The New York Police Department policeman who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold in July 2014 is hoping the Trump administration will drop the civil rights charges against him once President-elect Trump takes office next year.
NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo is “cautiously optimistic” that Trump will reverse the decision by Attorney General Loretta Lynch to renew efforts to bring civil rights charges against him, his lawyer told the New York Post.
“I discussed the election results with him and he is cautiously optimistic. I am cautiously optimistic that, under the new administration, that the recommendations of the Eastern District that there is no civil rights case would be accepted by Justice, and that Pantaleo can then move forward with his life,” said Stuart London, who represents Pantaleo on behalf of the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association.
Lynch recently replaced Brooklyn prosecutors with ones from Washington, D.C., to oversee the case of the 31-year-old officer.
The PBA has called the Justice Department’s actions a “fishing expedition.”
Garner, who is black, died after being put into a chokehold by Pantaleo, who is white, in Staten Island on July 17, 2014. Though Garner’s death was ruled a homicide, a grand jury decided not to indict Pantaleo.
Rep. Pete King, R-N.Y., called the renewed probe “a terrible injustice.”
“Whatever this was it was not racial, he was ordered to stop people from selling loose cigarettes after business owners complained by [former] Chief [of Department Philip] Banks, the highest ranked African-American officer in the department. It was a tragic outcome but it wasn’t racial,” King said, adding that he would “fully support” Trump if he dropped the charges.
