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April 28, 2008 - Judge Clears Detectives in Bell Shooting

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Three New York police detectives were acquitted Friday on all counts in the shooting of Sean Bell outside a N.Y. nightclub just hours before he was to be married.

Nicole Paultre Bell, fiancée of the deceased, commented Saturday at a rally organized by the Reverend Al Sharpton that she was disappointed in the justice system.

"Yesterday, they—the justice system—let me down. I gave them the benefit of the doubt. I'm still praying for justice, because it's not over. It's far from over," she said.

The officers were given the choice to have a judge decide their case instead of a jury.

Sharpton criticized the fact that a judge, not a jury, acquitted the three officers. "If people are on the public payroll, doing their public duty, they should be required to face a public jury," Sharpton said.

Sharpton also said that the victims were unjustly depicted as dishonest. "These three families have had to endure and have had to abide through the most, in my judgment, scandalous denigration of victims that I've seen in my lifetime," he said.

The judge cleared Detectives Michael Oliver and Gescard Isnora of manslaughter, assault, and reckless endangerment in the death of Sean Bell. A third detective, Marc Cooper, was cleared of reckless endangerment.

Bell, who was just 23 years old, was killed in November 2006 in a hail of bullets. Of the 50 bullets fired at Bell and two of his companions, 31 were fired by Oliver. Bell died only hours before he was to be married. His two companions were wounded in the gunfire, which occurred outside a Queens nightclub after an all-night bachelor party.

During the incident five officers fired a total of 50 bullets at Bell and his friends. No gun was ever discovered at the scene. Only three of the officers were charged with any crimes.

In announcing the verdict, the judge said that there were problems with the prosecution's case, such as witnesses who contradicted themselves or were otherwise unreliable.

"At times, the testimony just didn't make sense," the judge said in a court transcript released by his office.

Paultre Bell and Bell’s two companions at the scene of the shooting filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court, which was stayed pending the outcome of the criminal trial.

Federal prosecutors will now review the case to determine whether any civil rights violations occurred.