Ooh dear, poor Julianne…

I am absolutely stunned by Marlee Matlin’s Jive. I can’t believe it. Fabian must have taught her some kind of counting method to keep them in sync because at the beginning he wasn’t leading her; she was dancing around him, and she still ended perfectly on beat. Perfectly. He simply jutted out his hip and she began. Well, her counting skills are excellent, that’s all I can say. Her kicks weren’t that high, but it’s hard when you’re starting dance as an adult, to have that kind of flexibility. Anyway, awesome.

Strange thing, though: I recently finished reading “Schuyler’s Monster,” (which I wrote a bit about here) about a little girl with a brain abnormality that prevents her from being able to speak. Because the same disorder prevents her from having fine motor skills, such as are needed to make some of the more intricate sign language hand formations, Schuyler learns to “talk” through a computer-type device, where she types words and a voice speaks them. Rob Rummel-Hudson, Schuyler’s father, remarked in the beginning that the voice in her first computer — a male one, just didn’t “look” like a little girl. With her next, more sophisticated computer, he made sure the sound of the voice could be controlled, so they’d have different choices. They finally got a “little girl sounding” little girl. It just reminds me of that when I hear Marlee’s translator speaking! I keep thinking, wait, who’s that, she doesn’t sound like that!

Steve and Anna’s tango: eh. I’m not a Standard dancer, but Tango is getting boring; there’s only so much you can do with it. It’s a dance that really inherently lacks creativity, I think. But I’m not a Standard person. Anyway, this was pretty basic – that little sequence where he rattled her shoulders about was cute — the rest typical. But, now that I’m listening to the judges, yeah, he did well with it, he really did. I guess if I’m bored it means there was nothing noticeably out of line in the dance. Gimmicky though to have Jonathan practicing with Steve in Anna’s sickness-induced absense. The supposed funniness of two big guys dancing a sexy dance together, oh no that’s never been done before… Still all my problems are either with the producers’ or the tango itself; Steve’s still adorable.

Wow, Cristian just blew me away with his jive. Those jive kicks — and Cheryl put in a lot — are damn hard, especially for a beginner. He did them nearly perfectly. And he got some good height on those side kicks. Cute routine; a bit too many sliding through the legs tricks though. Also, I hated that little Sea World excursion. This is what I dislike about shows like this — the phoniness. He needs to learn how to relax and let loose, so she takes him to visit her “friend,” a sea lion. Through the ocean creature, he learns to let loose and have fun with dance, as the lion flaps about on the wet cement, and, miraculously, Cristian does well.

Oh gawd with that Karina / Mario tango. Actually, I felt the opposite as I did of Anna / Steve’s tango. This was weirdly kind of cool because it was so bizarre, and I disagree with Len and his “bitter disappointment.” I always like the Argentine hooks / ganchos. I really couldn’t take my eyes of Karina with that getup though, and kept wondering what she was thinking until I realized she’s supposed to be a prostitute and he her savior. Her dark knight of a savior. But what an odd musical interpretation by the band too, right? Creepy. But I still prefer creepy and weird to typical and boring.

Derek was adorable. Shannon’s jive was okay. She’s tall and skinny and jive is difficult for people with that body type. The judges are eating her up though, so I guess I missed something. I thought it lacked polish, finish on some of the moves. It looked like she was struggling to keep up at points and ended up having to rush some of the steps, which goes along with the height issues. The kick-boxing thing in practice: made more sense than the Sea World and man on man tango. It seemed like a understandable way for her to learn jive kicks.

Oh excellent tango, Julianne!! Bravo! Loved the 50s theme, loved the costumes — his frilly shirt, her dress, her hair — Adam shut up about the gay guys in costumes! Those gay guys — and Julianne — just made your routine! Shut up! I loved the ochos (stylized forward criss-cross steps) over his outstretched leg, the promenade runs, the ending deep dip. This was a classic interpretation of Standard and Argentine and it suited him remarkably well. Julianne is a genius choreographer. Adam needs to stay on because she is the show’s greatest artist. Bruno’s imitation of Len with his “seVEN” was cute. Bruno’s growing on me, which is kind of scary. Wait, what did Adam just say??: “My mom always told me in order to find out about Argentine tango and prostitution and pimps, just go to a Mormon.” No comment.

“Tony’s a fabulous dancer, but he cannot tell a joke,” says Marissa, laughing like the typical sweet girl at the corny but cute guy. Tony is a goof and his jokes are silly. But they’re from the heart, which makes him lovable. Wow, sweet jive. I think this is Marissa’s best performance! I love the ending gaze upward — very Hairspray. Again, I totally disagree with the judges. “It was like a jive on cruise control.” Bruno DOES come up with his lines beforehand. He does! The turns were really good — some of the best American spins I’ve seen; she knows how to spot. Understandably, Marissa sounds like she’s about to cry though upon hearing the judges’ remarks. I don’t get their nastiness either, Marissa! I thought she was really cute.

Wow, another great classic from Louis for Priscilla. This Tango was almost entirely Argentine. I loved the handhold, I loved the forward ochos, I loved how they both developped up their legs, his slightly higher than hers, and how he then snaked it around hers into tricky sexy gancho. She’s dancing beautifully. She kind of reminds me of Jackie Kennedy; royalty. And he treats her with such respect. He and Julianna are the show’s two genius choreographers.

“One thing I’ve learned in football: when you don’t know something, you should keep your mouth shut and your ears open.” I love Jason. Edyta slowed down his jive substantially — it was a very slow, almost west coast swingy jive, which was smart because he seemed to be having some problems with the intricate footwork and keeping up with the kicks. He’s very large — again, it’s a hard dance for someone so tall. Interestingly, he did well with the toe / heel swivels though. But the routine had flavor and personality and charm and bits of cute choreography — like the shadow swivels — and he tries hard and is really respectful of her.

Hehe, how funny was that when the announcer developed a sudden case of laryngitis!? Is that bad of me to laugh? I’m sure it’s not serious…

Did they just say Alvin Ailey was going to be on tomorrow night? I’d heard they were going to be on the show at some time in the near future, but didn’t know it was so soon?! You guys, I’m so excited — now everyone can see my favorite dance company, not just NYers!! Woo hoo!

See, Tom Bergeron’s talking again; it wasn’t serious.

Okay, well in contrast to most of the other Tangos we saw tonight, Kristi and Mark’s was a real Standard ballroom tango, as opposed to Argentine. I prefer Argentine, but this was a pretty perfect Standard, at least technique-wise. Very precise. I do agree with the judges on this one: while it was technically excellent, the emotion was one-dimensional. It bored me, though I love Kristi. That’s a real ballroom hairdo too.

So, who do you guys think it’s going to be tomorrow night? I’m afraid it might be Marissa, though I think she’s a blast.

Today’s testimony consisted solely of that of Trent Benefield, one of the three men shot by police detectives in Sean Bell’s car on the morning of 11/25/06.

Honestly, Mr. Benefield was not what I was expecting, after seeing Anthony South’s on-the-scene footage of him handcuffed from behind and lying on the ground on his stomach screaming of pain in his legs and at paramedics that they were hurting him as they placed him onto a stretcher. Of course he was in serious pain at that point (when asked today by prosecutor Testagrossa on a scale of 1-10 how much pain he was in, he said “15″; the audience laughed), so his screams were understandable.

But today he was extremely well-mannered, very soft-spoken, very nervous-seeming, and very unimposing and unthreatening. No wonder several earlier eyewitnesses never even saw him get into Sean Bell’s car that night; he’s a small, quiet guy who could easily have gone unnoticed. Overall, Benefield seemed honest, at times admitting things against his interest (like having a marijuana addiction and being drunk when leaving the club that night), but because he was intoxicated and somewhat high, his ability to observe and remember events that evening were hindered. Also, he seemed sensitive, and because of the obvious stressfulness of the events, seems not to have seen it all. In any event, there were some real inconsistencies in his testimony.

A small, thin man, Mr. Benefield, 24 years old, had no prior covinctions, and, while currently unemployed, had formerly worked in a tire shop repairing tires. He had known Sean Bell for 6 or 7 years, and had met him through his lifelong friends, Johnell Hankerson (I can’t always hear very well in the courtroom, and may have spelled his name wrong earlier), and Joe Guzman (the other man in the car, whom I expect to testify tomorrow).

Benefield went to Kalua with Sean and James Kollore, in Sean’s Altima. After Sean parked and the three were getting ready to go inside, a police officer pulled up and asked Sean for his driver’s license and registration, which Sean gave him. After inspecting both, the officer returned them to Sean and told him to have a nice day.

After being frisked by the bouncer, the three ordered a round of Long Island Ice Teas, then went to the back of the club, where they were joined by others. Throughout the night, Benefield had three such drinks (though he’d told officers at the hospital, when medicated, that he had Hennesseys instead of Long Island Ice Teas), as well as two blunts of marijuana, which he smoked outside with Bone. Though admitting he had a marijuana addiction, Benefield only used, never sold, the drug. Benefield said he was “intoxicated” and “feeling nice” but not “high” from the marijuana when he and the Bell group left the club, around 3:40-3:45 a.m.

Benefield and his friend Larenzo Kinred were the last of the group to leave the club, as Benefield wanted to finish his drink. By the time he left, everyone was already outside. When he walked out, he saw Coicou standing in front of his SUV holding his right hand in his pocket as if pointing something, making Benefield think he had a gun. Benefield had told District Attorneys when meeting with them shortly after the shooting that Coicou said, “I got it; it’s in my pocket. I’ll shoot you.” He heard Coicou say to Guzman that he was from “Far Rock,” and Guzman respond that he was from Far Rockaway too. He didn’t hear anyone use the word “gun” or any slang for the word, and never saw Hankerson put his arm around Sean and tell him to calm down, as Hankerson testified he did. He never saw Sean return to the club to retrieve his hat.

They all began to walk toward Liverpool Street. As they rounded the corner, Coicou drove up, went past them, and made a right down Liverpool. The men continued on, Guzman, Sean Bell, and Benefield all getting into Sean’s car. Sean got into the driver’s seat, Guzman the passenger front, and Benefield the driver’s-side back seat, behind Sean. All car windows were closed; Benefield never saw Sean speaking with Hankerson through the window. Nor did he remember talking to Marseillas Payne, or her calling out to him from her car, as she’d said she did.

As soon as Bell started his car, Benefield suddenly saw a man (Det. Isnora) approach the car, holding a gun. He came right up to Sean, pointing his gun at Sean, and, since he was sitting directly behind him, Benefield as well. Benefield immediately covered his face with his hands, including his eyes. He saw nothing more, though he heard Guzman call out, “Go, go, drive, go.” He felt Sean step on the gas and felt the car “bump” something. It’s unclear whether the “bump” — Benefield’s word — was the car hitting Isnora or hitting the police minivan. The next thing Benefield remembered was hearing shots fired in rapid succession, with no pause. It was about two seconds between the collision, or bump, and the shots beginning. Benefield never heard Isnora say anything, and never saw anything on him (ie: a badge) to indicate who he was (ie: an officer)

Feeling himself get shot in both calves, Benefield reached over, opened the back driver’s side car door, and began running south, down Liverpool Street. As he ran, he was shot again, in the thigh, right below the right buttock. All officers who’ve testified at trial, or whose Grand Jury testimony we’ve heard, have said they saw Benefield running down the street but didn’t fire at him because they saw he was unarmed, so this testimony is interesting. I’d surmised Friday that it looked from one of the CSU detective’s diagrams like the shot that eventually went into Mrs. Rodrigues’s house appeared to have been fired from way down the street, not at all near Bell’s car, and that, unless it just ricocheted weirdly off of something else, someone may have shot at Benefield. Unfortunately, that bullet entered and exited his thigh, and, I think — unless it had blood on it and the blood could be traced to Benefield — we can’t tell which bullet that was. So, it may be impossible ever to know for certain who fired that shot.

And, Benefield said that he fell immediately after he was shot, which would have been further down near the end of the street, not in front of the Rodrigues house. So, that bullet must have been a bullet other than the one that went into her house. Unless of course, he just doesn’t remember cleary. Extremely complicated crime scene.

Anyway, after he fell to the ground, Benefield looked up to see a tall, dark, heavy-set man (Det. Headley, from the Camry) approaching him with a gun. He saw nothing on him to indicate he was an officer, and, seeing the gun, was scared. Headley told him to “stay down.” Benefield responded, “I didn’t do nothing. I got shot.” Someone told him to put his hands behind his back, and handcuffed him. He repeated that he was shot and needed help. Soon, EMS workers arrived to take him to the hospital, removing his clothing. He identified by photo all clothing found at the scene, besides the gloves and hat, as his. When asked on cross if the marijuana found near those items was his as well, and he said no, there were grumbles in the courtroom and the court officers swifty told everyone to be quiet. (Jean Nelson had testified earlier that the marijuana was his). Benefield didn’t remember cursing at police officers at the scene or getting angry at the hospital over the whereabouts of his jacket (an officer earlier testified, Benefield said, “go fuck yourself,” when he asked him for information and another officer said he’d got upset upon learning his clothing was missing.)

Benefield was at the hospital for 9-10 days, recuperating from the three gunshot wounds. He sustained a permanent injury to his calf: the metal rod holding the bone together. Unable to work since, he lived on payments from a charity organization and a bank loan. At the hospital, he learned the shooters were police officers. There is currently pending a $50 million civil suit against the city, of which he is a part.

The main problem in Benefield’s testimony is that he said he’d heard only one bump followed almost immediately by shots. But he’d told interviewing officers at the hospital about an hour and a half after the shooting that Bell’s car hit something, then reversed and crashed into something else, then sped forward again and crashed a third time: “my man, trying to get away, backed up into another car, then go forward.” Not knowing how to rectify the inconsistencies, he said he must have been mistaken in the hospital; that he “made up” that Bell’s car had reversed, hit something else, then crashed again. The officers taped their conversation with Benefield at the hospital, and that tape was played in court; Benefield acknowledged the voice on it was his.

On cross examination, defense counsels James Cullerton (for Det. Oliver) and Anthony Ricco (representing Det. Isnora) focused a bit on Benefield’s marijuana habit. Cullerton asked Benefield how he paid for it, saying sarcastically, “I take it you make a large amount of money working for the tire maker.” Benefield said he paid for the marijuana with money he earned, and that he didn’t know exactly how much of the money he’d received from the charity organization went for marijuana. And, after he said he must have “made up” the sequence of events to the officer in the hospital, Ricco asked Benefiel how much “reefer” he’d had that morning. Laughs emanated from the second two rows of the defense side of the courtroom (where all the officers sit). A court officer immediately yelled, “Quiet!”, which made me happy because at least everyone’s getting yelled at for making noise, not just those on the prosecution side.

I still found Benefield to be sympathetic, despite inconsistencies between his testimony and what he’d told the officers at the hospital that morning. It was a meaningless inconsistency for one thing — it doesn’t really make a difference whether Sean backed up and went forward again, does it??? It all happened extremely fast. I felt like Benefield was kind of caught on the spot after they played the tape recording of him talking to the officers in the hospital and the inconsistency was glaringly there, and then he didn’t really know what to say, so said he “made it up”. Did Testagrossa not adequately prep him for trial? And, then, all the questions about his marijuana smoking, which he admitted to doing, after all. Again, he’s being made, unnecessarily, into the bad guy, when the poor guy was shot after all and has a metal rod in his leg for life. Yes, the marijuana likely dulled his senses on the morning of the shooting, reducing his observational capacities and calling into question his memory of the events. But is he a liar because he has an addiction, which he may sometimes pay for with borrowed money?

I know the lawyers are doing their jobs, and they’re doing a superb job of pointing out significant inconstencies between witnesses’ trial testimonies and prior Grand Jury testimony or statements made to officers or DAs. But there is definitely something to the Bell family’s claim that the tables are being turned and the prosecution witnesses (and perhaps the black community, or at least a certain segment of it) are being put on trial here with all the focus on the rap lyrics, the 10+-year-old prior convictions, the marijuana habits. Regarding all of this, by the way, there’s a good but too short article in today’s NYTimes by Michael Wilson on Anthony Ricco, the black attorney who’s arguably attacking black prosecution witnesses in order to defend black defendant Gescard Isnora.

(photo by Andrew Eccles)

Today, Ariel and I went to the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, which is currently celebrating its 200th anniversary. The church was founded in 1808 when it separated from a larger demonimation because of racial segregation.

But today Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater was also celebrating its 50th anniversary, today’s event part of its faith-based honoring of the spiritual heritage of Mr. Ailey’s life work, which took place in churches throughout New York and the country, including Rogers, Texas, Alvin Ailey’s own hometown. We were very lucky: at our event, Judith Jamison, artistic director and former dancer extraordinare with Ailey attended and gave a brief speech about Mr. Ailey’s roots in the church. I also spotted a couple of Ailey dancers in the audience, including the illustrious Renee Robinson.

It was a blast! Former Ailey dancer Nasha Thomas-Schmitt, who heads the Ailey Camp outreach program, giving dance lessons to inner-city youth, trained several children in the congregation to dance the opening of “Revelations” — the “I’ve Been ‘Buked” section (pictured above; also see video here, beginning section). So as the choir sang that song, the children walked down the aisles, dressed in the same styled costumes as the original Ailey dancers, up to the pulpit, where they danced — doing everything perfectly! I almost started giggling when the tallest boy in the center reached upward with his arms, leading his “flock.” It was adorable, and he was right on!

The choir also sang “Rock A My Soul in the Bosom of Abraham,” my favorite song in “Revelations” (see the last section of that above video). There was no music here; rather the different choral sections provided the harmony, and the melody. They sang repeated choruses, in so many different chords; it was amazing.

The regular minister, Dr. Rev. Calvin O. Butts, allowed one of the junior ministers, Rev. Eboni Marshall, to give the sermon, since she had previously danced with Alvin Ailey. Her sermon was themed “The Show Must Go On,” the message being mainly that no matter how bad things get for you, your show’s not over and God is there for you. She talked about what being a member of Alvin Ailey had meant to her. She said it “taught me, first of all, to stand up straight.” The audience cheered. She said Ailey also gave her a solid work ethic, self-respect and discipline, and taught her that no matter what happened, no matter how much her body ached, no matter how many last-minute set problems the troupe encountered, etc., the show simply had to go on, no excuses.

This was my first time at an African-American church, and I just have to say, it was so much more lively (to make a huge understatement!) than any white church I’ve been to (at least in Arizona). Rev. Marshall spoke theatrically and emphatically, and the audience was very participatory, shouting “Oh Yes!”’s, and “Um-HUMS!”, and “Oh, He’s coming!”s throughout, fists pounding the air. It was great! Back home, people sit there in near complete silence and the minister talks in the droning pitch of a shrink.

Afterward, Ariel and I went around the corner to a small but down-home-looking restaurant for southern food, called Miss Maud’s SpoonBread. We were going to go to the famous Sylvia’s, but then I realized I was hungry and wasn’t in a mood to wait in a huge line with other “Harlem tourists” and pay a bundle, and small local joints are often better anyway. I’m glad we decided on Miss Maud’s because they had a nice spacious booth, the likes of which I haven’t seen in Manhattan, and it was just a cozy little place. I had my first brunch of fried chicken and waffles, which was delicious, albeit enormous. They had biscuits, just like the biscuits ‘n gravy I’ve had in North Carolina visiting Mom, but these were tiny and shaped like hearts. I thought they were cute, so I had to snap a picture… Anyway, it was a most excellent day!

(photo by Julieta Cervantes)

Friday night I was finally able to see the Brazilian dance troupe, Grupo Corpo, live. I’ve seen videos, and have heard so much about them, through Brazilian friends. So, I’ve been wanting to see them for a while, and I was very happy when they finally came to Brooklyn.

Founded in 1975, the troupe, from the Brazilian province of Belo Horizonte, combines ballet with different forms of Brazilian dance and cultural influences — African, Latin, Native American, Portuguese etc. I saw two pieces, “Benguele” and “Breu”, both choreographed by resident choreographer and co-founder, Rodrigo Pederneiras.

(image taken from here, photographer unknown)

I liked the first, “Benguele” best. I saw it as a celebration of the cultural stew that is contemporary Brazil, melding a variety of movement — West African, Samba, capoeira, Portuguese folk, and even jazz — and a variety of sound, from folksy acoustic guitars to orchestral strings, to, my favorite, pulsating African drums. The running theme was a person trying to make his or her way across the stage, or a people trying to find their home, perhaps the result of a diaspora. The dancers moved back and forth and back and forth across stage with a variety of movement. The most common “walk” was the body bent way over at the waist, the arms hanging down, the hands almost touching the floor, almost dragging along it. But the lower body moved to the beats, which gave the walk a definite style and rhythm. So, although the person looked tired and world-weary, bent over from old age or a life of intense, perhaps slave labor, he continued on, like nothing was going to stop him from finding his destination.

At other times, people would move across the stage sideways, knees deeply bent, in a deep lunge. They were very animalistic, looking at times like crabs, at times like insects, and at times like jaguars or panthers. Sometimes, dancers would suddenly dart up from these crouched positions, legs kicking out, like a martial artist fighting his way out of a bad situation but with style and grace, intellect, and artistry — the super-charged, acrobatic capoeira. Some would nearly fly across stage in a quick jazzy skip. Some would slither in loose, pelvic rotating forward samba walks, or side-stepping samba voltas.

There’s nothing more fun, by the way, than recognizing a move! I see now why ballet is so popular amongst people with ballet training. It’s really interesting to see others do a step you’ve struggled with yourself, or to see a choreographer’s unique take on that step.

At times two people would dance together, trotting across the stage happily in a waltzy, swingy pas de deux, illustrating the position social dance has held in Brazilian culture.

At the end, all movement seemed to meld together, like it was blended into one continuous rhythm. The backdrop became a series of vertical stripes, each color represented, and each dancer wore different-colored sashes criss-crossed over his or her torso, a rainbow medley.

The second piece, “Breu,” I liked less than “Benguele,” but it was still good. In this piece, all dancers were dressed in zebra-striped or almost blindingly checkered costumes that at times looked imprisoning like a straight-jacket, at times intriguingly geometric like a compelling architectural model. This piece was much more obviously violent than the first, as dancers thrashed against each other, threw themselves down to the ground, kicked and pushed each other.

(photo by Cervantes)

At other times, they would refrain from going at each other, to lie down or stand in a row, making various visual shapes with their geometric-patterned bodies. But the movements in line or on the ground would still be fraught with intense emotion. And soon the thrashing pas de deux would return. The Playbill notes that this work was intended to “evoke the dark times in which we live” and to show “the violence and brutality encountered in daily life.” I definitely saw those, but didn’t think it really progressed; it seemed too one note to me.

Another thing I noticed is that most of the members seemed to be white, though there were a couple of black male dancers. I’ve never been to Brazil (yet!) but thought it was a very mixed race society. My friend, Alyssa, and I had noticed the same of Mimulus, when we saw them at Jacob’s Pillow over the summer. Not a criticism or anything; just something I found curious. It’s the same here, of course, with most of the large professional dance companies, especially the ones specializing in ballet. I just wonder if the underlying reasons for that are the same.

Anyway, I really enjoyed Grupo Corpo, especially the wonderful Benguele, and will definitely look forward to more by them!

Friday was another short day. There was only one witness, another CSU detective, Michael Cunningham, whose testimony really only pertained to the reckless endangerment counts against Detective Cooper for the bullet that went into the Air Train station, and Detective Oliver for the bullet that went into the house on Liverpool Street.

Cunningham returned to the scene in June 2007, over six months after the shooting, to try to re-do all of the measurements and create a new map of the trajectories of the bullets that pierced the Air Train station, Mrs. Rodrigues’s living room window, and Mr. Hernandez’s fence. Cunningham had to do this because, after examining measurements done by prior CSU detectives, he realized there was no way some of the previously projected trajectories could be correct. For example, according to Detective Anzalone’s measurements and trajectory tracings of the bullet that pierced the Air Train station, the shooter would have had to been standing several blocks further South from where the shooting actually happened (unless he was the 14-foot-tall shooter from previous cross examination testimony).

The problem is, by the time Cunningham returned to the scene to re-do the measurements, things were very different: the Air Train station’s windows had been fixed (so, obviously, the original bullet holes were gone), and Liverpool Street had been re-paved, making the curbside, street levels, and other measurements different from what they had been at the time of the shooting.

Nevertheless, Cunningham tried, using photographs of the scene and video stills from Anthony South’s footage. He took more measurements and, using Crime Scene Unit computer software, drew some 3-D diagrams of the whole scene which were shown in court.

Cunningham found another bullet impact mark in the Air Train station, and traced its path to a point on Liverpool Street, this one on the block of the shooting. But this new placing is in a location nowhere near the point where Cooper said he shot from (and we know it’s his bullet which pierced that Air Train window). Not that Cooper couldn’t have exaggerated his position, been wrong about it, or even have outright lied, but the new placing doesn’t make much sense; according to the 3-D diagram, it was out in the middle of the street, not near any car, or any place where Cooper would have had cover. Cooper said he had crouched down inside the Camry, opened its door, stepped out with one foot, and, peeking around the car door using it for cover, fired at Bell’s Altima’s back window. But according to Cunningham’s new measurements, as shown on the 3-D diagram, Cooper would have been standing up, out in the middle of the street, shooting. Shell casings were found both in the Camry and in the street.

The diagram also showed the path of Oliver’s bullet that pierced Mrs. Rodrigues’s window. According to that diagram, its trajectory was a straight line to a point smack in the middle of the block, where no one was supposedly standing, far away from where Bell’s Altima was. I’d thought — and I thought that CSU detectives had surmised as well — that that bullet missed the Altima and went into her house instead, but according to this diagram, her house was nowhere even close to Bell’s Altima. Cunningham had no explanation for this. When asked on cross examination whether that bullet could have ricocheted from another point, after hitting some kind of hard surface, then changed direction and gone into her window, he said it was possible. Either that’s what must have happened — the bullet ricocheted, someone was shooting at Benefield as he ran down the street (which none of the eyewitnesses have testified happened, but we haven’t heard from Benefield yet), or else the diagram simply isn’t accurate.

In any event, the CSU evidence all seems to have created more confusion than answers. And people are angry at what seems, at best, to have been careless investigatory work all the way around. Advocacy groups, like 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care, are asking whether the NYPD may have even intentionally botched this investigation. Retired NYPD Detective Graham Weatherspoon, head of that group, said that Cunningham is known as a very good investigator, but was called in way too late. So, why wasn’t he called in to examine the original crime scene?

Today was short and boring. Everyone is trying hard to be patient in waiting for the testimony of the two main witnesses: Joseph Guzman and Trent Benefield, which the guards outside had told us last week was supposed to happen this week. I hope the prosecution’s not running behind.

Today the court heard only from two witnesses: an optometrist who examined Sean Bell’s eyes about six months before the shooting, and a ballistic expert who compared bullets and shell casings he received from CSU people to bullets from the five detectives’ guns to try to determine which bullets came from which gun.

Dr. Daniel Friedman, a 79-year-old Queens optometrist, examined Sean Bell’s eyes in May 2006. Sean had come to him at that time to possibly buy a contact lens for his right eye. Without a correction, Sean’s vision in that right eye was poorer than 20/400, making him extremely nearsighted in that eye, with an astigmatism as well. The vision in his left eye, however, was 20/30, so only slightly nearsighted. Legal blindness, according to the doctor, was vision worse than 20/200. So, without the correction Sean would have been legally blind in the right eye but not the left. The Department of Motor Vehicles only mandates that one’s vision must be at least 20/40 in one eye, so, because of his left eye, Sean would have been able to obtain a driver’s license and drive legally without a correction. He never bought any corrective lenses from Dr. Friedman.

(But, remember, most of the action in the car that night was happening on Sean’s right side). Also, darkness and alcohol may impair ability to see, as was elicited on cross.

Detective James Valenti, a firearms operability and identification expert, went through painstaking detail listing each of the 89 pieces of ballistic evidence — whole bullets, deformed bullets, bullet fragments, and shell casings (which are discharged near the shooter when the bullet ejects from the weapon) — that he was given by Crime Scene Unit detectives, and which of the detectives’ guns each one likely came from. Valenti was able to identify 15 bullets and 46 casings; 28 bullet fragments were too small for him to be able to perform tests on. Looking cursorily through my vast notes, I count — no, forget it, it’ll take me all night to do that — suffice it to say the vast majority of recovered shell casings and bullets were fired from Oliver’s gun — hardly surprising given that he fired 31 of the 50 shots — the next highest number from Isnora’s, and a couple each from the weapons of Detectives Headley and Cooper and Officer Carey.

One thing Valenti said that caught my attention was that Glock guns — the type used by Detectives Isnora and Cooper — only needed 5 1/2 pounds of exertion on the trigger in order to discharge bullets. But under the current New York Trigger Policy, weapons must have at least 10 pounds of exertion on the trigger in order for them to fire. The current Trigger Policy was enacted in order to prevent accidental discharge. It doesn’t seem like there were any accidental discharges here, but in any event, why is the NYPD still using the Glocks if they’re not compatible with current trigger policy and can fire accidentally?

Also, on cross examination by Paul Martin, Detective Cooper’s attorney, Valenti, who has some training in firing weapons, said he was trained to fire both with two hands and with only one, that latter done in certain circumstances (which he didn’t specify). That’s important since it goes to the reckless endangerment charge against Cooper (for the bullet he fired into the Air Train platform). It made me realize there hasn’t yet been testimony presented by the prosecution on how officers are trained to fire their weapons, which I really want to hear. With Cooper, that kind of testimony is necessary, to show that he didn’t comply, that he was therefore reckless, and that’s why his bullet went askew.

But more generally, I really want to hear how officers are trained to identify a threat and how they’re supposed to deal with it. I’m sure the court is going to get some of this testimony in the defense case, but the prosecution has the burden of proof and should be trying to show that the detectives not only fired, but that they did so in a way that was inconsistent with their training and thus reckless. As I mentioned before, a black female spectator from the NYPD said to me early on in the trial while we were waiting outside, “We need answers; I know how it’s done and this is not it.” At this point, I’m hoping the prosecution plans on trying to show what she said.

(above photo by Paul Kolnick)

Today marked the beginning of the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater’s 18-month-long fiftieth anniversary celebration. I was unable to go to the performance since I was at the trial, but fortunately for me — for all of us! — they have events happening throughout the next year and a half, both in NY and throughout the country, and the world. Go here for a list. In particular, they’re going to be performing in several different churches throughout New York / New Jersey, Texas, Georgia, Illinois, and Pennsylvania as part of their Faith-Based Initiative, beginning at the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Manhattan this Sunday. An archive exhibit will be on display in Washington DC in May, and will move to Los Angeles later in the year. And in August, there will be several free performances and open dance classes throughout NYC. And, remember David Michalek’s Slow Dancing videos that I blogged about last summer ad nauseam? Well, he’s made one of Ailey dancers and it’ll be showing on the facade of their studios on 9th Avenue and 55th Street in Manhattan throughout the entire anniversary celebration. Free art, what more could you ask for!

There are tons of events though, so do go here for more details. And please don’t miss them if they come to your neck of the woods on tour. Global tour begins in September, and US in January. Happy year!

Yesterday was relatively mild compared to the day before. The court heard only from two witnesses: the surgeon who performed Sean Bell’s autopsy, Dr. Michael Greenberg, and another of the eyewitnesses to the shooting, Jean Nelson, a seemingly honest man whose testimony was similar to that of Mr. Henkerson, who testified the day before, but with added details.

Sean Bell sustained four wounds, one to the right side of his neck, one to his right shoulder, one to his right torso, and one to his right arm. When Dr. Greenberg began going over the path of each bullet and which organs they penetrated, Mr. and Mrs. Bell and other members of the family left the courtroom, Sean’s mother in tears. The two bullets that caused Sean’s death were the first and third listed above, the one that went into his neck, piercing his larnyx and lodging in his upper arm bone, and the one that went into Sean’s torso, fracturing his rib, abdomen, liver, lung, and lodging in his spine. These numbered bullets, by the way, were randomnly assigned by the doctor; it can’t be determined which struck Sean first. Sean sustained five additional abrasions, but the cause of death was the two gunshot wounds to his neck and torso.

Greenberg also testified that he didn’t see any gunshot residue on any of Mr. Bell’s clothing, which means that the gun’s muzzle must have been fired from over three feet away. An “intervening obstacle,” such as a window, would have prevented any such residue from forming on his clothing (although, as the defense attorneys pointed out on cross, if the passenger-side window was blown out, it wouldn’t have stopped the residue from congealing on the clothes). Mr. Bell’s blood alcohol level was 0.16 grams per deciliter, twice the legal limit. There was no presence of illegal substances in his blood.

Jean Nelson, 28 and married with three children, impressed as sincere and direct; he was there to tell it like it is. He had one prior felony conviction, from 1999, for possessing a firearm, which he had for protection. He also had three misdemeanor convictions, all for marijuana possession. Speaking of which, he was the owner of the bags of marijuana found down the street from the scene.

Mr. Nelson, who wore his hair in an impressively intricate pattern of cornrows (just something I noticed because, seriously, the design was like artwork), had known Sean for 5 or 6 years, meeting him through Mr. Henkerson, whom he’d known all his life. He was a member of the musical group the defense is so interested in, which he and the others had formed to make some money.

He’d gone to a club in Manhattan, “Eugene’s” (where he bought the marijuana), earlier in the night on the 24th, returning to Queens around 3:00 a.m., and meeting up with Henkerson, to go onto Sean’s party. He and Henkerson arrived at Kalua at 3:30, too late to go inside, as the bouncer told them the club was about to close. So the two waited outside for their friends. Soon Coicou pulled up in his SUV and a bit later, the club let out. When Sean left, he and Nelson walked toward the edge of the club where Sean urinated before realizing he’d left something in the club and returned to retrieve it.

When Sean emerged from the club, Nelson heard Coicou say to him, “You can’t do this like that. I got money in there.” Sean asked him what he meant. Soon, Nelson saw Coicou back up with his hands in his vest saying “I’ll shoot you.” James Kollore said, “We’ll take that gun from you.” Sean echoed Kollore, saying, “Yeah, we’ll take that gun from you.”

Nelson walked up to Sean, saying, “come on, you’re getting married tomorrow. You don’t need none of this crap. Let’s go.”

Nelson remembered seeing Detectives Isnora and Sanchez in front of the club, but he paid no attention to them.

Nelson, Sean, and the rest of the group walked down the street to their cars, on Liverpool. On their way, Coicou in his SUV passed them very slowly, stopping at the corner to eye them all. As soon as he passed, he sped up down the street and turned at the next corner. Guzman and Sean proceeded to Sean’s Altima and got inside.

Nelson remembered Lt. Napoli’s Toyota Camry pass by them and stop mid-block, a little after Sean’s car. Nelson noticed two white men in that car, who looked at him, and he concluded they were police. He remembered the minivan driving onto the street too, and concluded that carried police as well.

He then saw Isnora (whom he’d remembered from the front of the club) walk up to Sean’s Altima, holding a gun in his right hand, pointing it downward. “Yo, let me holla at you,” Isnora said to Sean and Guzman, which, to Nelson, meant, “Let me talk to you.” Though Nelson realized the men in the Camry and the minivan were police, he didn’t assume Isnora was as well.

Sean tried to pull out, nearly running over Isnora. Isnora hopped onto the hood to prevent being “squashed,” and went over the car, landing on the other side. Sean crashed into the minivan, then backed up, running into a wall behind him, before coming forward again, hitting the van. It looked like the Altima was just coasting at that point, and bumped into the van. Nelson then heard shooting. He began running South, dropping his marijuana (which he said was only for personal use) on the way. He looked back once before coming to the corner, and when he did he saw another man, a white man, near the passenger-side door of the Altima pointing a gun at that passenger door.

Nelson continued running, hearing someone behind him say, “oh shit.” He heard bullets piercing the fence of the house he ran past. A couple blocks away, he ran into Kollore and Henkerson, and they returned to the scene, now seeing Benefield on the ground, on his stomach, handcuffed.

On cross, Nelson remembered telling prosecutors during an interview on December 2, 2007, that he thought Sean was drunk, and when he’s drunk he’s “hyper.” He also told them Sean doesn’t like people talking to him “in a smart way.”
Defense counsel Anthony Ricco (Isnora’s attorney) asked Nelson on cross whether it made it a bit “tough” to go back to his neighborhood since his perceptions were “a little different” from his friends’. He said “yes.” After he finished cross examination, Ricco said, “thank you very much and good luck to you.” I’m glad he wasn’t hard on Nelson; there was no reason to be, since he seemed so truthful. So now, after getting so upset with him the day before, I like Ricco again.

So, Monica and Penn are the first to go. Pretty much as I expected, though I’d thought Adam might be first, but also suspected people might vote for Julianne Hough, which it appears may well be what happened. Unless you guys think Adam managed to redeem himself after the Carrie Ann cursing incident? Well, I’d definitely be happy if people were starting vote for great pro dancers instead of only the celebs!!

Also, hehe, this appears to be a picture taken by none other than dumbass moi of Fabian Sanchez at the U.S. National championships two years ago when he and his partner won the Mambo championship. I call myself a dumbass because Sharon had written me when this season’s “Dancing With the Stars” pro dancers were first announced asking if I’d heard of him and I said, “Hmmm, Fabian Sanchez, no, no, never heard the name…,” when in fact I’ve actually seen the man dance, and had written his name right on my photo page… And thanks to Mig for reminding me Haha, that’s the year I’d so wanted my teacher Luis Grijalva and his partner Anya Fuchs to win, or, barring that, Emmanuel Pierre-Antoine and his then partner Joanna Zacharewicz. So even though Fabian was excellent and he and his partner were tremendous fun, I was probably honestly just too sad at that point to think much of the winners.

Must some kind of airplane weirdness always happen right as I am purchasing airline tickets or getting ready to fly somewhere?

Today the court heard from Johmell Henkerson, the brother-in-law of Nicole, Sean Bell’s fiance, and an eyewitness to part of the shooting; and the Grand Jury testimony of defendant Detective Michael Oliver, the detective whom the press has focused on the most, as he fired 31 of the 50 shots, though he was not the first to fire.

Up front, I just have to say, I find it unsettling how the prosecution witnesses are being villified. While a witness’s prior convictions are fodder for cross-examination (because legally the judge may use such priors to determine the witness’s overall credibility), the defense attorneys are questioning, and very harshly, about kinds of inflammatory things that have little to no relevance to this case: the witness’s belonging to a rap group in which he created songs about “thug” life (since when is art criminal?); a witness’s long-ago possession of a gun; a witness’s general lifestyle; here, a shooting victim’s vaguely possible criminal activity in that shooting, where charges haven’t even been filed. The issue here, at least regarding the top charges, is whether the detectives were “justified” in shooting. Justification is legalese for self-defense. So, whether they believed deadly force was about to be used against them, and whether that belief was reasonable, from the point of view of a person in the same or similar circumstances. So, making the eyewitness friends of Sean Bell and Joseph Guzman out to be general “bad guys” who have experience with guns has nothing to do with whether the detectives felt threatened right before they shot and whether that threat was reasonable from a person in their shoes. They didn’t know Guzman and his friends beforehand, so it wasn’t like they knew he had a reputation for violence, which could have informed their fear. This was the first time Isnora and Oliver had ever seen Guzman.
Anyway, Johmell Henkerson: he talked slowly and quietly and it was a bit hard to hear him. He also seemed on the verge of tears throughout much of his direct testimony. 30 years old, he’s a medical technician who assists patients with kidney problems, and his wife, Shelby, is Nicole’s sister. He’s known Sean since 2000. Henkerson has two prior felonies, 10 years old — from the mid nineties — one for possession of a controlled substance and one for unlawful imprisonment, and two misdemeanors for loitering.

He met Sean earlier in the evening of November 24th, when they’d celebrated with some egg nog and brandies. Henkerson left to go watch his children while his wife attended Nicole’s bachelorette party. (Another thing made a big deal of on cross: that party was cancelled because the male stripper couldn’t make it, as if hiring a male stripper for one’s bachelorette party has anything to do with whether the detectives thought Guzman had a gun…) Anyway, later that evening, Guzman called him and he picked him up in his Mercedes SUV and brought him to Kalua for the party. However, Henkerson then had an underage cousin with him, who was denied admission to the club. He left to take the cousin home, leaving Guzman there.

Later, he met up with his friend Gene Nelson, and the two of them went back to Kalua, except they arrived so late that it didn’t seem worth paying the cover to go in. So he and Nelson waited outside to meet up with the Bell party. He parked around the corner from the club and he and Nelson walked up to the front entrance and waited for everyone to leave. He noticed Isnora and Sanchez standing to his left, talking. Isnora was wearing a “skull cap,” he said. Soon, Coicou arrived with his big black SUV, the music blaring.

Shortly thereafter, his friends — Hugh, Larenzo, Benefield, Guzman, Bell, and Kollore — all emerged from the club. Bell went back inside because he’d forgotten his hat. When he came back out, he “exchanged words” with Coicou. At one point, Coicou and Bell were standing very close to each other and their body language changed; Sean had been in a good mood when he left the club, but Henkerson now saw that their discussion had “elevated to another kind of situation.”

Coicou had his hands in his pockets, and with one hand, he pointed out at Bell as if he had a gun (Henkerson demonstrated this in the courtroom — he pointed his finger out, through the pocket, as if making clear there was a gun in that pocket and Coicou was aiming it right at Bell.) Henkerson couldn’t hear everything they were saying, but heard either Bell or Guzman say “I don’t give a fuck who you waiting for,” “fuck that bitch you waiting for,” and “I don’t care where the fuck you from.”

Henkerson walked up to Bell and put his arm around him, telling him this guy wasn’t worth it and “let’s leave him alone.” (I have in my notes that Henkerson nearly started to cry at this point, saying, “Sean was in a great mood the whole month; I was trying to bring to him the reality of the situation”). Henkerson also told Guzman they should leave. Henkerson said to Guzman and Bell that Coicou was “holding himself out like he got a gun on him.”

Guzman was mad but decided to let it be and all men began walking toward Liverpool Street. When they got to the corner, Henkerson looked back at Coicou, noticing he was pulling out; he looked at Coicou to “make sure he wasn’t going to do anything.” Coicou drove up to the corner, driving slowly, then turned and made a right onto Liverpool Street, passing them. He then turned right on the next street and was gone.

The men were deciding where they’d go for food, to continue the party. Henkerson had planned to keep Bell with him for the night, until his wedding, so that he and Nicole would next see each other at the ceremony. As Bell and Guzman got into Bell’s Altima, Henkerson spoke with Bell at the window, determining where they’d go next.

Henkerson then saw the Camry driving down the street, carrying a black driver, a white passenger, and a black guy in the back. Before it passed, Henkerson stepped aside, to his right, so that the Camry passed between him and Bell’s car. The men inside all looked at Henkerson, driving slowly and “observing” him, “looking hard” at him. (Had they been looking in the other direction, at Bell’s car, they might have seen Isnora motioning them to the Altima — Isnora had just told them the men in question were getting into a car — but apparently they found Henkerson more suspicious. Why, I don’t know: Henkerson, very slim, almost wiry-limbed, didn’t look the least bit threatening. But not seeing the Altima or Isnora, the Camry continued on).

Anyway, Henkerson looked back at Bell after the Camry passed. He then saw Isnora, the black guy in the skullcap he’d just seen in front of the club. Isnora was walking up (“like he was creeping from somewhere”) behind the Altima. He had a gun drawn.

Henkerson “put two and two together,” realizing the men in the Camry were cops (why else would a white guy be traveling with two blacks in this neighborhood at 4 in the morning?). And cops plus a guy with a gun was a recipe for disaster. “Things could get really ugly,” he thought. He said, “Oh shit, he got a gun.” (On direct he testified he’d said this to himself, but on cross admitted he’d told the Grand Jury he’d said it to Bell and Guzman as well). He did not think Isnora was an officer.
Henkerson decided he and Sean had better “get off the block.” As Bell pulled out, he figured Bell would be okay since he was in his car. Henkerson started running down toward the end of the block. Behind him, he heard an engine revving up, tires screeching, and then gunshots (“a nice amount” of them). When he got to the end of the block, he heard a pause and began to come back, but then the shots started up again.

He turned the corner, and ran in the opposite direction of his car, down a few blocks, winding back up to Liverpool. He’d found Nelson and Kollore on the way. The three men arrived at the top of Liverpool to see Benefield lying on the ground belly down, wearing handcuffs, screaming that he couldn’t feel his legs. The men tried to go back down to where Sean’s Altima was, but were prevented from doing so by officers, who eventually told them which hospital which shooting victim was being taken to.

Henkerson called a cab since “he was in no condition (emotionally) to drive.” The men caught up with Bone, and cabbed first to Jamaica Hospital, where Henkerson (who was crying in the courtroom when he testified to this) saw Bell being operated on, then to Mary Immaculate to visit Benefield and Guzman, then back to Jamaica, where he was told Bell had died. Henkerson then took a cab back back to the club and retrieved his car.

On cross it was brought out that Henkerson had possessed a gun in the past, in the 1996 unlawful imprisonment case. Henkerson said he’s since “moved on with his life.”

It was also elicited on cross that he had been shot in April 2007 on the street of Far Rockaway as he left a restaurant. When asked several questions about that, he noted that he didn’t know what that had to do with this case. One defense attorney asked him why he hadn’t talked to police about that case, and whether it was because he’d had to get an attorney for that case because he was involved in criminal wrongdoing. Defense counsel asked him whether he was testifying in this case to curry favor with the prosecutors so they wouldn’t prosecute him on that case. The judge sustained repeated objections by prosecutors. Defense counsel asked Henkerson if his Mercedes was ever searched on the night of this shooting; Henkerson said no. Defense counsel asked him if the reason he didn’t drive his car to the hospital was not because he was too emotionally disturbed to do so, but because he didn’t want it to be searched. He said no.

At this point, a woman who I assumed was his wife left the courtroom. Words like “bullshit” emanated from the prosecution spectator section.

Later, another defense attorney continued with the line of questioning about Henkerson’s being shot in April 2007, asking him if he had a gun at the time of that shooting. At this point a woman on the prosecution spectator side said something which I couldn’t hear but which was audible to the judge. Cooperman stopped proceedings and called out, “whoever asked that question, leave the courtroom.” The woman got up and left, cursing as she went.

Henkerson seemed genuinely confused whenever asked any questions about the April 2007 shooting or about his own car and why he didn’t drive it.

This is the first time I really got angry with the defense. I think the attorneys are doing a good job of bringing out inconsistencies between witnesses’ trial testimony and their earlier Grand Jury testimony or their prior statements to district attorneys during interviews, getting witnesses to admit things were a lot more nuanced than they’d represented on direct (or, in Coicou’s case, completely different). But, the rap song stuff, the insinuations that Henkerson had some involvement in his own shooting — a case which hasn’t had any kind of disposition, and no discernable relation to this case whatsoever, and the stripper at the bridal shower crap — they have nothing to do with the issues here, they’re meant only to badger and make the witness look like a “bad guy” in general, and those kind of tactics don’t bode well for anyone with any sympathy whatsoever for the Bell family — and you’d have to be heartless not to be one of those people. They really beat up on this witness, a member of the Bell family, and there was no reason to do so. He presented as honest, serious, vulnerable and upset, and not interested in a fight (unlike Coicou, whom they had every reason to go after). Plus, Henkerson’s testimony was not very damaging to the defense.

Okay, briefly Detective Oliver’s Grand Jury testimony:
Oliver, 35, started with the NYPD in 1994, first in patrol as a uniformed officer, then in the narcotics bureau. He’d worked only in Manhattan all the way up to August 2006, when he was assigned to the Social Club Enforcement Unit, first in Chelsea (after Imette St. Gillen was killed), before being transferred to Queens South in October 2006, a month before the shooting. He’d been trained to be an investigator, not an undercover officer, and only in drug buys. In Manhattan, the club initiative’s aim was to close down clubs under the Nuisance Abatement Laws, by conducting drug buy and busts. All activity in Manhattan was centered around drug busts; nothing else.

He had never been to Kalua Cabaret before 11/24/06, the night of the shooting. The undercovers there were primarily to conduct prostitution busts. At the team meeting earlier in the evening, Oliver was assigned to drive the “prisoner van,” with Officer Carey in the passenger seat. Since he’d never been in the area before, Carey told him where to park and directed him around.

When they first arrived in the vicinity, around 12:15, they ate fast food, before proceeding onto the club area, parking a few block away from it. Around 1:15, he saw Sanchez, one of the undercovers, walk by him, toward the club. This signified the operation was beginning, which was confirmed by a radio call from Lt. Napoli, in charge of the operation. He and Carey simply sat in the van until nearly 4:00 a.m., making personal phone calls on their cell phones. At one point, Detective Headley drove by with Napoli, in the Camry, and they exchanged small talk, but he didn’t remember what they said.

Around 3:45, Napoli radioed and said Detective Isnora was in the club and there was a man inside of the club with a gun. That man was wearing a White Sox cap and was heavyset, either black or Hispanic. Oliver waited for further instructions.

Around 4:00, Napoli radioed again saying the man in the White Sox cap with the gun would be exiting the club soon, and for everyone to “move in closer. Keep in tight.” Oliver pulled around the corner, nearer the club, and put on his vest and police shield, which he wore on a chain around his neck. He was nervous: a prostitution operation was one thing; now they were being told someone had a gun, a much more dangerous situation.

Around 4:15, Napoli radioed that the man wearing the White Sox hat was exiting the club and the team should “move in, we’re going to grab him.” Oliver began driving toward the club. Napoli then radioed a third time commanding, “move in, field team.” Oliver proceeded down past the club, and as he did so, looked at the people outside the club for a heavyset black or Hispanic man in a White Sox hat. He didn’t see anyone fitting that description.

At the end of the corner, Oliver made a right onto Liverpool Street. He drove slowly, looking to his left for the White Sox man. He didn’t see him, but instead saw Isnora on the side of the street standing in front of a car. Suddenly, Oliver heard tires screech, and the car ran into him, hitting him head on. He was “in shock.”

He saw three men in that car — two in front and one in back.

That car then reversed and backed into Isnora, causing Isnora to jump. He now saw Isnora had his gun drawn. The car came back at Oliver’s van, hitting him again. Isnora yelled, “He’s got a gun, he’s got a gun.”

Oliver saw the car’s passenger side window blow out. He heard shots. He put his van into park, and got out of the van yelling, “police, don’t move.” He approached the passenger-side door of the car. He saw Guzman begin to raise his right arm, lowering his left shoulder at the same time, as if he was reaching into his waistband. Oliver said he was scared, he didn’t want to die. He shot. Then he had no shots, and he didn’t know why there were no shots firing from his gun. He loaded another magazine into it. He didn’t want to die. It all happened so fast. He shot with the new magazine, and continued firing until he had no more shots left, and no more magazines.

He focused all of his initial shots on Guzman, but at one point, saw the rear window of the car blow out. He then believed the man in the back was firing at him or his colleagues. So, he finished off his rounds shooting at the man in the back, Trent Benefield. He never shot at the driver, Sean Bell.

After the shooting stopped, he told Carry to “cover” him, and he ran to the van and got the radio. He called the central unit telling them shots were fired and “two perps were shot,” and asking them for ambulances and backup units to be sent to the address, which he knew. That radio call was played in the courtroom. He sounded very frantic, but gave a better address and description of where they were than Sanchez had on his 911 call.

Oliver didn’t hear any shouting from Isnora before hearing the Altima’s tires screeched. He may have had music on in the van, but he usually turned off the radio when in pursuit. He never saw Isnora fire.

Oliver said he re-assessed the situation while he was re-loading his weapon. The threat remained, as Guzman was still trying to get his hand up. If he got his hand up, Oliver felt he would be killed. The entire thing happened within seconds. He felt he had no time to take cover from one of the vehicles on the street once he’d left his van.

He never did see Guzman’s hands. It never occurred to him that his fellow officers could have fired. Oliver had only ever fired at the shooting range, never at a person.

“I am trained to eliminate the threat,” he said. “The way to eliminate the threat is to shoot at center mass. Some people die. I have to live with this for the rest of my life. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do.”

How cute is Anna’s mom?! So sweet! And how much of a little cutie is Steve? He’d better not get kicked off yet — he’s too adorable! He was so funny when he got all excited for himself and gave himself a little hand when he got that trick right (rapidly alternating knee lunges). And charming routine she created for him, with a cute story. She knows his strengths are in his acting and performance skills and she’s making routines heavy on that. I do think Latin is not his strongest style, but, there’s room for improvement — that’s what the show’s about, right? I think the judges were too harsh. Oh and was Steve’s “I thank you and I respect you” comment to the judges a riff on Adam Carolla’s cursing at Carrie Ann last week?

Cristian was really good at ballroom. He was the quintessential “quickstepper” if that’s a word… Very energetic, perfectly upright ballroom posture, very sharp and clean footwork, swift, and fast for a beginner. What I didn’t like was Cheryl. I felt she was too Latin. The way she shook and wiggled; it just didn’t look like Quickstep. Interestingly, he stayed with more traditional movement, not making it Latin-y as well. I think he’s a very good dancer and I has a charming personality that makes you care about him; I think he can do well.

Well, Monica tried. She was actually better this week than last, I think. Her feet are too pigeon-toed; Jonathan needs to work on that. I said this last week about just about everyone — pigeon toed feet really destroy the line, and the camera focused on her feet this time during some swivels and they were way turned in and very unprofessional-looking. Jonathan gave her a disco-y mambo, which is probably better for her than a more Latin-y one since she has this tendency to jump and hop a bit which completely destroys the rhythm and hip action of Latin. I think she has a way to go, and she has a good body. I sure do sympathize with her feelings of discomfort on first-time performing

Penn wasn’t so bad. The quickstep worked pretty good for him. I agree with Len; he was a “convincing” quickstepper. He does need to work on footwork; it was proper but not sharp and I kept thinking he would trip himself or Kym. But it’s hard for someone of his size — especially with his large feet — to dance so sharply. I liked the little jump. I want to know how does those magic tricks though — both the upstanding tie and the sawing Kym in half… And, he has cool glasses.

Priscilla was adorable. She was really good; there was a lot of fun, sassiness to those steps. Len’s right — Mambo is about having fun, not precision. And the way she lifted and bent her knees (I tend to straighten too much, like in International Latin, and it looks stupid, too ‘arty’ and not loose enough for Mambo), and that little crawling on the floor like a tiger at the end, perfect fun. Of course a lot of this is thanks to Louis — good choreography. He’s giving her lots of classics. Remember when he got reprimanded for that disco-y samba he did for Lisa Rinna? I think learned his lesson — at least with these judges. They want classic. And Priscilla just screams classic anyway. Oh and excellent dress for her. And earrings! Oh and, Barbara, I caught the tail end of some story on one of those tabloid TV shows about how her cosmetic surgeon ended up being a phony and screwed up her surgery. I guess she’s trying to have it re-done…

Okay, Shannon’s not going home this week. Omg — whoa, 2000% improvement. I couldn’t believe it. She looked like a real dancer out there. Very difficult routine, very fast, lots of hard footwork that could easily have tripped her up, hard jump at the end. It’s not as easy to get height on those back kicks as it looks. Only thing, very very nitpicky thing — at one point she extended her leg out and her knee was slightly bent. It just threw the line off a bit and resulted in lack of polish. But teensy tiny problem in overall awesome routine. She was simply gorgeous.

Jason had turnout, Jason had turnout, turnout!!! Makes me very happy Yay Edyta! The routine was a bit slow (I tend to like faster mambos), but he was fun, and he has such a charming smile. Makes me jealous of her that she gets to dance with him… They look so good together. At first I was worried the judges were going to give Edyta all hell on that “lift” — because I think both of her feet came off the ground every so briefly at the beginning of that swing. But fortunately they didn’t harp, as they have in prior seasons, and said nothing.

Marissa was a huge improvement too. Quickstep suited her well. I’m not sure if ballroom in general is going to be better for her than Latin, but Quickstep is fast and fun and “bubbly”, as Len says, and that’s very her. You can tell why she’s such a Broadway star. She has the best personality, with contagious buoyancy. I felt so badly for her when, prior to dancing, she was crying about not being able to do high extensions and certain athletic tricks. But her personality, which shines through in her movement, is what is so lovable about her.

Julianne looked kinda uncomfortable with Adam, particularly in that little tango promenade thing. He is pretty funny out there. He was bouncing too much, which, as I’ve said before, is a problem many beginning Latin dancers have. Cute choreography from Julianne though, and I love how she bopped him in the face with her … By the way, what did he say about her pelvis, in practice? When she said, try to roll your pelvis, like this… “That’s not your pelvis, baby?” Is that what he said? Yick.

Another very good performance from Marlee. It was a mambo / quickstep though but that’s Fabian’s doing. I think she missed a jump and their connection at times wasn’t so good (you’re always supposed to be connected at the pelvis, making a martini-glass shape where waist down is the stem, waist up is the upside-down triangular cup), but that’s the hardest thing for beginning dancers to get about standard ballroom. Wow. I’m so impressed by her. I don’t mean to keep focusing on the deafness, but I can’t believe she can’t hear. I can’t!

Okay, Kristi was just as good as last week. Which is perfect. She’s a natural at all forms of ballroom. She has it in the bag. I hate to make predictions this early, but if she doesn’t win, she should. I wish I had skating background Although something tells me she just turns everything she touches into gold. Only thing off was the costume — too much going on. Those gloves kind of took it over the top.

Mario’s so cute! Perfect as well. Funny, I was just thinking how he didn’t fit the “stereotype” of the ballroom dancer, though the footwork and charm and even the frame were right on, and then when I heard the judges’ comments, I realized it was the muscles! Ballroom men are usually not so muscly — and of course you can’t see those biceps because they wear full, long-sleeved tux jackets. So, it was the costume, combined with the physique. But different is definitely good. He and Kristi are my favorites thus far.

And that’s it for “Dancing With the Stars” week 2. I predict tomorrow night it’s going to be Monica and Adam who leave. Unless, people vote to keep Adam on because of Julianne, which I could see happening.

Since my two posts for the weekend were quite sobering (and long — that’s what 8 hours’ worth of testimony looks like, folks), I figured I’d end the Easter weekend with something a bit more upbeat.

So here it is.

Thanks to Sharon for this. It’s former “Dancing With the Stars” pro Maksim Chmerkovskiy’s thoughts thus far on the show, most of which I agree with:

“Hey ‘KIDS’!

Just wanted to check in and say that I am proud of you watching the show and not doing the whole…..boycote…thing, because I’m not on it.

I will be back to share with you what I thought about the dancers/couples in couple of weeks. Simply because I need more time to evaluate everything and give you my opinion.
To give you a taste:
Kristy was AWESOME!!! (as expected). Let’s see if she would be able to pull off a latin dance with hip-action and everything (after all gliding in Foxtrot and gliding in skating may not be so different)
Jason Taylor was very good. He is the new Emmit Smith, but younger and (in my heterosexual opinion) sexier (sorry Emmit )
Christian DeLa….whatever WILL be better! I think that Cheryl is pacing herself and just letting Christian turn into the dancer that he should be instead of forcing him to become something unnatural.
Mario …..Not enough given his natural talent and ability. Will be the front runner later in the season.
Marlee…..GREAT! Fabian (not because he is my friend) did an amazing job catering to her needs and supporting her in every way while highlighting her strong points.
Marisa….HILARIOUS!!!, but that’s all for now
On the other hand…..
Shannon Elizabeth……… NOT what I expected and I’m hoping that Derek can get her to be what she is looked at as: Stacy Kibler of season 6, because for now she is not!

That’s all for now!

Behave you all,

ME!!!

Also, on a Maks-related note, I ordered my tickets this weekend to the Blackpool Dance Festival, the largest, most prestigious ballroom festival in the world! I’m so excited. This will mark my third year at the festival. And, it’s Maks-related because I always see him there If not in the actual comp, then in the Italian restaurant across the street from the entrance to the Winter Gardens, where the festival is held. Above, in fact, is a surreptitiously-taken paparazzi photo, by moi, of him watching Valentin compete in amateur Latin two years ago. (Thankfully I now have a better camera…)
I’m so excited! Can it be the end of May now please!!

Here are a couple more pics from my first year at the festival:

Down the street from the entrance to the Winter Garden, where the comp is held.

At the lovely boardwalk. Unfortunately late May is still way too cold there to go in the water.

Inside the Garden.

A crowded street near the WG, where my trusty internet cafe is! It was like 40 degrees Fahrenheit outside on that day, by the way. English people are nuts!

Goddess Karina Smirnoff and her old partner Dmitri Tibouken.

Riccardo Cocchi, dancing for his homeland of Italy, with his old partner. This year he’ll be dancing for the U.S. with our wonderful Yulia Zagoruychenko, pictured below with her old partner, Max Kozhevnikov.

They performed this routine at America’s Ballroom Challenge this year as well, if you remember.

T

The brilliant, longtime Latin champs, Bryan Watson and Carmen, retired last year, leaving the Latin championship wide open. So, that’ll mean new champs. Extremely exciting!

As will be … the fact that my good friend, Mika, is finally competing in the amateur championships!

I’m so excited for her. I wish I was competing, but oh well. It’s far less stressful (and expensive) to watch anyway

Thursday the Court heard the Grand Jury testimonies of both Detective Gescard Isnora, the Undercover who was the first one to shoot, and Detective Marc Cooper, charged with reckless endangerment for firing the bullet that went into the Air Train station. We also heard from another eyewitness, James Kollore, a friend of Bell’s and Guzman’s, whose account differed from the earlier testimony of Marseillas Payne, the other eyewitness to testify thus far.

First Isnora, since his testimony most goes to the heart of this case. Overall, Isnora seemed to be a very frightened, nervous, fragile man who, in my opinion, should never have received this kind of undercover assignment. He stressed repeatedly how dangerous it was to be an undercover, how if your cover is blown you could really be in trouble. Just looking at him in court, it’s hard for me to believe he’s ever gone into a strip club and soliticited prostitutes, he looks so meek.

Isnora’s Grand Jury testimony was read by the supervisor of Queens County court stenographers, Michael Cascone. Isnora, 28, unmarried, and nicknamed Jess or Jessie, joined the NYPD in July of 2001. His first assignment was as a uniformed patrol officer in Brooklyn, where he served for three years until moving into the Brooklyn narcotics division to work as an undercover. A year later, in October 2006, a month before the shooting, he was transferred to the Queens narcotics unit to work in the same capacity. But when he arrived for his assignment there, he was told he would instead be temporarily entering the Vice Unit’s Social Club Task Force, geared toward investigating clubs in which there have been community complaints of weapons possession, violence, prostitution and drugs. It seems to me, he ended up with a pretty different job than he was expecting…

Three days before the shooting, Isnora successfully solicited a prostitute and bought cocaine at Kalua Cabaret, which resulted in two arrests. His assignment on November 24th was, along with Detective Sanchez, to try to do the same. He and Sanchez parked their unmarked car a few streets away from the club, arriving around 1:00 a.m. Sanchez went into the club first to see if the two women who’d been arrested on the 21st were there; if they were, they’d very well recognize Isnora and tell everyone he was a cop. As soon as Sanchez called telling Isnora the women weren’t there, Isnora went inside and sat with him near the front of the bar. On his way in he was frisked “lightly” by the bouncer.

Throughout his testimony, Isnora kept apologyzing to the District Attorney, saying he was nervous.

Soon a woman approached Isnora and asked him to buy her a glass of champagne, which he did. He engaged in small talk with her and asked her what she was doing after work. Another woman walked up and asked for a drink, and he did the same, asking her what she was doing after she left. Both women hinted they “don’t do that kind of thing.” While Sanchez went into the back to explore the club, leaving Isnora alone up front, a woman dancing at the pole asked him why he was alone, making Isnora nervous. If you’re a new face admidst regular, people assume you’re a cop, he said. So, he called the team leader, Lt. Napoli, to have him send Cooper in. He felt safer with two team members around. Cooper arrived and sat next to Isnora.

Soon Isnora saw one of the dancers grab the arm of a man wearing a White Sox cap and a white shirt, telling him another man, “that mother fucker over there,” was harassing her, and pointed at him. “Him over there?” Isnora heard White Sox guy reply. If he keeps it up, White Sox said, let him know and he’d “take care of it.” When he said this, he took the woman’s hand and placed it on his right hip waistband area. Isnora saw a bulge right where the woman placed her hand. He told Cooper he thought the man had a gun. The White Sox guy then went into the back. Cooper went outside and called Napoli, telling him what Isnora had just said. As soon as Sanchez returned, Isnora told him about the White Sox man and Sanchez went into the back of the club to look for him.

It was soon closing time, so Isnora excited the club and walked to the corner of the street. He thought Sanchez was behind him, but when he turned around, couldn’t see him. At the corner, he called his field team. Napoli told him to go back to the club and ghost (ie: watch over) Sanchez, as he waited for White Sox man. Isnora asked a fellow officer to meet him at Liverpool and 94th Avenue so he could retrieve his police shield and gun before returning to the club. “It was just me and the ghost now on the street; the field team’s several blocks away. You never know if people think you’re someone they’ve had a problem with before,” Isnora explained.

Isnora returned to the front of the club and looked for Sanchez. About two minutes later, Coicou drove up in his SUV, exited it and stood in front of its passenger-side door, as if he was waiting for someone. Sanchez emerged from the club and phoned Napoli. Napoli told him and Isnora to wait for White Sox man to leave. A group of 7-8 men, including Guzman and Sean Bell, exited the club and hovered in front of its entrance.

Isnora suddenly heard a “loud commotion.” He saw that a woman in that group was arguing with two of the men, saying she wasn’t “going back with” them. “I’m not doing you guys,” she yelled.

Coicou then had some words with Guzman. Coicou kept “fidgeting” in his jacket pockets with his hands. Coicou looked nervous. Isnora couldn’t hear what they were saying, but suddenly Guzman called out to his group, “Get my gun, get my gun.” Guzman said the words loudly and emphatically. Sean Bell walked up to Coicou and said “let’s fuck him up.” The group then began walking down the street at a fast pace, “like they were going to come back.”

Sanchez phoned Napoli and told him what was happening. Sanchez gave Isnora his phone and told him to follow the men and tell Napoli where they were going and what they were doing. Isnora did as he was told, following the men but not closely. He didn’t want them to think he was associated with Coicou.

As he rounded the corner of Liverpool and 94th, Isnora took out his police shield and clipped it to the right area his collar. He held his hand over it until he passed a small group of men who stood at the corner looking back down at the club. As soon as he passed them, he removed his hand from his collar and pulled out his service weapon.

He saw Guzman and Bell getting into an Altima. He thought perhaps the men were getting into the car so that they could do a “drive-by” of Coicou. Isnora told Napoli the men were getting into a car on Liverpool Street. They were the only men around at that point, so they should be noticeable to Napoli, Isnora said. Napolic told Isnora he and the team were on their way, were “moving in.” Isnora couldn’t remember who exactly was the arresting officer for that evening, but thought it was Cooper, who was riding in Napoli’s car. (Normally, the arresting officer, as the name implies, does the “arresting,” not the undercover).

As soon as Isnora saw Napoli’s Camry begin to drive down the street, he looked at Napoli and motioned toward the Altima, nodding toward the car as if to say “that’s the one.” But the Camry continued driving down the street failing to stop, perhaps not seeing Isnora.

Isnora looked back at the Altima. He now saw Guzman, in the front passenger seat, looking right at him. He said, “Police, don’t move,” and pointed his gun at Guzman. Seeing only Guzman, Isnora again said, “Police, don’t move.” He was standing about one foot away from the car at that point. Suddenly, the car lurched forward, as if the driver had “floored” the ignition. The Altima hit Isnora in the leg. Isnora fell onto its hood, then walked backward and regained balance. The Altima went on and hit head-on the unmarked police “prisoner” minivan (driven by Detective Oliver, who, under Napoli’s orders, was following Napoli’s Camry.) The Altima then quickly backed up, right into Isnora’s path. Isnora jumped out of the way. The Altima ’s rear crashed into a gated area afront a building. The Altima sped forward again, trying now to go around the minivan. But it didn’t make it, and the passenger side of the Altima smashed into the passenger side of the minivan, where it stalled.

Isnora could see only Guzman in the car. He had “tunnel vision”; couldn’t take his focus off Guzman because he was the one who’d told somone, “go get my gun.” Locking eyes again with Guzman, Isnora said again, “police, don’t move.” He said the same words several times, he claimed. He also thought he saw Guzman eye his collar, bearing the police shield.

Isnora thought he saw Guzman reaching into his waistband, to withdraw a gun. “It all happened so quick,” he said. “I yelled ‘gun’ when I saw his arm going to his waistband. I thought if I waited he would fire at me. It was the last thing I ever wanted to do. In my mind, I knew he had a gun, so I fired. It was the last thing I wanted to do.”

Isnora never knew when his fellow officers got out of their cars. He could only focus on Guzman. Everything besides Guzman was “blurry.” He was about 6-7 feet from the car. He knew he was the first to fire, and when he did so, he heard glass shatter. The passenger-side window blew out. He fired all 11 rounds within a couple of seconds. After his magazine fell out of his gun, he didn’t reload. He was trained to “shoot center mass” — the center of the torso — because that was where most vital organs were, in order to stop a threat. All of his shots were directed at that area on Guzman. He was so “scared” and “nervous,” he never paused to assess the threat.

After a grand juror asked him why he continued to fire if he didn’t know whether there were shots coming from the Altima, Isnora said “I can’t answer, I can’t explain, it was all continuous. Once I fired, I just didn’t stop.” Another juror asked why he didn’t take cover. Isnora answered that he was in the middle of the street, a wide-open space; there was no cover to take.

After firing had ceased, Isnora saw Benefield emerge from the back passenger seat of the Altima and run down the street. Detective Headley (who was driving the Camry, which was now stopped down the street, after hearing the shots), ran after him, not wanting Headley to be left on his own. After he saw Headley grab Benefield, “taking him down,” Isnora called 911 for an ambulance and backup units.

After giving his narrative of the events, the prosecutor questioned him. During this kind of “cross examination,” Isnora said after the Altima lurched forward, crashed into the gate and sped back forward again into the minivan, Isnora yelled, “police, don’t move,” along with “police, show your hands.” He said both “don’t move” and “show your hands” several times. The prosecutor asked him if he felt those commands were contradictory. Isnora said he didn’t know; it all happened so quickly.

Isnora said he’d been robbed before working as an undercover. He’d been in fights. But he’d never before fired his weapon. He’d never before even thought about firing his weapon. Isnora said he prayed for everyone, “for the individuals that this happened to and for what happened that night. I wish the vehicle would have stopped. I felt I had no choice.”

During lunch I overheard several spectators saying if only Sean had driven the other way, had not tried to pass the minivan, but instead made a left; it was a two-way street.

Okay, on to Detective Cooper.

Cooper, 39 and married with three kids and with the NYPD since 1989, told the Grand Jury he went into Kalua, and joined Sanchez and Isnora at the front of the bar. He remembered a dancer with a tattoo “Crime” on her shoulder talking with a man wearing a White Sox hat and a white jacket. Isnora told Cooper he’d seen that man point to his waistband and say something like, “I got this,” in response to something the woman said.
Around 3:00 a.m., Cooper phoned the team and told them there was “nothing else going on,” and he was leaving. He left the club and the Camry picked him up a few streets away. When Cooper got in, Napoli was on the phone with Isnora, who was telling him about a fight outside between a man in front of an SUV and a group of men. Cooper put on his bullet-proof vest and picked up his weapon and police shield, but stayed in the car, which drove into a nearby Long Island Railroad parking lot and waited for word from Sanchez about White Sox guy. As soon as Isnora called again saying someone in the group had threatened the SUV guy by saying he was going to go get his gun, Napoli radioed the minivan, saying “let’s move in on this.”

Napoli told Headley, who was driving, and Cooper, that Isnora’d just told him the threatening group was getting into a car on Liverpool Street. Cooper didn’t remember there being any specifics as to how many men were in this group. When the Camry began driving down Liverpool Street, Cooper saw the men getting into the car, but Headley passed on by. “I guess he wasn’t sure if that was the car,” Cooper said. Cooper, who was sitting in the rear passenger side seat (farthest from the Altima), didn’t see Isnora at that time, and didn’t hear any shouting.

Suddenly, Cooper heard the revving up of a vehicle, followed by a crash. The Camry stopped, and Headley began to get out. Cooper opened the rear passenger-side door and began to get out too, but right when he did so a barrage of gunfire began. Realizing he had no cover, Cooper crouched behind the car door, one foot in the car, one foot out, peeked out from behind it, and with his right hand only, fired in the direction from which he thought the gunfire was coming — the blown-out rear window of the Altima. He admitted he did not use his left hand to steady his weapon, making his aim unbalanced and unstable.

Seeing Benefield run by, Cooper yelled out for him to stop and chased after him. Cooper thought the gunfire had stopped by then, but wasn’t sure. He didn’t see anything in Benefield’s hands, so didn’t shoot. Once he caught up with Benefield, he saw that Headley and a uniformed officer had placed him under arrest.

Cooper said he believed he’d fired 1-3 rounds in total. But when he’d spoken with the Queens DA, Cooper’d told them he was certain he’d fired only one round. He now knew he was incorrect about that, and fired about three rounds. When told there were four rounds missing from his supposedly (according to NYPD dictates) loaded firearm, Cooper said he could have fired four. He fired all shots at the rear windshield of the Altima.

Finally, James Kollore also testified. 32 years old and nicknamed “Quick,” Kollore showed up in court dressed professionally in a suit. Overall he impressed as polite and honest (he admitted he was “probably” selling crack while on the lam for another crime), while somewhat lacking in observational capacity during the shooting (he needed glasses but wasn’t wearing any, and he was standing on the opposite side of the street from the Altima).
Anyway, Kollore had two prior felonies from long ago — 1991 and 1993, the first for possession of crack cocaine, the second for possession of a firearm. He was sentenced to a short prison term, which he didn’t serve until 1995 because he’d gone “on the lam” by which he meant he simply didn’t show up to court and no one came looking for him. He was only found when arrested for loitering and gambling, and the police found he had an open warrant. He also had a few misdemeanor convictions from 2002, 2003, and 2004 for trespass, possession of burglar’s tools, and possession of a loaded firearm.

Kollore had only met Sean Bell in 2002, but had known his friends, Benefield and Guzman, for about 15 years. They all lived in the same neighborhood.

Kollore arrived at the club to celebrate Bell’s bachelor party around 11-12 midnight. He’d come in Bell’s car, which was stopped briefly by a uniformed officer. The group proceeded to the rear of the club, where they sat near the stage.

After the club closed, Kollore left with the rest of the group, who congregated outside in front. He noticed Coicou standing in front of his SUV from which loud music was blasting. Kollore began walking toward Bell’s car when he turned around and saw Bell “having words” with Coicou, who had his hands in his pockets. The conversation turned loud with “shouting back and forth,” “angry facial expressions,” and at one point Bell and Coicou were “face to face.” Kollore thought Coicou may have a gun in his pockets, as indicated by his body language. Kollore walked over the Bell, put his arm around his back and told him to “come on.” He didn’t remember saying to Coicou, “I’m going to take that gun from you” but admitted he may have said that.
Kollore and Bell began walking down the street toward Liverpool, followed by Guzman and the others. As they rounded the corner onto Liverpool, the SUV drove by slowly. After passing them, it sped on.

Kollore walked to his friend’s car, parked across the street from the Altima, while Bell and Guzman got into the Altima. Kollore saw the Camry drive by.

When the Altima pulled out, it smashed into a van coming around the corner just then. At that point, Kollore said, the minivan’s passenger-side door opened and a white man with dark hair emerged (who was presumably Officer Carey, not charged here), holding a gun. Kollore heard gunfire and saw a flash from Carey’s muzzle. Bell’s car backed up and collided with some kind of railing surrounding a building behind it. Bell then pulled back out and tried to drive around the minivan, but didn’t make it, and crashed into it again. Then there was more gunfire. Carey fired several times, kneeling down on one knee.

When a bullet pierced a car he was standing next to, Kollore took off, running down the street. Eventually, he met up with two others in the group, and they tried to call Benefield. But Benefield didn’t answer his phone. When they got back to 95th and Liverpool they saw why: Benefield was lying face down, handcuffed.

After being told by a paramedic that the three shooting victims had been taken to various hospitals, they proceeded first to Jamaica, to visit Bell, and after they were told to go home, proceeded on to Mary Immaculate to visit Benefield and Guzman.

The gunfire lasted about a minute. Kollore heard no police commands and saw no shields.

On cross examination, Anthony Ricco asked Kollore why he hadn’t called 911, instead calling Benefield. Kollore just stared at him, as if it was the craziest question in the world, as if it never entered his mind to call the police. Just another clash of cultures. If I’d just witnessed a shooting, the first thing I’d do is call 911. Of course. And when the officers arrived, I’m sure they’d all have nothing but pity for the hysterical white girl, never ever suspecting me of being involved. If I was in Kollore’s shoes, I’d likely think a lot differently.

Kollore said he’d possessed a gun in 1993 for protection. He never carried it on the street with him while selling drugs.

A good deal of cross examination was taken up with questioning about Kollore’s belonging to a rap group, along with Guzman and Larenzo Kinred (but not Bell or Benefield) in 2001. The group produced a CD containing songs about the hustling life. Titles included “We Be Thuggin’”, “Let Off A Shot”, and “Gangsta.” I didn’t really see this testimony as probative of anything (are those former Oscar-winners for best song, pimps because of their number, “Life is Hard For A Pimp” — or whatever it was called?), but maybe the judge might have thought something of it, since he let it all in. On the way out of the courtroom, several prosecution-side spectators were very angry that ADA Testagrossa hadn’t protested more to its admission. One woman said, “he did, but the judge overruled it. What’s the point of continuing to object?”

“That’s right!” someone sitting on the prosecution side of the spectator’s area shouted out on Wednesday after key witness Fabio Coicou (a/k/a, the all-important “SUV guy”) said the above quoted words. Coicou was responding to defense attorney Anthony Ricco’s question about his prior convictions. But Ricco was allowed to ask the question not in order to turn the tables and put a prosecution witness on trial, but to call into question his credibility. I.e.: if someone has previously been convicted of a crime, that shows a certain willingness to put his interest above society’s, and possibly to lie under oath. Anyway, legally legitimate as Ricco’s question was, it also made sense to me that Coicou (and other prosecution witnesses who’ve testified and been questioned about their priors), felt the tables were being turned, fingers were being pointed back at them instead of those who pulled their triggers. And that obviously made sense to the person in the spectator seats as well.

Regarding Coicou, though, his testimony and personality were very unreadable, very all over the place and in the end, inscrutable. I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to be a smartass and rile up the spectators, of if he genuinely was worried he was going to get into trouble (he was, after all, the person who got into a contentious argument with Sean Bell, making the detectives fear there was going to be a shoot-out between the two parties) and was giving off this false bravado as a defense mechanism.

Anyway, here is his testimony. I’ll break it down into direct and cross. Direct first.

Coicou is 30 years old, originally from Haiti, and moved to Brooklyn with his family at age 10. He later moved to Far Rockaway, Queens, where he lived in November of 2006 and where he still lives with his ex-wife and their two young children. Coicou is a certified emergency medical technician and has worked as a funeral director. He had no prior felony convictions, but did have two prior misdemeanors — one for a petit larceny he committed in Nassau County in 1998; the other, a 2006 conviction for criminal trespass in Georgia.

Coicou had been to Kalua Cabaret before November 24th; he’d been there the previous Sunday. LaToya Oliver, his girlfriend, was working in the club as a dancer. On that Sunday, he’d driven her to the club, and as she danced, he parked around the corner and slept, then returned after the club closed to pick her up and take her home. He didn’t go inside the club with her since the club’s owners frowned on the presence of dancers’ boyfriends because it may lead to jealousy. His vehicle was a black 1998 Ford Expedition with customized just about everything (tail, skirt, rims, windshield visor, grill, headlights, scoop, hood, shades, etc. etc.).

On November 24, 2006, driving his 1998 Ford Expedition, he took LaToya to Kalua, and, as he did before, dropped her off, then drove around the corner to nap. Around 1:00 – 2:00 a.m. (before the club had closed), he went in. Before doing so he was thoroughly checked for weapons.

The club was packed and there were a lot of men drinking and looking at the female dancers, particularly in the back of the club. He later learned the group in back included Sean Bell, Joseph Guzman, and Trent Benefield, but hadn’t known any of them at the time.

Around 3:40 a.m., Coicou left, retrieved his SUV, parked in front of the club, waited for LaToya. There were many people now standing outside; it looked like “the whole club was in front of the place.” Coicou stepped out of his SUV and stood at its rear passenger door. Sean Bell, followed by Benefield, walked back into the club.

When Bell walked back out, Coicou claimed he said, under his breath, that alcohol was taking control of the situation. As Bell and Benefield passed by Coicou, Benefield said to Coicou that he was not letting alcohol take control of the situation. Bell got “chest to chest” with Coicou and also said he was not letting alcohol take control. Coicou backed up, then said to Bell, “I have money inside the club; I have bread in there,” referring to LaToya. He said he called her “money” because she is “taking care of me”. Bell gave him “a look like he understood,” then began talking a group of about 7-8 friends.

Bell again approached Coicou and asked him where he was from. Coicou responded, “A.” Bell asked what “A” was and Coicou said, “Atlanta Georgia.” Talking to the whole group, Coicou said he was now staying in Far Rockaway and this SUV was his vehicle in case they see him again. He held both hands in his vest pockets and said, “I’m not here to fight.” Guzman said “I’m from Far Rockaway too, from O.V.”, which Coicou took to mean Ocean Village, a part of Far Rockaway. Coicou said “Oh.”

Bell and Guzman and their group then began walking away.

And that was the end of that.

Coicou noticed two guys standing behind the Bell group, who were clearly not with them. One guy, a bald man (whom he later learned was Detective Sanchez), was “playing with his phone.” The two men didn’t go anywhere, but stood there making cell phone calls. Coicou had seen Sanchez in the club before.

The Bell group “scattered.” A few members of the group stood at the end of the block, looking back toward the club; others had gone around the corner. Wondering why the group had dispersed so quickly, Coicou got into his car and thought, “let me get out of here.” He drove down to the end of the block, and, before rounding the corner, saw Guzman, about to cross the street. Guzman directed him to go ahead, so Coicou drove on and circled the block, before returning to the club and parking again in front of it. While waiting there, Coicou saw someone, whom he thought was a woman, run up the block and jump into some bushes in a nearby backyard. He never saw her again. Soon LaToya emerged from the club and got into the car. She told him someone had just been shot. When they got home and watched the news, Coicou realized the people who’d been shot were the ones he’d spoken with in front of the club.

Coicou insisted he never heard any threats, never heard anyone say they were going to get a gun or a “gat”. The police had come to speak with LaToya but she refused to talk to them, feeling too much pressure. She soon returned to Atlanta because of the pressure.

Okay, now Coicou’s testimony on cross.

As mentioned at the top of the post, Anthony Ricco, defense counsel for Detective Isnora, began to ask about Coicou’s prior convictions, when Coicou quickly shot back, “yes, but I’m not on trial here.” Ricco decided not to ask the judge to direct Coicou to answer with a simple ‘yes or no’ and instead moved on to his Grand Jury testimony. Before reading Grand Jury testimony into the record, Ricco asked Coicou, “you swore to tell the truth, both to the Grand Jury and today, correct?” — a typical introductory question to the elicitation of Grand Jury testimony which is likely going to differ in some way from what the witness has just claimed at trial. Instead of saying “yes,” Coicou said, “and your point is?” which drew laughter from the spectators, but not from Justice Cooperman. Moments later when Ricco began another question, and Coicou opened his mouth, Cooperman said in an annoyed tone, “Just listen to the question.”

Such a clash of cultures. I have no idea what a jury would think if there was one — obviously it would depend who was on that jury — but an older white judge is going to have absolutely no patience with witnesses who smart off, who seem to disrespect the system. I don’t know if any judge would, actually. But then, maybe Coicou just didn’t get the system. Maybe it just doesn’t seem to serve him.

I overheard people on the defense / police side say thank god a judge is hearing the case; you don’t ever take a jury unless you’re guilty. I’ve never heard any attorney advise their client to forego their right to a jury trial. But then, I only know public defenders, who represent the poor, largely black, population. Who represent the Guzmans and the Coicous. I’ve handled plenty of criminal appeals; I obviously only got an appeal if there’s been a conviction (otherwise there’s nothing to appeal). So, juries do convict when the evidence is there. But juries also — usually — look very carefully at all of the evidence, deliberate at length, consider the charges separately, and take their role seriously. If the attorneys are good and the system is fair, there will be a good cross-representation of society on the jury. Something tells me a good many jurors would also understand where witnesses like Coicou are coming from – the fear and distrust of the system, of attorneys and police, the eagerness to mouth off when you feel like you’re the one in trouble and are being treated unfairly. But while they’d understand anger, I still think they’d be critical of inconsistencies and contradictions.

When Ricco continued on, asking him about his criminal background, Coicou again said “I’m not on trial here,” to which the woman in the spectator area said, “That’s right,” followed by mumbles and unrest on both sides of the courtroom. Interestingly, neither the judge nor any of the courtroom officers quieted down the room.

Coicou had a gun in Atlanta, but obtained a permit for it, possessing it legally. He has no permit in NY for a gun, and hence, doesn’t carry one. He didn’t have a gun that night. He held his hands in his pockets, he maintained, to demonstrate peace, so the group would leave him alone. “Uh-HUH,” declared a female spectator. More unrest. Still no demands to “quiet down.”

Ricco asked him if he knew what a “gat” was; Coicou said, “no, what is it?” and told Ricco to get a dictionary.

If you listen to Coicou’s Grand Jury testimony, it seems like he was a lot more scared of the Bell group that night than he wanted to admit at trial, which makes no sense since he’s not friends with them. Ricco read some of that Grand Jury testimony: “I said to them I’m not here to fight. I had my hands in my pockets because I was trying to tell them to calm down. People don’t like to be told to stay calm.” He “thought they looked impatient, rowdy” and that they were “making a scene.” There was “a lot of drinking involved, and if you talk to a drunk person the wrong way … I was trying to hint we are grown men, there’s no reason to act this way.” He was trying not to have a “situation” with them, he was trying to hint to them that the bald guy might be a police officer. He was concerned that if something went wrong, a bunch of people would jump on him, outnumber him, “just like in the situation here, with a bunch of lawyers.”

Coicou also claimed he never saw anyone peeking around the corner, but his Grand Jury testimony belies that. “I got into my car because of the people peeking at the corner. I got concerned. If I didn’t move, someone might come around the corner.” He felt the group’s splitting into two parts — those who went around the corner and left his sight and those who stood “peeking” back at him — could have been “a diversion.” He “was concerned because he didn’t know where they went.” He thought they “were going to get whatever to do whatever.” So, he drove around the block, past the “people who were still peeking.”

Coicou also met with the Assistant District Attorneys on January 17, 2007, shortly after the shooting and before he testified before the Grand Jury. He gave them a statement then, which also contradicted his trial testimony. He claimed at trial that he didn’t recall ever telling the ADAs then that he worried the men were coming back for him, that some of them were peeking around the corner, that he was worried they were “going to go get whatever to do whatever,” or that anyone said, “we’ll get my gat.” However, the ADA’s notes reflected that Coicou did indeed tell them all of those things at the meeting, including, most importantly, the “we’ll go get my gat,” to which the DA stipulated.

Ricco tried to discuss further Coicou’s thoughts that the group splitting up might be a “diversion.” Coicou said that when he drove around the block, he saw nothing was up, so there was obviously no diversion; he “didn’t see anyone doing the diversion.” I guess the way he said this sounded funny because there was some laughter in the courtroom, and Ricco said, “Mr. Coicou, isn’t it true you sometimes use big words you don’t know the meaning of?” Coicou retorted, “I guess so. I’m just trying to be like you.” More laughter. Ricco looked dumbfounded.

Coicou clearly had a thing for Ricco; he would not stop taunting that attorney. Once Mr. Cullerton (Detective Oliver’s attorney) began questioning, Mr. Coicou gave him very little crap. Perhaps he was just tired by that point. But Mr. Ricco is black, Mr. Cullerton white. And when Mr. Martin, (Detective Cooper’s attorney) who is black as well, did his cross, Coicou’s snappishness returned. Martin asked him if, with all this talk of his girlfriend being his “bread” and his “money”, he was in fact her pimp. Coicou asked for a definition of pimp, then asked Mr. Martin if he was one. More laughter in the courtroom. At this point, one guard hushed people.

On redirect, Coicou stated he had absolutely no interest in either side of this trial. He didn’t know anyone involved, didn’t know Bell and his family or friends. And, his brother is a police officer.

Additionally, Dr. Daniel O’Connor, the orthopedic surgeon who operated on Trent Benefield and Joseph Guzman, testified. Benefield had two gunshot wounds to his right buttock — one where the bullet entered, one where it exited. He likewise had two bullet wounds — entry and exit — to his right calf. He sustained one bullet wound to his left calf, and that bullet struck and lodged in his tibia bone, fracturing it. O’Connor repaired the fracture by placing a metal rod into Benefield’s leg. X-rays of Benefield’s leg with the metal rod and screws holding it together were shown in court. Heads shook in disgust on the prosecution side of the spectator area. O’Connor said it would have been difficult for Benefield to have run on the leg following the shooting, but with a rush of adrenalin, he could have hopped on his right leg and dragged the left along.

Guzman sustained multiple wounds, O’Connor said, but his fractured left tibia was the injury O’Connor operated on. O’Connor performed the same surgery on Guzman as he had on Benefield, inserting a metal rod into the left leg to repair the fracture and stabilize the bone.

The beginning of Detective Cooper’s Grand Jury testimony was also read into the record, but since it concluded the following day, I think I’m going to save that for Day 16. I’m tired…

EEEEE! The underdogs make it to the top. I am very very happy. They do have to spice it up though choreography-wise for next week. Their stunts / acrobatics / crazy funny shapes are always amazing, but they need to be a little more creative with the overall choreo / theme. I have no doubt they will be up to the task though

I can’t believe JabbaWockeeZ is in the dance-off this week. First time for them. My prediction is that they will be dancing next week with SQ.

Okay, now that I just saw their performance, I am positive they will be in the finals next week. Query though: how DOES someone do those headspins that the guy did at the end? I am always amazed by those. I just don’t get how people do them! You couldn’t do that many pirouettes in a row on your toe, so how does one spin on the crown of one’s head like that? I love that he also pulled his elbows to his knees repeatedly to make a different kind of shape. That was new with the headspins (at least to me). Wow.

KabaModern had a cute routine, and I liked the ripping off of the girls’ sweats and the ‘groupies infatuated with the rock star’ thing (and I love JC claiming he remembers what that felt like), but I still think JabbaWockeeZ is just on a different level.

I knew it!

KabaModern seems completely okay with it though. “We just want to inspire. Others have inspired us and we just want to do the same.” Aw…

I wondered what they were going to do for the rest of the show. More dancing from the two finalists of course. Well, overall, I preferred SQ’s Jack-in-the-Box to JabbaWockeeZ’s The Red Pill. I love the big guy carrying what — three, four others, on his shoulders all at once. And the clown’s falling-down pants. The whole thing was a lot of fun from the choreo to the theme to the tricks and flamboyant costumes. Very over the top. The like to wow you; they have a great sense of humor. Of course I still love the spinner guy in JabbaWockeeZ, and I love their subtlety. I love the simulated musical instrument-playing, and the isolations. How starkly different these two groups are, right.

One thing they have in common though is how well they work together. Shane Sparks said JabbaWockeeZ was like a family, but so is Status Quo. You have to work well together both to do perfectly in sync isolations and multi-person lifts. So, I guess if there’s a “lesson” here, it’s togetherness and team spirit.

Enjoying well-needed glass of wine

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

At Algonquin, between headache-inducing trial testimony from ’suv guy’ & ny bar discussion on race & crim justice.

Update: So, that lecture on Race and Criminal Justice was really interesting, albeit short. It was given by the president of John Jay College of Criminal Justice. I’ll write more about it this weekend.

Fabio Coicou, the SUV guy whose testimony we’ve all been waiting for, was on today in the Sean Bell Shooting trial, and, as I said, it gave me a big headache. It was really confusing; it didn’t make complete sense to me, and he contradicted himself a lot — both within his testimony today, and between today’s testimony and his earlier Grand Jury testimony and statements he made to the investigating DAs shortly after the shooting.

I have to go to sleep because I’ve been working like nuts and have seriously got a total of about four hours of sleep since Sunday night, but in a nutshell Coicou really tried to downplay that there was any real confrontation between him and Sean Bell’s group outside the nightclub at all. Said he was waiting for his girlfriend, a dancer at the club, to come out, when Sean Bell went into the club. As he passed by, Coicou told him he had “bread in there,” (ie: money — his girlfriend — in the club) and that “alcohol was taking control of the situation.” When Bell emerged from the club, he approached Coicou, standing “chest to chest” with him, and told Coicou that he “was not letting alcohol take control.”

Bell and his friends then asked Coicou where he was from, Coicou said “Atlanta” but lived in Far Rockaway now. Guzman said he lived in a section of Far Rockaway as well and Coicou told him he may see him around and if he did, this SUV was his car. He backed toward the SUV and had his hands in his pockets but wasn’t scared. Bell and his friends left and Coicou decided he would drive around the block, then return to the club and wait for his girlfriend, which he did. He said he didn’t drive around the block because he was nervous or suspected the men were going to return and harm him, and claimed he never saw men peeking around the corner after the Bell group left. After a defense attorney read to him his Grand Jury testimony, Coicou admitted he did see men peeking around the corner but he wasn’t nervous and didn’t suspect anything. Later in cross examination he said he thought the men leaving might be a “diversion” so he drove around the corner.

After driving around the corner, he returned to the club and waited for his girlfriend. He never heard shots and wasn’t told about them until his girlfriend emerged from Kalua. He maintained he never heard anyone say “go get my gat” (gat being slang for gun), but according to the DA’s notes from Coicou’s meeting with them, he told them he heard those exact words before the men left. The DA stipulated that the notes were accurate.

Coicou’s personality was curious to me. On one hand, he kept fighting with the defense attorneys, saying things like “I’m not on trial here,” when counsel would ask him about his prior crimes or “I’m just trying to be like you,” in response to the question “Mr. Coicou, do you know what ‘diversion’ means or are you using words you don’t know?” On the other hand, he walked with his head down, shoulders hunched over, and seemed nervous. Throughout the testimony, there were a lot of harrumphs and snickers on the defense side of the courtroom, in contrast to comments like, “That’s right, you’re not on trial!” and knowing laughter from the prosecution side. I think the two sides had vastly different interpretations of the value of his testimony.

Anyway, I’ve gone on for far too long. I think both Coicou’s testimony and courtroom reactions to it were very interesting and I’ll write more about it this weekend. After … sleep!

So, first two women were admitted tomboys. Which is fun. But doesn’t make for the most graceful ballroom dancing. First on was Shannon Elizabeth, whose tomboyishness I completely didn’t expect, the way she looks, and since she’s a supposed bombshell and all. But she was way too manly on the floor; she stomped straight through that Cha Cha. All the judges were completely right about her legs: she needs to straighten those knees, point those toes. I say she’s a definite candidate for the ballet lessons Marie Osmond took last season. Oh but I loved how she said she never wears high-heeled shoes, and those were the biggest challenge for her upfront. How much can I relate to that!! I love that she wore them 24/7 to get used to them. Sadly, I admit trying that too. Don’t know how well it worked with me though…

It was cute how they introduced Monica Seles by showing her on a tennis court swinging that racket but in ballroom attire. I hate to say, but that’s kinda how her Foxtrot looked too. But I really appreciated Jonathan Roberts’ routine for her. It had a sweet story: boy trying to win girl over, girl a bit sad, boy presents her with a flower, girl brightens a bit. She did a sweet acting job. But she definitely needs to get that sweeping ballroom action down. She was jumping a bit to compensate, and that doesn’t work; it needs to be a fluid, feathery sweep. And her pelvis lost contact with Jonathan’s at noticeable points, losing that oh so important martini-glass shape. But I think she can learn and I agree with whoever it was — Carrie Ann I think — who said that moving across the tennis court is not all that different than moving across the ballroom floor. Movement is movement, and she needs to not stress out so much over being a sports girl trying to ballroom dance.

I loved Marissa Jaret Winokur — so much fun that one! And I love Tony’s hip hoppish, ‘look at me, I rock and screw you if you think my body’s not perfect,’ attitude music for her. What I don’t love is that Tony is about ten feet taller than she though. Couldn’t they have found someone a bit more matched height-wise? But I do think Tony’s going to have fun with her. Maybe that’s why they paired them: their personalities mesh. I liked their little Cha Cha / hip hop, and she nailed all those lightening-fast bump ‘n grinding body shake things — things I could never do. But I agree with the judges that there wasn’t enough Latin ballroom. And so odd that she missed a step because she seemed the one with the greatest confidence and ease going into it. Sometimes that can backfire though.

I love so much that Louis Van Amstel is back. He such a fantastic dancer, he just makes me smile. Now, after Barbara told me Priscilla Presley can’t smile because of the cosmetic surgery — her mouth is all I can focus on! She did grin a little bit though. And, wow, I thought they did really rather well. She really acted the dance well; it was an ideal foxtrot, very basic, very classy, charmingly sexy with a few nice, non-fancy tricks thrown in. (I hate it when the routine’s all about the tricks). Speaking of which, congrats to her on that perfectly-done death spiral! She has a really sweet personality. I didn’t know what to expect from her, but I like her. She’s sincere and I believe this is challenging and difficult for her in a way unlike other things in her life.

Okay, Kristi Yamaguchi was gorgeous. Hands down, no competition. She is simply the best of the men and women. I think the best ever on this show. I can’t believe she hasn’t been dancing ballroom her whole life. Wow. That was Foxtrot; we’ll see how she does next week with Latin, but something tells me she’s going to nail it as well. She just knows movement. It surprised me though, because on the rehearsal tapes she was struggling a bit. But not on the dance floor. For once I agree with Bruno: this is the best first-show performance in the history of this series. Oh, I so wanted to be Kristi when I was little and she was a figure skating champ, and I so wanna be her now…

And finally, Marlee. Wow! She did so well! I don’t mean to focus on a “disability” (I don’t think I ever did with Heather Mills), but I just think it would be the hardest thing in the world to dance without music. I mean, have you ever tried to dance a rhythmic dance — like Cha Cha — with silence? It would be impossible. And there was almost nothing wrong here. She missed no beats. She was a bit pigeon-toed in cross-overs, but other than that, she was perfect. She said she’s “profoundly deaf” and relies entirely on Fabian, follows him completely. Which is what you should do, if you’re the “follower” anyway. Well, Fabian, goofy as he seemed during practice, must be an excellent lead.

So three women blew me away: Kristi, Marlee, and Priscilla. I guess this is good: I usually have a strong preference early on and get all upset when that person is booted…

Early in the day, I wrote in my notes, “courtroom is asleep.” Everyone had dozed off listening to the first witness of the day, NYPD criminalist Michelle Miranda, talk about ballistic damage to Sean Bell’s car. If it was the first time we’d all heard about all the bullet holes, we’d have been wide awake, but this is about the fifth witness to testify to the same thing. People were literally snoring.

But not long after I wrote that, things heated up when Miranda, declared an expert in gunshot residue, began removing clothing worn that morning by Trent Benefield, Joseph Guzman and Sean Bell from giant brown bags marked “biohazard,” and pointing out holes which she tested for gunshot and lead residue. The ballistics evidence is always a bit confusing, because the number of bullet holes in the clothing doesn’t necessarily mean that all of those bullets pierced the wearer’s skin or caused a wound; they could have passed through the clothing, making two different holes the result of one bullet, etc.

Anyway, that said, Miranda found a total of six holes containing elements of lead (making them likely bullet holes) in Benefield’s jeans, most on the back of the pants, one in the front, and one at the waist. Eerily, you could see the bullet holes in the courtroom, even from the back. Guzman’s outer vest bore six bullet holes, most of them on the right side; his pants four, all of them on the back of the pants, both legs; and his long-sleeved undershirt one in the shoulder area. Examining Sean Bell’s jacket, Miranda found a total of 14 holes, six of which tested positive for lead residue. Those six, deemed likely bullet holes, were on the right, back side of the jacket, the hood, and in the right shoulder and arm. While Miranda showed the judge the bullet holes, Nicole, Sean’s fiance, got up and left the courtroom, the door slamming loudly behind her as she went. Soon, the other people in her row left, along with Mr. Bell’s mother and father. Justice Cooperman halted proceedings for a minute or two until the situation calmed down a bit.

Miranda continued, saying that all bullet holes found in all of the clothing tested negative for gunshot residue, meaning that the shooter was not standing “near” or “in close proximity to” the three men in the car during the shooting, though Miranda didn’t define what those terms meant.

The upset in the courtroom at the showing of Bell’s bullet-torn jacket seemed to set the tone for the rest of the day. Mr. Ricco, Detective Isnora’s attorney, got short with Miranda over the word “twisted” regarding a portion of the Altima’s bumper in which a bullet hole was found, and later Paul Martin, counsel for Detective Cooper became visibly angry during his cross examination of the day’s second witness.

Anyway, Miranda also testified that she found additional ballistics evidence in the Altima’s flat tire, trunk, and dashboard, and that, judging by the way in which two bullet holes ended up in the Altima’s engine, the hood would have had to have been raised during the shooting, and a bullet would have had to have gone through the hood to have made a hole in the engine.

No gunshot residue was found inside the Altima; so, there’s no evidence any gun was ever fired from within Bell’s car. Finally, Miranda swabbed two bloodstains from the Altima’s hood and trunk for DNA testing, as well as several bloodstains in the rear seat of the Altima.

Next on was Assistant District Attorney Michelle Cort, a member of the District Attorney’s Integrity Bureau, which examines misconduct by police and DAs. It seemed pretty clear to me that ADA Cort was very unhappy, angry actually, with the police department and was not going to cut them one bit of slack in this case. She gave testimony recounting a meeting she and other ADAs assigned to the case had had with Detective Cooper and his lawyer, Mr. Martin, in January 2007.

According to Cort, Cooper told her at that meeting that, following a field team TAC meeting on the night of 11/24/06, he and the team, in three separate cars, proceeded to Kalua Cabaret, arriving there around 1:00 a.m. Cooper rode in the Camry with Lieutenant Napoli and Detective Headley. There was no police bubble light in the Camry. Cooper told Cort he was unfamiliar with Queens, having only recently been assigned the club initiative in that borough and having only been at Kalua on 11/21 for the team’s one previous prostitution and drug bust there.

Inside Kalua he saw Detective Isnora and Detective Sanchez talking near the front of the bar. Soon a woman with a tattoo reading “Crime” on her shoulder began speaking with Isnora. Cooper also saw that woman sitting next to a man about 6 feet tall and wearing a White Sox hat and lots of jewlery. Isnora told Cooper he saw the tattoo woman reach toward the White Sox man’s waistband and the man say, “I got it covered,” pointing to the waistband. Isnora told Cooper he thought that meant the man had a gun. Cooper didn’t hear that conversation but did see the tattooed woman speaking with the White Sox man.

Around 3:30 a.m., Cooper went to leave the club. When he went outside he didn’t see Sanchez or Isnora. He called Lieutenant Napoli and asked him to come pick him up, which Napoli did. Cooper got into the back passenger-side seat. Napoli told him Isnora had just phoned him about seeing an argument outside between a man standing near an SUV and some other men who were on their way toward Liverpool Street. Napoli radioed to Detective Oliver in the police minivan to “move in closer,” and Napoli also drove toward Liverpool. As they drove down Liverpool Street, Cooper saw three men get into an Altima very quickly. As their car drove past the Altima, Cooper saw one man getting into the rear of that car.

Suddenly, Cooper heard a crash, followed by gunshots. Detective Headley, who was driving, stopped and exited the car. Realizing he had no cover, Cooper slowly opened the passenger-side door, and stepped outside of the car with his right foot, keeping his left foot in the Camry. With his right arm extended out and around the Camry’s door and leaning on the door, crouching behind it, Cooper peeked around to see the Altima’s back window blown out. He fired one shot in the direction from which he heard the shots coming — the Altima, which he had his gun trained on. Cooper, according to Cort, had said that he fired for cover. Cooper never saw Isnora. Napoli remained inside the car, ducking down.

Cooper then saw Benefield running down the street, past the Camry. Headley began to chase him, and Cooper joined in the chase. Because he saw nothing in Benefield’s hands, Cooper never shot at him.

During the meeting, Cort claimed Cooper said he was “certain” he only fired one shot that morning. ADA Charles Testagrossa asked Cooper if his weapon was fully loaded at the time he began his day, and, if so, how many bullets were missing from it. Cooper responded that he should have three more bullets in the weapon than he had, but said he had found the remaining loose rounds at his house in a drawer after the incident.

On cross examination, Cort said Cooper told Testagrossa he normally removed his magazine and bullets from his gun at home each night; some of them had simply remained there, mistakenly. Cort said Cooper was never asked, and never said, whether he felt he was being fired on before he shot. Counsel was incredulous that such a fundamental question was never asked at the meeting.
Finally, the parties stipulated that DNA tests on the bags of marijuana and black gloves found on the street were insufficient for testing. So, we’ll never know whom those bags of pot belonged to.

Bruno is such a goof. (He said this to Penn Teller). I sometimes think he plans out his lines before the show...

I loved the opening number — loved that they introduced all the pro dancers up front and let them shine. I love that Louis van Amstel danced with Karina Smirnoff my two favorites…

How much did Priscilla Presley seem like she didn’t want to be there during intros?!

I thought Penn was cute. He’s an enormous man and the choreography Kym gave him actually worked for him. Her opening splits, where he took her leg up, was a good idea for a tall guy — it elongated her and kind of brought him to her level, and I love how he darted through her legs right after that. With that huge body, he looked like a whale! And the ending, with the flowers he magically pulled out from his sleeve and presented to her — adorable. He jumps too much though — his biggest problem, hopping around to make up for lack of rhythm and speed — common among beginning men. She just needs to teach him that hips produce the rhythm not bopping up and down.

Okay, I just completely fell for Jason. Oh my, oh my! — he is so dapper, so gentlemanly, so smooth, such the consummate ballroom man! Awesome posture — I think that water bottle on the head during practice helped. And so graceful, and for a sports guy??? What was all that crap about not wanting to be girly? My pet peeve. But it seemed only for show, especially with the tutu thing. Funny though how American men think Latin is girly, because he was doing Cha Cha during practice when he said that he was now going to have a rep in the locker room. But then they have no problem with Standard — like they think Standard is more manly than macho Latin. Well, Standard is closer to ballet, so I guess ballet is manly by the same logic My biggest problem with him is his feet — he did the pigeon-toed thing a couple of times, particularly on a stretch where his back foot was lunged out and it was very noticeable. Edyta should get him to stop it! Another pet peeve…

Okay, now Cristian has stolen my heart as well… Whoa did Cheryl trust him — she threw herself right into his arms! I don’t know what Bruno and Len were on about regarding his shoulders though, it was his feet that bothered me; he wasn’t as pidgeon-toed as Jason, but sometimes on those New Yorkers (cross overs) the back foot was not turned out. I’m sorry, am I ridiculous? It’s just a huge pet peeve, and a common mistake beginning men make. Maybe it’s my ballet background… Anyway, I think Cristian is a lot of fun and I love his complaint that he’s Chilean (known for food and wine) and not Brazilian (dance country), so even though he’s Latino, he’s not so great on his feet — an embarrassment since everyone on his white TV show (Ugly Betty — totally didn’t recognize him from that!!) expects him, as a Latin, to be a natural dancer. Hence his reason for being on the show — to be what he should already be.

Oh so cute that they had Helio on saying how he felt about Julianne Hough’s “being with another man”! I know many people don’t like his politics (which I don’t know about since I never watch syndicated shows), but Adam seemed endearingly self-effacing. He said DWTS seemed pretty humiliating, so thought it was something he should try. Also moaned, “I felt horrible for the kid, ruining her perfect record.” Aw. Cute foxtrot. He was pretty good, except those pidgeon toes happened again, and his butt was sticking out at one point, losing that martini glass pelvis-connecting shape with Julianne so important in Standard. Bruno said he was not Fred Astaire, but Will Ferrell?… I didn’t think he was comical at all. All the judges are being pretty harsh actually. I thought he was pretty good, for it being his first try. His footwork was flawless, which for foxtrot is hard; he didn’t seem to miss a step. And that battemant kick was bent-kneed, but I was surprised at how high up it went. He did look stiff, but who can blame someone’s opening-night nerves?

Okay how smooth is Mario? He said one of the reasons he wanted to do the show was to meet Karina Methinks he is the next Sabrina though — he has a lot of dance background with that R&B and hip hop. I don’t care if it’s not ballroom; dance is dance. I still love him though. For the first time ever while Karina was on the floor, I watched someone other than Karina! The judges are being nice, with the exception of Len, who pointed out some heel leads that I’d missed — that you never do in Latin. That’s the annoying thing with the judges — they act like dance background is irrelevant. He’s got the highest score so far. Youth is also a big factor in learning to dance well fast. He had some pidgeon toes too though… I think what it is is the Latin shoes with the 3/4 inch Cuban heels. Those heels, short as they are, make a non-turned-out foot look just awful. But with his groove, his natural hip action, it was almost non-noticeable.

Eeee — I love that Anna Trebunskaya took Steven Guttenberg to the Vegas Classic — a real, live, authentic competition — on this show! I even saw some familiar faces — Lucas! I liked their routine; it was cute. I felt like there was a story there though, but I couldn’t figure out what exactly it was. They were playfighting and making up, and flirting with the judges, but it didn’t really all come together as a narrative to me. Still, he was very charismatic, and how excellent was that jump and kick! Carrie Anne’s right — he’s a real charmer. And Len’s right that he enjoyed himself and his smile was infectious. He’s the performer of the group — this season’s Marie Osmond (except a better dancer ). Sweetly self-deprecating too.

(By the way, did anyone see that movie, “Kissing Jessica Stein”? — has nothing to do with this show, but there’s a line in the beginning of that film, spoken by one of the dweeby guys Jessica goes on a blind date with. Trying to dazzle her with his wit, he tells her he’s “humorously self-defecating.” I couldn’t stop laughing, and now, everytime I go to say self-deprecating, I have a frightening tendency to say defecating.)

Anyway, I like all the guys. Every single one of them. And I have about four favorites. Now what? The women ensure us they’re superior to the men. Marlee Matlin said it’s not about her deafness but her great hips. Then why, of course, did she bring the former up in the first place?? Marissa Winokur got a lot of cheers. Good for her — I’m really excited to see her. And I love Kristi Yamaguchi!

I don’t have much time tonight, so this will be short, but today’s testimony was very odd. I feel like the prosecution is calling every single person who participated in the crime scene investigation in any way.

First on was Dr. Peter Pizzola, another CSU detective (and very educated; he has a PhD in Philosophy of Criminal Justice, which is why the Dr. preceding his name — he’s not an MD). Anyway, he was declared an expert in crime scene and ballistic reconstruction, but not accident reconstruction. So, still no expert testimony about who initially smashed into whom.

He didn’t want to speak with absolute certainty about anything but said that analyses of paint chips he ordered taken from the gray pedestrian gate of the building on Liverpool Street and the rear bumper of Bell’s Altima showed that Bell’s Altima could have come into contact with the gate. He also found clothing fibers compressed into the Altima’s front bumper. Comparative analysis of those fibers with material from Detective Isnora’s pants revealed that the car’s front bumper could have come into contact with Isnora. Since the fibers were compressed into the bumper, such contact was not casual — ie: it did not occur with Isnora simply standing next to the bumper; there had to be somewhat more forceful contact. Paint smears on the Altima’s front bumper could have come from the license plate of the police minivan. There was a tire smear on the side of the police minivan, but Pizzola could not say whether it was from the Altima.

Based upon his impact analysis, Pizzola said the collision happened as such: the police van and Altima impacted, the Altima backed into the sidewalk then into the gate on the building, then went forward again and again made contact with the minivan. The paint on the Altima from the minivan’s license plate was from the first, not second impact.

When Pizzola was first given the Altima for examination, it was already in the precinct’s garage. At that point part of the car’s bumper, foam from seats, and other large items were haphazardly packed into the car’s backseat. Saying he didn’t want to “second-guess anyone,” Pizzola admitted he thought the placement of such objects was not so swift. He noticed the car’s two rear tires were deflated and the front driver’s one flat; ballistics evidence was found inside of that front flat tire. Two bullet holes in the Altima’s hood were definitely made after the damage to the front of the car (so, the crash happened before the shooting). There was slight, typical factory tinting on the front windshield of the Altima, and there was perhaps a bit of tinting on the rear window, but the side windows were not tinted.

The shots fired into the rear of the Altima and into the Air Train station were produced by Detective Cooper’s gun. Cooper was shooting from the unmarked police Camry, parked down the street behind the Altima. The slope of the shot that fired into the Air Train was 11 degrees upward — a slope “slightly” above the target, also called “a grazing shot.”

Detective Edward Bingham (not sure if I’ve spelled his last name right) was the source of the aforementioned odd testimony. Another CSU detective, he examined the Dodge Stratus parked on Liverpool Street that sustained a bullet hole to its trunk; the bullet was found inside the trunk’s interior lining.

Bingham also documented the trajectory of the 24 bullet holes in the Altima through a 3D model called a “total station.” Using Pizzola’s trajectory rods, he made these 3D images, which were projected onto the courtroom screens. They showed a model car with long, long lines pointing toward it, each line representing one of the 24 rods marking the bullet holes. The minute he put up the 3D images, they looked odd and very out of proportion. The trajectory lines seemed ridiculously long, seemingly coming from either below the surface of the ground or way above, in the air. It turned out, as revealed on cross, that he hadn’t made a vertical scale, only a horizontal one. There hasn’t yet been any testimony about how far away each detective was from Bell’s car during the shooting, but Bingham admitted, according to one image, if the detective shot from 28 feet away, he would have had to be aiming from 14 feet in the air. “You don’t know any 14-foot tall people, correct,” defense counsel Ricco asked rhetorically. According to another image, if the detective had fired from 15 feet away, he would have had to be underground. Bingham admitted that when he made the “total station” he hadn’t taken into account the fact that the passenger side of the Altima was higher than the driver’s side when it was shot at (both because of the flat driver’s side tire and the dips in the street). He performed the test only in the precinct garage, rather than at the scene, making it difficult for him to get the proper dimensions since the garage was so small. On redirect, DA Testagrossa adduced from the detective that he hadn’t intended to show the placement of the shooters in the images. But there was a long side bar before the admission of the images, after Mr. Ricco objected to them on the grounds that the DA hadn’t given an “offer of proof” as to their relevance. After the lenghty side-bar, Ricco withdrew his objection, but I wondered what that relevance was after all…

The little things that amuse me

Originally uploaded by swan lake samba girl via mobile.

Today’s courtroom passes are green & have little clovers on the bottom.

(photo, Bob D’Amico, ABC). I was thinking of live blogging Monday night’s show, in the fun manner of Newcritics, but since most of you guys are in the midwest and west and aren’t viewing the show the same time as I, that doesn’t seem to make much sense. So, after the show!

On Friday night I went to the Museum of Natural History to see the new Bjork video. Thanks to the Misnomer Blog on Great Dance for the heads up. We had to wait in line outside for nearly 45 minutes because they ended up having a much greater showing than expected and had to figure out how they were going to accommodate us all. Once we got inside the organizer said he didn’t realize so many people even knew about it. Apparently a lot of people read Great Dance I was one of the last people allowed inside and I got there over 1/2 hour early.

On our way in, they handed us the 3D glasses. After the first showing of the 8-minute video, the filmmakers showed some slides — also in 3D — and held a Q&A. Bjork was in attendance — a surprise; no one seemed to have seen her in the audience, but after an audience member asked one of the filmmakers what it was like to work with her, she came up and gave her sincere thanks to everyone. I also spotted Chris Elam, director of Misnomer Dance Theater (which I’ve written about here), in the audience, as well as the dancer from his troupe who was featured in the video. Since they don’t have dancer headshots on their website, I don’t know her name, but if you’re familiar with the group, she’s the smallish dancer with short, brown hair.

The reason I was interested in the video was Misnomer’s involvement — Elam choreographed the dance sequences. Unfortunately there weren’t as many of those as I was hoping for; one of the filmmakers explained that they had to be cut because they were too difficult to film. But you could easily see Elam’s influence in the video. As Bjork journeys down a stringy Himalayan river atop a big yak with friendly blinking eyes, a pair of arms and legs slowly grows from Bjork’s backpack, and she kind of gives birth to this alternate identity, which the Misnomer dancer embodies. The dancer breezes along atop Bjork, riding piggyback for a while, at first tiny, wiry-limbed and childlike. But the two soon begin to struggle with each other, culminating in a tumbling sequence where she and Bjork sommersault over each other repeatedly, at times looking like some kind of exotic creature. When asked where he got the idea for that sequence, the filmmaker said from watching some Swing dancers screwing around, which cracked me up. They should have had Elam speak a bit.

The filmmakers said they plan to show the video via analog on the internet, and in movie theaters at the beginning of select 3D films.

Yesterday was a short day. The only testimony came from yet another Crime Scene Unit detective, Charles Reiss, who took 63 photos of Sean Bell’s Altima at the NYPD garage after it had been towed there for evidence preservation, and photos of two gates in front of a building on Liverpool Street that appeared to have been impacted by the Altima. Because this set of Altima photos was taken once it had been removed from the scene, we could see its entire front including the point of impact with the unmarked police minivan. The whole front bumper was off and the right front passenger-side wheel was turned awkwardly in, “dramatically” so, Reiss said. The front driver’s side tire was flat. The passenger windows were missing. In examining the glass recovered from those windows, Reiss said they didn’t seem to be tinted, which one can determine by the way the glass breaks.

There was some, but not as much, damage to the car’s rear: the point where the trunk meets the body of the car was askew, the trunk was ajar, there was a bullet hole in the trunk lid, the back bumper was damaged, and the rear deck inside the car was covered with glass.

Reiss took several hair and fiber samples and serological (body fluid) swabs from inside the car and sent them to the lab, and he, too, documented the car’s ballistic damage. He went through all the bullet holes and bullets recovered in the car, most of which went through the passenger side of the car. Reiss tried but was unable to collect any latent fingerprints from inside or on the car.

In examining the scene, Reiss saw glass splattered on the ground in front of two gates covering pedestrian and vehicular entrances to a building on Liverpool Street located diagonally behind the Altima, as well as a damaged lock to the pedestrian gate, chipped painting on the adjacent vehicular red gate, and chipped red paint on the Altima’s rear bumper. He concluded from all of this evidence that the Altima may have crashed into the gates. He therefore obtained paint samples from the rear of the Altima and both gates and sent them to the lab for analysis. When asked whether there was any doubt in his mind that the Altima had been involved in multiple collisions that morning, sustaining damage to front and back, Reiss said “no.”

Reiss’s testimony about the two collisions is important because it contradicts earlier eyewitness testimony by exotic dancer Marseilles Payne. Ms. Payne had said she saw the unmarked police minivan crash once into the Altima, followed immediately by shooting. She said the Altima never backed up into the building and came forward again crashing into the minivan, which is the defense contention.

And that concludes weeks three of the trial.

It’s kind of weird how the trial is a big deal on one hand, and on another, it’s not. There’s a fairly large media presence, though some days more than others. N.J. Burkett from News Channel 7 was back from Albany yesterday; he breezed in halfway through the testimony. There’s a total of four sketch artists — all of whom seem quite taken with Detective Oliver; from where I’m sitting I can usually see the progressing drawings of two to three of them and one day all three had nothing on their canvasses but his profile. He is rather charismatic and is located the closest to them, but still, I wanted to laugh when I saw three paintings of exactly the same thing. Earlier in the week when the judge briefly recessed the case to hear another item on his docket and the defendants had to leave the front area, one sketch artist actually followed Oliver around the room. He looked up at her and smiled kind of self-consiously. He looks at ease with all the attention — not like he is eating it up but not uncomfortable either. Detective Isnora on the other hand usually sits slightly hunched over and head slightly down. And Detective Cooper, charged with the least serious of the offenses, kind of sits off to the side, on the fringe. Still, I wanted to stand up and applaud when one of the artists actually began a drawing of Detective Cooper yesterday.

As for the families: the Bell family is always present, especially Sean’s mother, father, and Nicole, his fiance. There’s a large man who always sits next to the father, who I suspect is Sean’s brother. And Nicole’s row of friends are always there for support. Her lawyer is often present, and Sharpton shows up about once a week and for brief periods of time. On the defense side, the second and third rows are equally packed with police officers. I don’t know the detectives’ families, but I suspect some are there. There was a cherubic-faced but worried-looking woman who looked just like Detective Isnora but white-Hispanic, not black, talking to him the other day during brief recess.

And as for the spectators: the courtroom is often fairly full by late morning but the regulars are becoming fewer and fewer. We all sit in the same seats and are kind of getting to know each other, if mainly by sight. There’s an older man with a limp and a thicket of white curly hair who sits diagonally behind me and I honestly worried about him after not seeing him for two days in a row. Thursday I met a woman who always sits near me. She told me she’s a police officer and her son’s currently studying at John Jay College of Criminal Justice. “That could have been my son,” she said referring to Bell. “I know police procedure. I’m here because we need answers.”

I’ve been asked a few times why I’m there. I think I am just about the only white regular who’s not official press and not associated with the police so it is probably curious. The guards outside keep trying to send me to jury duty. They have police barricades set up outside the courthouse separating the main entrance from a side entrance which leads to a narrow hallway, thronged by police guards, reporters, and a large TV camera, then on to the main courtroom. Every morning I start to walk up the courthouse steps around the barricade and toward the side door but am stopped and directed around the other way, behind the jurors. I simply say “Sean Bell” and they say, “oh,” and let me continue on my way. Thursday when I was walking along to the proper door and heard a guard call out “miss, miss,” then another say, “naw, she’s here for Sean Bell,” I considered it a minor victory.

I don’t know if other bloggers have been getting an obscene amount of spam lately, but I’ve been getting hundreds more than usual, within a short amount of time. I normally get about 50-70 overnight, but this morning when I woke up I had 300 “comments.” Funny because my email spam has significantly decreased. And the messages are starting to go on for hundreds of lines, most of them links. It takes forever just to scroll through them all, and I don’t have a lot of time to be doing that. So, I apologize to anyone if I’ve accidentally deleted your valid comment. Conversely, I also must have pre-approved some spammers thinking their earlier comments were valid, because somehow some of them have infiltrated my moderation system and are commenting freely without my approval. So, I also apologize if you see any comments that are clearly spam (I don’t want to say the key spam ingredients because I know this post will get bombarded with more, but you know what they are…) I really don’t like disabling comments, but this is getting really out of control…

I was so worried tonight was going to be the last for my favorite group on America’s Best Dance Crew. But no! And how excellent were they? I would have never thought a hip hop Hairspray could ever be done, but they were perfect — and how hilariously sublime was Jamal’s hair?! I really loved JabbaWockeeZ too. Both of these groups have such a sense of humor, a fundamental part of this dance, yet they’re so different from each other. Incomparable. I’ll be happy if either wins the whole thing… For now, I’m just very very glad I get Status Quo for another week! Okay, off to bed to get up ridiculously early for a trial tomorrow, but just wanted to say woo hoo!!!

The above was said by my favorite attorney, defense counsel Anthony Ricco, when he asked the prosecution’s last witness of the day, on cross, whether she was relieved when the police arrived at her house to ensure she was okay and to search for an errant bullet that pierced her living room window during the shooting. The witness, Maria Rodrigues, nodded almost instinctually, then looked out into the crowd of spectators and realized the context. “Yeah, yeah,” she continued, under her breath. I personally feel better when the police arrive after I’ve called 911 (which has only happened twice in my life — once in college and once over something that happened not long ago here), but then I’ve always lived in largely white, middle-class areas where the police are almost always a positive presence…

Today’s spectators included a group of local high-school students from a school specializing in criminal justice, and their two very enthusiastic teachers. Sweet. And it turned out to be a good day for them to attend because Al Sharpton made a rare appearance (this is the only third time I’ve seen him here); he stayed for the morning testimony then gave a press conference at lunchtime outside and was gone by the afternoon.

Anyway, all of today’s testimony consisted of eyewitness accounts of people who lived on Liverpool Street, where the shooting occurred. Well, almost all. First on was Detective Christopher Florio from the crime scene unit who responded to North Shore Hospital to photograph the officers involved and their injuries. So, full length photos of the five plainclothes officers who fired weapons that night were shown, followed by a photo of the cut thumb of Detective Carey (not charged here), and another picture of Detective Isnora’s smallish shin abrasion sustained when Bell’s car hit him. We also saw photos Florio took of all five guns and ammo recovered. There was a small amount of dried blood near the front of Detective Isnora’s Glock. Update: I hadn’t thought much of this evidence (the small amount of blood on the gun) when it was presented in court because I thought it could have come from a number of places, but according to news reports here and here and here, apparently some, like Al Sharpton, calling the “bloody gun” a “smoking gun”, are surmising that it meant Detective Isnora was shooting from very close range, enabling him to see the men in Bell’s car were weaponless. I think we’ll have to wait for other evidence, though, including tests indicating whose blood was on that gun, to derive any meaning from it).

Next was Detective Thomas Forte, also from CSU, who examined ballistic damage to the Green Ford Explorer parked on the side of the street. Because the car was never examined by the original CSU detective, Detective Rivera, the car’s owner Bernardino Dossantos (who would testify next) brought it to the Task Force’s garage, leaving Forte to examine it two weeks after the shooting. Forte found on it two bullet impact marks (meaning the bullet hit the area but didn’t pierce it and make an actual hole): one on the front passenger quarterpanel and one on the rear passenger-side door. Both impact marks tested positive for lead (bullet) presence.

Dossantos, the owner of the Explorer who lived around the corner from Liverpool, testified next. From Portugal, he could probably have used an interpretor; he had some real trouble understanding complicated, nuanced questions, particularly those posed by the defense. Nevertheless, he was pretty funny. Speaking in his thick accent, he was one of those charmingly authentic, no nonsense people. He literally came from his job as a construction worker, covered in dust, sweat, and yellow safety vest, and he made it clear up front he was missing some valuable work time here. The attorneys were good humored and promised they would hurry.

Dossantos was sleeping at 4:15 a.m. on 11/25/06, when his wife heard shots and woke him. He then heard about 8-10 shots himself, coming from Liverpool. He dressed and walked out onto that street, where he saw Lieutenant Napoli’s Toyota Camry. Three men were behind it — two standing above a black man, Bennefield, who was lying on the ground, bleeding from the head. As emergency workers helped him into an ambulance, Bennefield said, “watch my legs, watch my legs.”

Dossantos’s wife told him there was some damage to his Explorer, which was parked in front of his house on the side of the street. He claimed he left the Explorer in that position the whole day, only moving it the following morning, which contradicts Rivera’s earlier testimony that he couldn’t examine the Explorer on the day of the shooting because it had been moved from within the crime scene tape before he could get to it. In any event, Dossantos brought the truck down to the NYPD Task Force’s garage two weeks after the shooting. “Of course I bring it, I want pay!” he said, all seriousness. Everyone laughed. He looked out at us like we were nuts, before assuring us the NYPD did indeed compensate him for the damage. When asked if he had walked around his house to examine it for any damage, he frowned and said, “No, no, not my house, I rent, I don’t care to look,” as if it was a crazy question.

In the afternoon, the court heard from Robert Hernandez, who lived in the house at the corner of Liverpool and 95th Avenue and whose aluminum-filled chain link fence sustained two bullet holes. At 4:14 a.m. on 11/25/06, he was in his living room trying to find the remote control to shut off his TV when he heard shouting followed by a gunshot. He couldn’t make out the contents of the shouts, but heard two male voices. He then heard a gunshot, a 3/4 of a second pause, then a barrage of gunfire. He looked out his living room window to see Napoli’s Camry with its headlights on and the front doors open and a light-skinned man wearing a blue sweater and jeans crouching behind one of the doors. The man suddenly turned and ran down the street.

Hernandez looked down the street and saw a man holding a silver gun leaning against a black Honda parked on the side of the street. He then saw two dark-skinned men standing next to his fence and above another man, Bennefield, who was lying on the ground complaining that his legs hurt.

One of the standing men said to Bennefield, “Why you runnin’?”

Bennefield said, “I didn’t do nothing.”

Standing man said, “If you didn’t do nothing then why you running?”

Hernandez then heard someone else say “The cops are coming,” before hearing sirens.

Hernandez ran upstairs to get a better view. From there he saw Bell’s Altima collided with the police minivan.

About five minutes later Hernandez saw several uniformed officers in the area, including one who was inspecting his backyard with a flashlight. Later that morning, Hernandez went downstairs to survey the damage. He saw a bullethole on both sides of his corner fence — the Liverpool side and the side bordering 95th Avenue, which intersected with Liverpool. He saw Dossantos’s Explorer across the street bearing a dent and a neighbor’s minivan parked down the street with a shattered window.

Hernandez’s wife, whom Hernandez directed to call 911, heard a car screeching away. Her 911 call was played in court. She sounded very meek and frightened, saying, “people are yelling, cars are screeching, there are many shots.”

Significantly, at the time he witnessed the events, Hernandez hadn’t known any of the men he saw — the man leaning on the Honda, the man crouching behind the Camry door, or the two men standing over Bennefied — were police officers. He thought the whole thing was a “gang situation.” “Most of the guys who go into Kalua Club are thugs,” he said.

Before the final witness for today, Justice Cooperman held a short recess so that he could briefly take care of another matter on his docket, which he sometimes does. I had to run to the bathroom, and, by the time I returned, they were already in the middle of the matter, but it sounded like Cooperman and the lawyers were trying to schedule a man’s sentencing date. After they agreed on a day, the man, black, was taken, in handcuffs, out of the room by officers. As he went he looked out at us, at the ridiculously large, packed courtroom. Something tells me his trial wasn’t quite so well attended. A woman sitting down the row from me stood up and waved out to him. He looked at her and for the split second they had, locked eyes. As soon as he was taken from the room, she sat briefly, looking forlorn, then quickly rose and, excusing herself, passed by me. I felt so horrible for her, as I always feel for the women — the wives and mothers of the defendants.

But more, this man, who had obviously been held for his sentencing date in Rikers, scruffy, hair unwashed, and in torn clothes, was such a contrast to the three defendant detectives in this case, all of them dressed in expensive-looking suits — particularly Detective Oliver — clean, polished, well cared for. I’ve often seen the detectives leaving the nice Italian restaurant down the street from the courthouse with their lawyers and /or a large group of men from the Police Detectives Endowment Association, all of whom are present for support in the courtroom as well. I realize there are reasons why some defendants are remanded to Rikers to await trial and sentencing and others are not — some are considered serious flight risks or a danger to the community or can’t make bail — but it’s still sad there’s such a sharp disparity of treatment.

Last was the aformentioned Maria Rodrigues, who lived in the house on Liverpool whose living room window was pierced by a bullet. At 4:15 on that morning she was sleeping in her bedroom, located at the back of the house, when she heard a noise. Her husband woke too and told her he thought they were gunshots. Soon she heard the sound of breaking glass, which she knew was coming from her living room. She called out to her teenage children to stay in bed, in their rooms. She thought she heard about 10-12 shots in all, and after they were finished, she heard someone yell out, “get down” or “stay down.”

Minutes later, she heard a knock at her door. A voice identified itself as that of a police officer, who’d come to make sure the family was all right. She opened the door, told the officers she was okay, and they searched for a bullet, not finding anything. She saw her window was broken. Later that day another detective came by, finding the bullet in a lampshade near the window.

Outside, she saw that her husband’s car, a blue Mitsubishi parked in front of the house, had a partially shattered windshield, and it looked as if a bullet had entered through the back driver’s side door, passed through the front seat’s headrest, and exited through the front window.

Yesterday’s testimony consisted of two Port Authority officers staffing the Air Train station struck by a bullet from the shooting, and the Crime Scene Unit detective who examined that scene and photographed clothing of Sean Bell and Joseph Guzman, and Detective Isnora’s injuries.

First on was Port Authority Officer John Cea who was on routine patrol on the elevated subway platform of the Air Train, which ran north of Liverpool Street, where the shooting occurred. With him was his partner, Officer Brian Donnelly, who testified after him, a “Red Coat” staffer helping to direct passengers, a Transportation Security Administrator standing near the informational screens, and three civilians.

Around 4:13 a.m. they heard gunfire outside the terminal consisting of a few slow “pop pops” then a rapid round of succession. Cea immediately ran for cover behind a steel wall but Donnelly approached the Southern window to see what was going on. Right then, a bullet went through that window, shattering the glass, some of which lodged in Donnelly’s forehead and face. Donnelly then ran and Cea yelled out at the civilian passengers to “get down.” A man abandoned his suitcase and ran and two women ducked down behind a central informational stand. The Red Coat ran as well, but the TSA officer just stood there, then slowly ducked. A train pulled up and let a couple of customers off. Cea and Donnelly shouted out at them, but couldn’t remember exactly what they said.

After the gunfire, which lasted about 20-30 seconds, ended, Cea and Donnelly got everyone out of the terminal and down to street level, walked down to the street below to see if the officers who’d arrived needed help, then went back to the Air Train station and looked for ballistics evidence. They found a bullet on the floor and a copper bullet smudge on the north side of the platform across from the broken window. Cea put an informational pamphlet over the bullet to preserve it as evidence.

Cea sustained sprains to his left shoulder and wrist, likely when he hit the ground for cover, and was treated at Mary Immaculate Hospital. Donnelly sustained a torn rotator cuff and a sprained lumbar for which he received rehabilitation and surgery and was out of work for a year and four days.

Three surveillance cameras captured the scene. After about an hour-long side-bar, during which the courtroom was cleared and we stood outside in the lobby (likely so the attorneys and judge could decide which bits of the tape would be received into evidence), they showed the tapes on the monitors in court. The second one, showing the south side of the platform, was the most graphic. “Damn!” someone yelled as Donnelly was sprayed by a burst of blown window glass.

In the afternoon, Detective Greg Anzalone from the Crime Scene Unit testified. He recovered the bullet in the hall of the platform that Cea had found, and took measurements of a bullet hole in the window and a copper impact marking on the opposite wall.

His testimony about where he found everything ended up providing the comic relief of the day, which I think we all needed after that insanely long recess. In days of yore they used to have a diagram or photo set up in the courtroom and the witness would walk up to it and mark an X, or a “B” for bullet and “M” for marking or whatever they wanted. With this new technology, everyone — meaning, the witness, judge, each prosecutor, each defense attorney and each defendant — has a computer-generated image on their own computer screen. The witness is supposed to take a stylus and “mark” the area on their little computer screen where they found whatever they found. The marking then shows up on everyone else’s screens and on the large monitors on the wall above the judge for spectators (and I guess for jurors if there were any) to see. So far everyone’s making a little dot so small I don’t see how anyone can see it; I’m sitting in the middle of the courtroom and I certainly can’t. I have to wait for the prosecutor, or whoever is asking the questions, to read into the record where the witness has made the miniscule dot and the judge to okay it, so I know where in the world it is. But I guess the problem is, if the witness points too hard, a big red arrow shines out, and then if it’s not exactly where they intended it and they try it again, or if they accidentally touch the screen again, another big arrow shows and the screen becomes filled with all these crazy arrows and it’s confusing what is where. And one arrow or mark can’t be erased without the whole screen being cleared so, at points, the whole thing has had to be redone before being printed and entered into evidence because of too many confusing markings. Also, I guess it’s hard to make any kind of image other than a dot with the stylus because no one is being told to write anything other than a dot.

Well, Anzalone apparently wasn’t told the rules or how the stylus worked. When told to draw a line and point to the area where he found the bullet hole, he applied so much force he ended up with about four lines, three arrows and a bit dot. Very interesting stick figure. “Oops,” he said. The prosecutor asked him which line he intended to draw, but when that became too confusing, had the screen cleared so he could start again. Same thing happened. People snickered. He looked embarrassed. Immediately after the screen was cleared again, a big bright red arrow showed up on the bottom left corner of the the screen, completely outside of the picture.

“I don’t know, it must be my ring,” he laughed nervously.

“What did you have for lunch today,” Justice Cooperman said with uncharacteristic levity — with an uncharacteristic voice, actually — albeit still completely deadpanned. Everyone laughed including Anzalone. A lot of people, by the way (listen to March 7 “update”) are annoyed the judge isn’t showing more emotion or in some way indicating his thoughts, but this is how judges are supposed to act, like they’re completely objective and simply taking everything in. Unfortunately many don’t but that’s another story…

Anyway, finally Anzalone was able to draw only one line, but then when asked what the measurements were, marked them onto the screen, evidencing just how badly the stylus writes. His numbers looked like that which a two-year-old might make. The judge let them stand. Then, when asked to mark the area where he found the bullet, then the copper marking, he made big loopy red circles, which also resembled something drawn by the average pre-schooler. I really appreciated it though because I could finally see clearly what he was marking. But poor guy — he had no idea what we were all giggling at.

Anyway, Anzalone also examined the two police vehicles involved in the shooting: the Toyota Camry which carried Lieut. Napoli, and the ‘prisoner’ minivan which impacted with Bell’s Altima. From the Camry he recovered two shell casings (discharged when a bullet is fired), one from under the front passenger seat, and one from the rear passenger-side floor. From the prisoner van he recovered two shell casings at the base of the windshield wipers and one in the upper right area of the engine. He had no idea how that shell casing ended up all the way under the engine. Also, in the Camry, he didn’t see a police bubble light, which Napoli had testified he was bent down trying to find when the shots began.

Anzalone was also sent to Mary Immaculate and Jamaica Hospitals to photograph clothing recovered from Joseph Guzman and Sean Bell. The photos were shown on the monitors in court. Bell’s clothing was mostly dark-colored, so the only blood that was visible was on the waistband of his boxer shorts. Anzalone testified that the clothing — a golf shirt, t-shirt, thermal underwear, jeans and leather jacket — all bore ballistics damage and were severly cut by EMS personnel administering emergency care. Mrs. Bell (the mother) briefly left the courtroom at this point.

Guzman’s white t-shirt, light grey overshirt, and jeans did contain visible blood; there were a few large splotches on the right side of both shirts and a few smaller speckles on the left, and there was blood around the waistline and on the left leg of his jeans. His clothing was also severly cut by emergency medical workers. There were about five markers on the middle of the jacket’s right side but it was confusing as to exactly how many potential bullet holes those markers indicated, since some were surrounding a single hole. Somehow, though his vest was made of ordinary fabric, one bullet was caught in the jacket’s right-side collarband and one in the right-side bottom seamline.

Anzalone also took a couple of pictures of Detective Isnora’s right leg, on which there was a red, horizontal abrasion, on his shin area. Isnora had his pants leg rolled up to show the abrasion, but was also pointing to something on the pants, which Anzalone surmised was a marking corresponding with the abrasion. He didn’t examine or photograph the pants, though, so wasn’t sure.

Today’s testimony consisted almost entirely of cross examination of the head of the crime scene investigation team, Detective David Rivera. As such, the gist of today was the defense’s attempt to show the crime scene had not been perfectly preserved, some evidence was unaccounted for, some left unexamined, and elements of the early investigation were somewhat shoddy. Rivera admitted that having people walking around within the crime scene — the taped off portion of the streets — may very well jeopardize its integrity and disturb evidence, and he ordered people not to do so, including police officers. Yet several stills taken from Anthony South’s videos show police officers walking freely within the borders. Black gloves found on the ground and bags filled with “a green leafy substance” were laying in some kind of liquid. Rivera didn’t know what the liquid was and didn’t attempt to use a device called a “crime scope” to determine its makeup. Nor did he move the items, though he knew latent fingerprints would be hard to recover from them if too wet. “It’s a toss-up,” he said. “On one hand you don’t want to move evidence, but on the other,” you might jeopardize the evidence anyway by leaving it where it is. He didn’t measure how close the gloves and bags were to other items on the ground or to Bell’s Altima, and his photos of them were close-ups, so didn’t preserve their overall whereabouts.

Rivera admitted some of his diagrams were not properly drawn. For example, Liverpool Street (the street of the shooting) was two-way, but the way he had cars on both sides of it facing the same way made it appear one-way.

There was a license plate found in the street, far behind the Bell’s Altima, which it was later determined belonged on the Altima’s front bumper. Rivera took no measurements of how far the plate was from the car. His photos showed damage to the rear bumper of the Altima and the gating enclosing a door to a building aligning the street. Rivera didn’t take any paint samples or any other evidence which may have indicated whether the Altima’s bumper had collided with the gate. Nor did he collect any of the glass near the gate to see if, whether pieced together (which can sometimes be done), it may have fit the Altima’s back window, which had shattered. He made no notes of the tire marks on the street behind the Altima. He didn’t use any centering cones with the trajectory rods tracing the path of the bullets into Bell’s car. Such cones help hold in place and maintain correct positioning of the trajectory rods. When asked why he didn’t use the cones, he said he hadn’t brought enough: “when I left my office, I had no idea of the magnitude of this crime scene.” Finally, there was ballistic damage to a Dodge parked on the side of the street, but he didn’t take any pictures of it or otherwise preserve that evidence. At this there were mumbles on the defense side of the spectator area, and a man on the prosecution side said some angry-sounding words under his breath before storming out of the courtroom.

Rivera was called back to the scene of the shooting two and a half months later, on February 12, 2007, because two bullet holes had been found on an aluminum-slotted chain-link fence surrounding a house located at the corner of Liverpool and 95th Avenue. He hadn’t noticed any damage to that fence on November 25th. He tried to shine a lazer light through the holes, which would have shown the presence of lead, which bullets are made of, but the test here was inconclusive, likely because of the passage of time.

A green Ford Explorer had been parked on the south side of 95th Avenue on the morning of the shooting; he’d remembered it when he was having the crime scene tape laid. But, by the time he’d come to that end of the street, to examine it, the Explorer was gone. He made no mention of it in his notes. He later learned it contained two bullet impact marks.

He didn’t know if any vehicles parked on the street, including one owned by Hugh Jensen and another by another friend of the Bell group, was searched for “trap” areas where concealed weapons and other contraband could be placed.

Obviously there are things Rivera failed to examine, and the defense attorneys are great to adduce it all, but investigations are often far from perfect. Items supposedly touched by the perpetrator are never tested for fingerprints, fungible things like drugs and buy money are not properly marked, new technology in recovery of forensic evidence that could reveal more accurate results is not used. The judge will often tell the jury, at the prosecutor’s request, that the police don’t have to use specific methods of investigation and that’s that.

Following Rivera’s testimony, the parties entered into a stipulation (where both sides agree on facts and hence don’t need a witness to testify to them) that the “green leafy substance” in the bags laying on the side of the street was marijuana. No latent fingerprints could be recovered from the bags, so it is unknown whom they belonged to. Some are criticizing the prosecution for introducing such meaningless evidence, thereby watering down their case against the detectives. I think they’re probably just trying to be thorough though, so as not to be accused of leaving something out. As far as the larger claim that the prosecution’s not being aggressive enough, my jury’s still out on that one.