The Journal News by Richard Liebson and Jorge Fitz-Gibbon - May 4, 2012
WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The Journal News has learned that the U.S. Attorney’s Office will review “all of the available evidence” in the police shooting death of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., “to determine whether there were any violations of the federal criminal civil rights laws,” the office announced Friday. The announcement was made in a statement from the office of Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, and came a day after a Westchester County grand jury — first reported by LoHud.com — voted not to bring charges against White Plains Police Officer Anthony Carelli or others involved in the Nov. 19 incident. Chamberlain, a 68-year-old former Marine and retired county correction officer, was killed at his 135 S. Lexington Ave. apartment by cops responding to the accidental activation of his medical alert device. Chamberlain family lawyer Randolph McLaughlin requested a federal review Friday in a letter to U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. McLaughlin also discussed Chamberlain’s arrest record with The Journal News, which included a 1970 murder charge in Port Chester for which he was acquitted and a felony charge stemming from the 1993 Christmas Day theft of $10,000 from a woman in White Plains. “His past record is totally irrelevant,” McLaughin said. “It has nothing to do with what happened on Nov. 19.” The Justice Department statement said the federal review was “consistent with our office’s practices in cases of this kind ...” In requesting a federal review, McLaughlin said cops violated Chamberlain’s constitutional rights and that he and others “have been subjected to the misuse of excessive and/or deadly force, discriminatory harassment based on race and disability, and the use of racial slurs by WPPD officers.” Two of the officers involved in Chamberlain’s death face unrelated federal police brutality lawsuits; a similar case against a third officer was dismissed Wednesday. Carelli’s lawyer, Andrew Quinn, said he was “confident that if they conduct a thorough, fair and unbiased investigation that they will reach the same conclusion as the Westchester County grand jury, which is that Officer Carelli’s actions were justified.”
BACKGROUND/RELATED STORIES:
- Special Prosecutor Needed In Cop Kill of Vet's Medical Emergency
- Another City Owes Public a Review of Police Conduct
- ‘Officers, Why Do You Have Your Guns Out?’
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