Court upholds ruling to keep Eric Garner grand jury evidence secret

NEW YORK (AP) — The public can’t see the testimony a grand jury weighed before declining to indict a white police officer in the chokehold death of an unarmed black man, an appeals court said Wednesday, citing longstanding reasons for grand jury confidentiality.

“We will not give up on our quest for justice and transparency”, she said in a statement.

“Your office seems to wanted to put a very pretty gloss on what happened and kind of sweep everything else under the rug and use grand jury secrecy as its protection”, one judge said.

James’ lawyer also said it would help the public advocate make reforms to the grand jury process in New York.

The petitioners contended the public had a right to know why a Staten Island grand jury had not indicted Officer Daniel Pantaleo in connection with Garner’s death in police custody on July 17 of last year when officers attempted to arrest him for allegedly selling loose, untaxed cigarettes in Tompkinsville.

In December, a grand jury declined to indict NYPD officer involved, Daniel Pantaleo, and protests erupted on city streets.

“This Court upheld the Supreme Court’s denial of the requested disclosure, finding that curbing community unrest and restoring faith in courts and prosecutors did not represent a compelling and particularized need, as is necessary to overcome the presumption of confidentially attached to grand jury proceedings”, the judges wrote.

“Why aren’t we looking at a number of grand juries, how the grand jury works?”

“The governor and the legislature have been considering how to address the problem of alleged misbehavior by police officers and the apparent conflict that arises when a district attorney is called upon to prosecute the police”, NYCLU Legal Director Arthur Eisenberg said in a statement. Garnett’s ruling noted that unsealing the testimony could spur unwarranted second-guessing of the Staten Island panel.

Shortly after that decision, a judge released limited information about the grand jury, including that there were 50 witnesses and 60 exhibits presented.

Three of four judges agreed in the decision that James’ office shouldn’t have had the ability to appeal in the first place because it lacked “capacity” to investigate Donovan under city charter law.

“Rather, our civil case seeks information about what transpired in judicial proceedings that led to the shocking Garner decision”.

“The office has no comment at this time”, a spokesperson for DA Doug Auer said.