A judge reluctantly acquitted a police officer of charges he strangled a man whose football hit a squad car, a ruling that triggered hysterical outbursts from the victim's family and supporters.
Anthony Baez's friends and relatives poured out of the courtroom screaming, "Murderer!" His mother, Iris, collapsed and was taken to a hospital for observation. About 200 people protested outside the officer's precinct and yelled, in English and Spanish, "No justice, no peace" and "Killer Cop."After a tense nonjury trial, the judge on Monday decided prosecutors didn't prove that officer Francis Livoti was guilty of criminally negligent homicide in the 1994 death.
But state Supreme Court Justice Gerald Sheindlin called the officer's behavior "unnecessary and avoidable" and said his "rude confrontational attitude and raw disrespect heightened the intensity of the emerging friction."
The judge said testimony that Baez was alive after his struggle with Livoti was key to the ruling. Other officers testified Baez died from an asthma attack.
Livoti, 37, issued a statement after the verdict saying, "I committed no crime, and the not-guilty verdict supports that fact."
His future is uncertain. He was confined to a desk job while police pursued administrative charges against him that could lead to departmental discipline, including firing. U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White said her office is considering whether to file federal civil rights charges.
Livoti still faces unrelated, misdemeanor assault charges for allegedly choking a teenager he had stopped for driving an illegal go-cart in 1993.
Baez, 29, of Orlando, Fla., was playing touch football on the street with his brothers at about 1 a.m. on Dec. 22, 1994, when the ball struck Livoti's patrol car. The officer tried to stop the game and ended up in a struggle with Baez.
Prosecution witnesses said they saw Baez collapse after Livoti put him in a choke hold. The city's medical examiner also testified that while Baez had chronic asthma, he died of asphyxia caused by compression of the neck and chest.
Five officers testified that the 5-foot-8, 269-pound Baez resisted Livoti, but that Livoti never used an outlawed choke-hold in forcing him to the ground. They also said a handcuffed Baez rose and took a few steps before suffering a fatal asthma attack.
The verdict shocked residents of Baez's predominantly Hispanic neighborhood in the Bronx.
"I don't believe it!" gasped Ana Mestre, putting her grocery bags down on the steps of her building. "He was strangled! He was a good man!"
Baez's father, Ramon, said: "This was the day this judge was supposed to send the message to a community that there's going to be justice for the Latino. He didn't do that."
After he delivered the verdict, the judge said from his chambers that he felt "so sorry" for the Baez family, adding that he had "tremendous respect" for them as "decent, hard-working people." However, he added, he believed the verdict was "the right thing to do."
Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said he thought the verdict was carefully reasoned, but he said he understood the family's outrage.
"Here is a young man who was killed unjustifiably - and it ends up with a not-guilty verdict. Very often, people have to square their emotions with a system that makes it difficult to prove someone guilty of a crime," Giuliani said.