Prosecutors will have one final chance today to convince a Queens judge that three cops are guilty of the 50-shot slaying of Sean Bell – and it won’t be easy, a legal expert said.
“The law is pretty favorable to the police,” said John Jay College Professor Eugene O’Donnell, a former NYPD cop and prosecutor. “Cops are allowed to make a mistake.”
Both sides are expected to give closing arguments as the trial enters its eighth week. The case will then fall in the hands of Supreme Court Justice Arthur Cooperman, who will decide the cops’ fate in lieu of a jury.
Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora, who fired 31 and 11 shots respectively, are facing manslaughter, assault and reckless-endangerment charges and could go to prison for up 25 years if convicted. Cooper, who fired a shot that struck the Jamaica AirTrain station, is charged with two counts of reckless endangerment.
The prosecution must show the cops were not justified when they fired on Bell’s car Nov. 26, 2006, as he sat with friends Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, said O’Donnell.
“It’s a battle about whether the cops made a mistake that was totally not reasonable,” he said.
The defense team has argued that Isnora heard Guzman yell out for a gun during a heated exchange between Bell, his friends and another person outside the club Kalua, where the 23-year-old had his bachelor party. There was no gun found in Bell’s car.
On the stand, Guzman denied he said anything about getting a gun. Fabio Coicou, who argued with the group that early morning, agreed that there was no gun mentioned.