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QUEENS, NY A man who had a cop s knee placed on his neck as he was arrested in Queens had all charges against him dropped Thursday.
In January, Sircarlyle Arnold was hit with a handful of traffic violations and misdemeanor reckless endangerment charges after riding an all-terrain vehicle in the street.
The District Attorney s decision to dropping the charges was the bare minimum that justice requires, his lawyer said Thursday.
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At the time of his arrest, Arnold was pinned to the ground at Sutphin Boulevard in South Jamaica by three police officers, one of whom kneeled on his neck for at least 15 seconds as bystanders repeatedly begged for them to stop, according to a video posted to Twitter.
arrow George Bell was released from prison last month after a Queens judge vacated his conviction due to prosecutorial misconduct. Scott Heins / Gothamist
They came up at a time when prosecutors were expected to be tough, and this was one of the toughest offices around: Queens under District Attorney Richard Brown. Back then, Queens prosecutors made sure to back their brothers in blue and they did a betterjoblocking up the bad guys than anyone else in the city. And if some idealistic judge decided Brown’s rank-and-file were a little overzealous in their pursuit of justice and ordered a new trial? So be it. They could always try again. Discipline was almost never called for.
Three Innocent Queens Men To Be Released From Prison Following Wrongful Convictions In 1996 Case
Arrests and Subsequent Convictions Were the Result of Political Pressure, Coerced False Confessions and Suppressed Evidence
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QUEENS, N.Y., March 5, 2021 /PRNewswire/ George Bell, Rohan Bolt and Gary Johnson, who were wrongfully convicted of a double murder in Queens and incarcerated for the last 24 years, will be released from prison today. Their release will follow an expected decision of The Hon. Judge Joseph A. Zayas of the Queens County Supreme Court, on a joint motion by the Queens District Attorney and lawyers for the three men vacating the three men s convictions.
By Forum Staff
Citing decades-old evidence of improper discrimination based on race, sex, religion, and ethnicity in jury selection, Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced Thursday that she has filed a joint motion with defense counsel at the law firm Covington & Burling, LLP, to vacate the convictions of Santiago Valdez and Paul Morant, who were convicted in 1996 and remain incarcerated.
Upon reversal of their convictions, Katz is requesting the defendants be remanded to pretrial detention and re-prosecuted.
The motion is based on documents found in the Queens DA’s Office’s files indicating that a single ADA improperly excluded certain minorities and women from jury service, in violation of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling in Batson v. Kentucky.