BRONX, New York - In a verdict that sparked a firestorm of protests, State Supreme Court judge Gerald Sheindlin found police officer Francis Livoti not guilty of the murder of Anthony Baez. "I do not find that the defendant is innocent," Sheindlin ruled October 7. But in the same breath the judge said the prosecution "failed to establish the guilt of the defendant beyond a reasonable doubt."

His ruling was met with cries of outrage from the hundreds who had assembled to hear the verdict. "So a killer is going to walk," shouted a man from the back of the courtroom. "What do we have to do to get justice in this city?" Verónica Morgan, 39, reacted with dismay at the judge's ruling. "How can he say this!" she said. "It's not fair that this cop can get off because they have a badge and a gun."

More than 200 people who had been waiting in line to get into the packed courthouse chanted, "Guilty!" and "No Justice, No Peace!" Protesters marched to the 46th police precinct after the verdict, as a police helicopter circled overhead. Scores of cops in riot gear assembled on the streets and blocked an entrance to the courthouse.

"I think the verdict was terrible and unjust. The judge stated the man was guilty but because the prosecution didn't present the case well, he found him not guilty," said Alonzo Malloy, a Bronx resident who stood outside the courthouse during the rally. "The message to the cops is that you can beat and kill Blacks and Latinos and you'll be acquitted."

During the trial, the judge indicated he had no doubt Livoti applied an illegal chokehold on Báez. He implied that fellow cops lied on the witness stand to protect Livoti. "There is a nest of perjury somewhere around here," he stated.

The chief medical examiner of New York, Dr. Charles Hirsch, "left no room for doubt about what killed Anthony Báez," wrote Jim Dywer in the New York Daily News.

"The compression of his neck, in my opinion, is the dominant cause of his death," Hirsch testified.

Anthony Báez was playing football with his three brothers in front of the family's home in the Bronx at 1:30 in the morning on Dec. 22, 1994, when their football bounced off one of the two cop cars parked on the deserted street. Livoti ordered the brothers to stop playing and then put David Báez under arrest. When Anthony protested and demanded to know what the charges were, Livoti arrested him. In the course of the arrest, the cop choked Anthony Báez to death.

Livoti has a long history of brutality complaints, with 14 prior charges, including a 1989 incident where he choked a young Black man and beat him with a flashlight. In 1990 he punched Manuel Bordoy several times breaking his jaw. Assault charges were filed against Livoti in 1993, after he choked Steven Resto, a 16-year-old youth who had been arrested for driving his go-cart on the street.

After the march on the day of the verdict, Báez's family returned home and encountered a circling helicopter and several dozen police in the front of their home. "I thought they were here to finish the rest of my family," said Ramón Báez, the dead man's father. "Police officers with helmets and sticks and helicopters flying all over.... This was a peaceful demonstration and they're ready for war."

Another protest of some 300 people was organized October 8 denouncing the police department, Judge Sheindlin, and New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani. "The evidence is there to indict Livoti, to bring him to trial, and to put him in jail," Richard Pérez of the National Council for Puerto Rican Rights said at the rally.

The Báez family has filed a $48 million negligence lawsuit against the New York Police Department and the city. U.S. District Attorney Mary Jo White announced October 7 her office was launching an investigation to determine whether to file federal charges against Livoti.

Livoti is scheduled to appear in criminal court November 12 to face the brutality charge filed by Resto.

Susan Karten, the Báez family attorney who filed the lawsuit, denounced Sheindlin's verdict as "disgraceful." She said, "This is junk justice.... There will never be a conviction of a New York City police officer under this system."

"We learned that for Latinos and Blacks, justice is not equal. The case is clear. The judge knew. He knew my son was choked," said Ramón Báez. "I won't stop fighting until we have justice."

Al Duncan is a member of the United Transportation Union (UTU). UTU member Amy Husk and Militant staff writer Brian Taylor contributed to this article.  
 
 
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