Prosecution Rests Case in Police Shooting
New York Judge Faces Contradictory Testimony From Many of the Witnesses

By Robin Shulman
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, April 3, 2008

NEW YORK, April 2 -- At first, it seemed like an open-and-shut case: Police fired 50 bullets at a group of friends in a car and killed an unarmed black man on the morning of his wedding day.

But when the prosecution rested its case on Wednesday, more than five weeks into the trial of three police officers charged in the killing of Sean Bell, the facts in this racially charged incident seemed muddled.

On Tuesday, Joseph Guzman, who sustained 19 bullet wounds while sitting in the passenger seat of Bell's car, gave a detailed account of what he saw, contradicting testimony from the police and also that of other prosecution witnesses.

What is not in dispute is that police detectives fired at Bell and his friends about 4 a.m. on Nov. 25, 2006, outside a strip club in Queens where the trio had held Bell's bachelor party. But almost everyone present has testified to seeing and hearing the chaotic events differently.

Key facts are still in doubt: Bell, 23, and his friends did or did not get into an argument with a stranger outside the club and threaten to go get a gun as a bluff, putting the undercover detectives on alert. The car Bell was driving did or did not hit a police officer, an unmarked police van and a wall, causing the detectives to believe they were under attack and to open fire. The detectives, who were in plainclothes, did or did not say they were police and show their badges before shooting.

On the stand, Guzman said Bell's car crashed into the van, which had turned toward them. Then he said that he saw a black man with a gun appear "out of nowhere."

"He shot me," Guzman said. "I'm looking in his eyes, man. He shot me. Everything slowed down. But I'm looking at him shooting me. He's continuing to shoot."

Guzman said that, as the shooting continued, he urged Bell to drive away. "Let's do it," he said he told Bell. "This is not a robbery. They're trying to kill us."

The man with the gun was Detective Gescard Isnora, the first to open fire, who has been described by his attorney as quiet and religious. Isnora has not testified, but in grand jury testimony read in court on March 20, he said: "I stated: 'Police! Don't move! Police! Don't move!' "

"The driver floored the car and struck my leg," Isnora said in the transcript. He said Bell's car continued forward, struck the van and then backed up toward him, forcing him to jump out of the way. "I maintained focus on Guzman," he said. "I kept noticing he was going into his waistband," where the detective feared Guzman had a gun, Isnora said.

Isnora, charged with manslaughter, fired his Glock pistol 11 times at those inside the car.

But in his own grand jury testimony, read in court on March 24, Detective Michael Oliver, also charged with manslaughter, said he did not see Isnora showing his badge or yelling commands before the shooting began. Oliver said he shouted "Police, don't move!" before firing.

"I reloaded the gun and I continued to fire," Oliver said in the transcript, describing how he emptied two clips, containing 31 bullets, from his Sig Sauer pistol. "I didn't want to die," he said.

Detective Marc Cooper, who is charged with reckless endangerment, said he fired his Glock once, but prosecutors said ballistics evidence shows that he fired four times.

Two other officers -- Michael Carey, who reportedly fired three shots, and Paul Headley, who reportedly fired once -- were not charged.

Other witnesses have testified that they did not see or hear the detectives identify themselves as police. Jean Nelson, a friend of Bell's, testified on March 25 that he saw Isnora approach Bell's car and say, "Yo, let me holler at you," meaning he wanted to talk, and then saw Bell drive into him.

The weeks of testimony have underscored the difficulty of deriving precise answers about a series of events that occurred in the wee hours, after drinks, in an encounter driven by fear and ending in death.

Legal analysts say some variability is built into any trial involving multiple defendants, as was apparent in the Queens courtroom from the first day, when the defendants' attorneys gave separate opening statements reflecting their respective clients' distinct perspectives.

But most significant, say analysts, is that prosecutors have called dozens of witnesses -- from a pole dancer at Club Kalua to police officers at the scene -- who have often cast doubt on the prosecution's story line and sometimes even bolstered the defense.

The prosecution is "presenting their entire evidence, everything they have," said John Patten, a lawyer who defended one of the officers charged with fatally shooting Amadou Diallo, an unarmed black man, in 1999. "There may be no common story line. They've got a problem."

"I have issues with how they presented it," said Neville Mitchell, an attorney for Bell's parents. But multiple story lines do not doom the prosecution, he added. "The facts and the evidence are there."

The case is being heard by New York Supreme Court Justice Arthur J. Cooperman; the defendants waived a jury trial.

Helen Peterson, a spokeswoman for the Queens district attorney's office, declined to comment.

Bell's family members seem to be making their own sense of the testimony. His mother, Valerie, takes notes in court. "I'm keeping an account," she said.

And Nicole Paultre-Bell, 23, Bell's fiancee, said after Guzman's testimony she felt she had answers. "Now I know what Sean saw," she said.