Month: January 2020

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Bronx Man Who Shot and Paralyzed Former High School
Basketball Star Sentenced to 17 Years in Prison

Defendant Shot Victim in Back Outside Victim’s Home,
Paralyzing Him from the Waist Down

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a 35-year-old Bronx man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for a 2016 shooting that paralyzed a 23-year-old former high school basketball star from the waist down. The defendant pleaded guilty to second-degree attempted murder in October.

District Attorney Gonzalez said, “Without any provocation or warning, this defendant opened fire on a defenseless and innocent passerby, forever altering the life of a gifted athlete. Such senseless acts of gun violence have devastating consequences for our communities and cannot be tolerated. I hope today’s sentence brings some measure of closure to the victim and his family for the enduring harm they have suffered and continue to suffer.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as James Sanders, 35, of Parkchester, Bronx. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Miriam Cyrulnik to 17 years in prison, following his guilty plea to second-degree attempted murder on October 15, 2019.

The District Attorney said that, according to the evidence, on December 4, 2016, at approximately 5:20 a.m., Jaquan Causer, 23, was walking to his home on Lefferts Avenue near Bedford Avenue in Prospect Lefferts Gardens when he noticed the defendant arguing with another individual. The victim glanced in the men’s direction, and upon doing so the defendant began to yell at the victim. In an effort to avoid a confrontation, the victim ignored them and continued to walk.

Video surveillance shows the defendant follow the victim a short distance before firing several shots at the victim from behind. The victim called 911 and was taken to Methodist Hospital where doctors determined he was permanently paralyzed from the waist down.

Nearly a year and a half after the shooting, a gun was recovered from the home of a person who was acquainted with the defendant. The gun was matched to ballistic shell casings recovered at the shooting scene.

The case was investigated by New York City Police Department Detective Kha Dang of the 88th Precinct Detective Squad and Detective Adrianne Jones of the District Attorney’s NYPD Squad, with the assistance of Senior Intelligence Analyst Daniel Figlin, of the District Attorney’s Crime Strategies Unit.

The case was prosecuted by Senior Assistant District Attorney Elaine Albenda, formerly of the District Attorney’s Red Zone Trial Bureau, and Senior Assistant District Attorney Robert Schwartz, of the Red Zone, under the supervision of Assistant District Attorney Kin Ng, Bureau Chief, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis, Chief of Trials.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Former NYPD Officer Sentenced to Four Years’ Probation for Falsely Claiming Burglary Suspect Tried to Strike Him and His Partner with Vehicle

Perjured Himself by Swearing He Saw Suspect Back Up and Almost Hit Partner,
Then Drive Forward and Narrowly Miss Hitting Officer

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that a former New York City Police Department officer was sentenced to four years’ probation following his guilty plea to perjury, making a false statement and official misconduct for making a false written statement and lying in a criminal court complaint and in the grand jury.

District Attorney Gonzalez said, “This defendant, a former police officer, admitted to the disturbing conduct of falsely charging an individual with a crime he did not commit. Our communities and our criminal justice system rely on the integrity and truthfulness of police officers so we must hold accountable those who abuse their positions and violate the public trust.”

The District Attorney identified the defendant as Michael Bergmann, 34, who was an NYPD officer for approximately six years and who was last assigned to the NYPD’s Grand Larceny Division. He was sentenced today by Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun to one day in jail and four years’ probation following his guilty plea in November 2019 to one count of first-degree perjury, one count of second-degree perjury, one count of making a false statement and one count of official misconduct. The District Attorney’s Office recommended a sentence of six months in jail followed by probation.

The District Attorney said that on February 1, 2019, Officer Bergmann and his partner, who were assigned to the Grand Larceny Division, were on patrol on 65th Street between Second and Third Avenues in the confines of the 72nd Precinct, according to the investigation. They pulled up in their unmarked police car alongside a vehicle that had just been parallel parked by a burglary suspect whom Officer Bergmann recognized, with the intention of arresting him for driving without a valid license.

After stopping their unmarked police car alongside the suspect’s car, both officers exited their vehicle. Officer Bergmann claimed in a criminal complaint and in grand jury testimony that the suspect then backed up his car, nearly striking his partner who was located near the rear of the vehicle, and then drove the car forward causing Officer Bergmann – who was directly in front of the car between its headlights — to dive to the ground to avoid being hit as the suspect drove away. Officer Bergmann claimed he suffered slight abrasions to his elbow as a result of his fall to the ground.

The suspect was arrested two days later and charged with various counts of attempted assault and reckless endangerment relating to this February 1, 2019 incident and separately charged with two unrelated burglaries. He was subsequently indicted for what occurred during the February 1, 2019 incident on one count of first-degree attempted assault, one count of attempted assault on a police officer, one count of first-degree reckless endangerment, two counts of second-degree attempted assault, one count of second-degree reckless endangerment, one count of third-degree assault, one count of third-degree attempted assault, one count of third-degree aggravated unlicensed operation of a motor vehicle, and one count of unlicensed operator.

On May 28, 2019, the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office obtained video surveillance footage that depicts the February 1, 2019 incident and contradicts Officer Bergmann’s account of what occurred. The footage showed his unmarked police car pull alongside the suspect’s car after the suspect’s car completed parallel parking against the curb. It then showed the suspect’s car drive off when Officer Bergmann and his partner exit their vehicle without ever backing up and without coming close to striking Officer Bergmann, who was never in front of the suspect’s car and who did not move out of the way of the car or fall to the ground when the suspect drove away.

The case was prosecuted by the District Attorney’s Law Enforcement Accountability Bureau by Assistant District Attorney Salvador Reynozo and Deputy Bureau Chief Christopher Eribo, under the supervision of Bureau Chief Patrick L. O’Connor, and the overall supervision of Executive Assistant District Attorney Joseph Alexis, Chief of Trials, and Executive Assistant District Attorney Tali Farhadian Weinstein, General Counsel.

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, January 3, 2020

Brooklyn Continued to Record Historic Decline in Violent Crime in 2019

Murders Remained Below 100 for the Second Straight Year and
Shooting Incidents Went Down by Almost 7%, Bucking Citywide Trends

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that 2019 ended as a historically safe year in Brooklyn, with murders remaining below 100 for the second year in a row, ticking up by one to 99 homicides after the record-breaking low that was recorded in 2018. Shootings across the borough declined by 6.8% in contrast with a nearly 3% increase citywide. As part of the District Attorney’s Justice 2020 plan to ensure equal justice while maintaining public safety, the Brooklyn DA’s Office continued to put in place reform-driven programs that enhance fairness and equity in the criminal justice system.

District Attorney Gonzalez said, “In the past year, we continued to prove that criminal justice reforms do not jeopardize public safety – but rather enhance it. Thanks to the NYPD and to my hard-working prosecutors, violent crime keeps going down in Brooklyn. We again led the way in implementing initiatives ahead of the City and State, including declining to ask for bail in most misdemeanors and offering more ways to resolve low-level offenses without a court appearance – which lowered the jail population significantly, kept individuals with their families and did not lead to an increase in crime. I am committed to making headway in my Justice 2020 action plan to keep Brooklyn safe and strengthen community trust by ensuring fairness and equal justice for all.”

The District Attorney said that 99 murders were recorded in Brooklyn in 2019, compared with 98 in 2018. It is worth noting, however, that nine of the murders in the 2019 count were reclassified as homicides from incidents that took place in previous years, compared with only two reclassified cases in 2018. Therefore, 90 murders actually occurred over the past year – the lowest number in Brooklyn history. Of the 99 murders in the official count, 63 were due to shootings and 36 were by other means. Citywide, murders were up 7.8% for the year.

There were 290 shooting incidents in Brooklyn in 2019, a 6.8% decline compared to 2018 and four more than in 2017, which had the lowest number of shootings since record-keeping began. There were 22 fewer shootings in the Brooklyn South command and one additional shooting in Brooklyn North, compared to the previous year. Major crime, representing seven serious felonies, went down by 2.5%.

The historic drop in crime is also reflected by the continuing decline of arrests in Brooklyn by the New York City Police Department: 58,288 people were arrested in Brooklyn in 2019, compared with 68,407 in 2018, 80,084 in 2017 and 87,607 in 2016 – an astonishing reduction of one-third since 2016.

In preparation for the new criminal justice law that took effect at the start of 2020, the District Attorney’s Office asked for bail in just under 7% of misdemeanor cases in 2019 – the lowest percentage to date. The number of prosecutions also decreased by using new pre-arraignment diversion programs. To date, 426 cases were dismissed as part of Brooklyn CLEAR, 254 of them in 2019. The initiative allows individuals arrested with small quantities of narcotics to resolve their cases by receiving services rather than appearing in court if they comply with independent assessment-based recommendations. An additional 420 non-violent misdemeanor cases were not prosecuted after those arrested completed Project Reset, which resolves such offenses with appropriate programing before an arraignment, leading to dismissals so eligible individuals never have to appear in court.

In other ground-breaking initiatives over the past year, District Attorney Gonzalez established the first-in-the-nation Post-Conviction Justice Bureau, which reviews parole and clemency applications, facilitates and encourages sealing of past convictions and continues to investigate claims of wrongful convictions; launched the Community Resource Empowerment Center to offer educational and vocational opportunities to those sentenced to community service; and enhanced his Office’s work on safe reentry into society by making regular visits to state prisons, where he discusses resources available to those who finish serving their sentence, and by opening a boutique of donated business attire for formerly incarcerated individuals as part of his Reentry Bureau.

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