the soundtrack of the 2012 film, "The Man with the Iron Fists." He's considered a key member of the Wu-Tang-affiliated Killarmy.
Grant has served two stints in state prison, according to public records - a three-year sentence for a 2003 weapon-possession conviction, and a four-year sentence for a 2007 attempted-weapon possession conviction.
