Litigators

Prosecutor Indicted For Trying To Help Police Get Away With Murder

This is exactly what needs to start happening to prosecutors who help the police get away with it.

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(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

The only way we will be able to hold police accountable for shooting unarmed people is if we start to hold prosecutors accountable for helping the police instead of the people they are supposed to represent.

On that scale, New York State took a huge step. New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman successfully indicted Rensselaer County District Attorney Joel E. Abelove for official misconduct and perjury. Schneiderman alleges that Abelove helped police evade accountability in the shooting death of an unarmed black man in Troy, New York.

The facts of the case are pretty standard cop v. black man behavior. Edson Thevenin was pulled over by police sergeant Randall French. A short chase ensued. French claims that Thevenin “tried to run him over.” Which French used to justify the most violent behavior possible: he shot Thevenin EIGHT TIMES through his windshield.

The next day, the mayor of Troy, the police chief, and district attorney Abelove apparently all agreed with French’s side of the story. Four days later, Abelove brought French before a grand jury, which promptly no-billed the police officer.

Rushing a vehicular homicide incident in front of a grand jury FOUR DAYS after the homicide is a pretty obvious miscarriage of justice. But you can’t always hold these prosecutors accountable for refusing to do their jobs when police officers are involved.

New York State is different. Governor Andrew Cuomo signed an order requiring Schneiderman’s office to investigate police killings of unarmed civilians. Schneiderman requested documents from Abelove before he took the case to the grand jury, and told him to hold off on the grand jury proceedings. Abelove apparently ignored those instructions, and proceeded to present only pro-cop evidence to the grand jury. Justice Today explains:

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The first count of official misconduct against Abelove stems from allegations that he “knowingly withheld material evidence” from the grand jury. There are two potential pieces of information that should have been presented to the grand jury. First, two civilian witnesses came forward with accounts — including cell phone video — that directly undermined French’s justifications for the shooting. Abelove did not present either eyewitness account to the grand jury. Second, since Abelove convened the grand jury just four days after the shooting, the autopsy report on Thevenin had not been completed — denying the grand jury of evidence to potentially contradict French’s assertion that Thevenin was intoxicated.

Abelove’s handling of French’s own self-serving testimony led to the second count of official misconduct. Abelove compelled French to testify before the grand jury, but failed to require him to sign a waiver of his Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination or immunity from prosecution before doing so. In failing to secure the waiver, Abelove effectively — and, according to the indictment, knowingly — immunized French from any criminal prosecution by the AG’s office.

Abelove effectively immunized French from further prosecution, but he hasn’t protected himself. Schneiderman is bringing criminal charges against Abelove for perjury, because when Abelove testified in front of the grand jury Schneiderman convened to look into Abelove’s conduct, Abelove demanded to testify and, allegedly, lied.

Again, this is a really important case. You will NEVER get to cops who murder unarmed people unless you first get the prosecutors who help the cops who escape justice. Other blue states should copy New York and Schneiderman here.

New York’s Attorney General Just Indicted a District Attorney for Covering Up a Police Shooting of an Unarmed Black Man [Justice Today]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and the Legal Editor for More Perfect. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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