Court Vindicates Black Officer Fired for Stopping Colleague's Chokehold

[Eugene]

Also: Former Buffalo officer who stopped fellow cop's chokehold on suspect will get pension after winning lawsuit

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Source: New York Times

Court Vindicates Black Officer Fired for Stopping Colleague’s Chokehold

Cariol Horne acted to keep a white officer from using what she saw as excessive force. Fifteen years later, a judge said her firing was wrong.

By Jonah E. Bromwich
Published April 13, 2021
Updated April 14, 2021, 9:03 a.m. ET

It was a cold November day in Buffalo when Officer Cariol Horne responded to a call for a colleague in need of help. What she encountered was a white officer who appeared to be “in a rage” punching a handcuffed Black man in the face repeatedly as other officers stood by.

Officer Horne, who is Black, heard the handcuffed man say he could not breathe and saw the white officer put him in a chokehold. At that point, court documents show, she forcibly removed the white officer and began to trade blows with him.

In the altercation’s aftermath, Officer Horne was reassigned, hit with departmental charges and, eventually, fired just one year short of the 20 on the force she needed to collect her full pension. She tried, and failed, more than once to have the decision reversed as unfair.

On Tuesday, in an outcome explicitly informed by the police killing of George Floyd, a state court judge vacated an earlier ruling that affirmed her firing, essentially rewriting the end of her police career, and granting her the back pay and benefits she had previously been denied.

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Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/nyregion/cariol-horne-police-chokehold.html

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Source: CBS News

Former Buffalo officer who stopped fellow cop's chokehold on suspect will get pension after winning lawsuit

BY APRIL SIESE
APRIL 14, 2021 / 4:32 AM / CBS NEWS

A former Buffalo Police officer who said she was fired for intervening when a White officer attempted to choke a Black suspect will receive her pension after winning a lawsuit on Tuesday. The New York State Supreme Court vacated a previous ruling upholding the firing of Cariol Horne, CBS Buffalo affiliate WIVB reports.

In his ruling, Judge Dennis Ward wrote that "the City of Buffalo has recognized the error and has acknowledged the need to undo an injustice from the past. The legal system can at the very least be the mechanism to help justice prevail, even if belatedly."

"While the Eric Garners and the George Floyds of the world never had a chance for a 'do-over,' at least here the correction can be done," Ward wrote.

Horne gained national attention in 2006 when she said she stopped officer Greg Kwiatkowski's chokehold on Neal Mack.

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Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/former-buffalo-officer-who-stopped-a-fellow-cops-chokehold-on-a-suspect-will-receive-pension-after-winning-lawsuit/

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2006 DU thread: AA Fem Officer Beaten & Loses Pension: Stopping Male Pale Cop Choking Handcuffed AA man

[Pisces]

1. Wow

[exboyfil]

2. Guy she stopped was a loose cannon

And went to jail after ratting out his fellow officers in another incident. They got to walk event though they intentionally shot one of the suspects with a bb gun after apprehension. The kids with the bb gun got a settlement for being shot and also being intentionally slammed against a car door.


https://buffalonews.com/news/local/ex-buffalo-cop-gets-4-months-in-prison-in-2009-excessive-force-case/article_b24bbbff-4c3a-5076-9002-6fe52787af6a.html

[lillypaddle]

3. Wooohoooo

This doesn't make up for ruining her life, but damn, it's something better late than never. Vindication must feel very good.

[Ferrets are Cool]

4. Glad this was rectified, but it should never have had to be.

[Jay25]

5. Absolutely! And it took 15 years for her to obtain retribution.

[wnylib]

6. She had to fight hard in court several times to

reach this point. Should never have been fired for saving a man's life and stopping a rogue cop in the first place. The extremely long time it took for her to get justice for herself is as shameful as the firing was.

There is now a law bearing her name that protects officers who intervene in such cases.

The Buffalo police departmentvis very racist.

Side note: The elderly man who was pushed to the ground by Buffalo cops following a BLM protest is fully recovered from his head injuries and back to activism. The cops got off on the charges against them, so he has filed a civil suit against them.

[Biophilic]

8. Thanks for the side note. I'd wondered about him and hoped he was ok. Sounds like it. nt

[wnylib]

10. I've heard him interviewed. He looks fine

and says he feels good now. He was hospitalized for several months. Dem Congressman in his district publicly disapproved of the cops getting off. Called it a miscarriage of justice.

[Biophilic]

11. The miscarriages of justice seem to be almost any hourly thing these days.

Thanks for the follow up.

[Judi Lynn]

15. Found photos of the elderly man and the police officer:

So glad they didn't give up!

[Dark n Stormy Knight]

17. Here's another pic of Cariol Horne. I'm pretty sure that's

Neal Mack with her.

[wnylib]

18. I think that's the man whose life she saved,

but that happened 25 years ago.

The "elderly man" I was referring to is Martin Gugino, who was 75 years old when 2 Buffalo cops knocked him to the ground at a BLM protest last summer. An NPR reporter caught it on video that went viral.

Gugino had severe head injuries and spent months in the hospital, but is fully recovered now. He is not the man that Cariol Horne saved 25 years ago. Two different incidents.

[intheflow]

7. Oh, the Black woman had to fired and lose her pension while the white guy

was allowed to resign and retain his pension after many more incidents of racist police violence. This is justice served, and now she should sue the city for wrongful termination.

[padah513]

9. Traded blows to make him stop

Imagine if one of those officers standing around traded blows with Chauvin to make him stop. They may have been kicked from the force, but George Floyd would likely still be alive.

[ancianita]

12. Now there is legal precedent to support cops who try to stop undue force by other cops.

[BobTheSubgenius]

13. I'm grateful she made it this far, without her former steady income.

Now, she gets her dignity back and live a LOT more comfortably. I couldn't find a mention of punitive damages, so that sucks. Still, she is finally vindicated!

[Mosby]

14. 15 years

The winners here are the lawyers.

[Judi Lynn]

16. Photo of the cop who took time out from beating & choking black man to start pounding fellow cop:

New like: Horne, a mother of five, now works as a truck driver