‘You suffer more than most defendants. Your career as an officer is over.’ — Judge James Griffin (Ellis Kaplan)
Assia Winfield (Ellis Kaplan)
FALLEN: Leopold McLean (left) shot LePaul Gammons (right), a convict who who came to court in cuffs. (
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A veteran NYPD detective, once assigned to protect the mayor and his family, got seven years in the slammer yesterday for shooting his girlfriend’s former beau in the buttocks.
Convicted shooter Leopold McLean, 49, also got a verbal spanking from the judge for the boneheaded, career-ending attack.
“I don’t know what caused this situation to happen — it could have been fear, frustration, arrogance or stupidity — but as a citizen you forgot your common sense,” Queens Supreme Court Justice James Griffin told the 19-year cop as the judge sentenced him for attempted murder and two counts of reckless endangerment.
McLean had just dropped off Mayor Bloomberg’s daughter Georgina at home after a Knicks game in November 2010 when he pulled up to girlfriend Assia Winfield’s Jamaica home and spotted LePaul Gammons outside.
McLean opened fire with his service weapon and hit Gammons twice in the buttocks and back as the targeted man ran away.
McLean and Winfield called 911, saying Gammons had broken into her house and had a knife. But the detective didn’t mention that he had fired at Gammons.
“Common sense would have told you to take Assia Winfield into her house, call police, tell them what happened, what Gammons looked like, what direction he went in, that he was armed with a knife, and all vital information for your fellow officers,” Griffin scolded McLean.
“You suffer more than most defendants. Your career as an officer is over.”
McLean’s victim, however, sympathized with the shamed cop.
“A woman played both of us, with the outcome of this man trying to kill me!” Gammons, 48, told the judge at the hearing.
Gammons — who is doing time at Rikers Island for a forgery conviction and came to court in handcuffs — was violating a protection order the night he showed up at Winfield’s home.
Addressing McLean yesterday, he said, “Lee, I’m sorry this happened to you. This is a sad situation on both parts.”
But Gammons chided his onetime rival for “keeping quiet” about the shooting.
“What if he actually killed me?” Gammons asked.
“He should feel bad for McLean — it’s because of [Gammons’] actions we are here,” McLean’s lawyer, Stephen Worth, told the judge, noting that McLean had been two months shy of earning his 20-year pension.
At trial, Winfield admitted that, while she was dating McLean, she filed complaints against Gammons but then continued to call him, visited him in jail and accepted two cars he bought for her adult daughter.
He is no longer dating Winfield and she didn’t attend the sentencing.