{"id":183265,"date":"2015-01-13T19:02:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T00:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/01\/13\/so-i-guess-occassionally-you-actually-get-charged-for-committing-murder-on-camera\/"},"modified":"2015-01-13T19:02:00","modified_gmt":"2015-01-14T00:02:00","slug":"so-i-guess-occassionally-you-actually-get-charged-for-committing-murder-on-camera","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/2015\/01\/13\/so-i-guess-occassionally-you-actually-get-charged-for-committing-murder-on-camera\/","title":{"rendered":"So I Guess, Occassionally, You Actually Get Charged for Committing Murder on Camera"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Albuquerque DA has has charged two police officers with murder in the shooting of a homeless man<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Declaring that \u201cI have a job to do and I\u2019m doing it,\u201d District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said her office was filing murder charges against two Albuquerque police officers in the shooting of a mentally ill homeless camper in the Sandia foothills last spring in a case captured on a police video that shocked the nation.<\/span>

<\/span>The charges filed Monday against officer Dominique Perez and recently retired Detective Keith Sandy appear to be the first against an APD officer for an on-duty fatal shooting in at least 50 years. Both men are charged with an open count of murder for the March 2014 shooting death of James Boyd following a four-hour standoff.<\/span>

<\/span>Brandenburg said Perez and Sandy would not be booked into jail until after a preliminary hearing is held to determine if there is enough evidence for either of them to stand trial on any of three charges \u2013 first-degree murder, second-degree murder or voluntary manslaughter.<\/span>

<\/span>\u2026\u2026\u2026<\/span>

<\/span>Boyd, 36, had been camping in a restricted area of open space in Albuquerque\u2019s foothills when he was told to leave by Open Space officers. Boyd, who had a history of mental illness and run-ins with police, refused and brandished at least one of the two small knives he carried during the standoff with police.<\/span>

<\/span>More officers were called to the scene, with more than 20 present at one point.<\/span>

<\/span>Officer Perez\u2019s helmet-mounted camera captured the final moments of the standoff, when Boyd appeared to be complying with commands to leave. As he bent down to gather his belongings, an officer throws a flash-bang grenade at his feet. Another officer sends a police dog at Boyd, who pulls the knives out of his pockets again.<\/span>

<\/span>As he appears to turn away from the officers, Sandy and Perez fire three rounds apiece from assault-style rifles, striking Boyd in the back. Officers continue to yell at him to drop the knives.<\/span>

<\/span>\u201cPlease don\u2019t hurt me anymore. I can\u2019t move,\u201d Boyd says as he lies on the ground.<\/span>

<\/span>Officers fire bean-bag rounds at him as he\u2019s on the ground, then let loose a police dog, which grabs his leg and shakes it. He doesn\u2019t move. Officers then approach and cuff him.<\/span>

<\/span>Boyd, who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia, died the next day at the hospital.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

All caught on tape.<\/p>\n

And it only took 10 months.<\/p>\n

I am still dubious that this will result in anything resembling a vigorous prosecution, because rather unsurprisingly, she appears to do this under duress, as her earlier actions indicate:<\/p>\n

In spring 2012, Brandenburg and District Court judges agreed that she would temporarily stop using the \u201cinvestigative grand juries\u201d after Journal stories made the inner workings of those proceedings public.<\/span>

<\/span>In January 2013, Brandenburg announced her intention to resume using the special grand juries to review police shootings, but state District Court judges put a halt to that.<\/span>

<\/span>Attorneys for victims\u2019 families have called the investigative grand jury process a \u201csham\u201d in court filings.<\/span>

<\/span>In halting the \u201cinvestigative grand juries,\u201d the judges told Brandenburg \u201cthat the appearance of a lack of impartiality is impossible to avoid, especially given that the procedure is used only for police officers and specifically limited to officer-involved shootings.\u201d<\/span>

<\/span>Journal stories about the internal workings of the grand juries showed that grand jurors were provided instructions on different versions of justified shootings, but no criminal statutes; prosecutors met with officers to review testimony; and prosecutors asked officers leading questions.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And she wanted to reinstate that system.<\/p>\n

So, I do not expect a conviction, or a meaningful plea deal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Albuquerque DA has has charged two police officers with murder in the shooting of a homeless man: Declaring that \u201cI have a job to do and I\u2019m doing it,\u201d District Attorney Kari Brandenburg said her office was filing murder charges against two Albuquerque police officers in the shooting of a mentally ill homeless camper …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[972,1041],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-183265","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-justice","category-law-enforcement-misconduct"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183265"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=183265"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/183265\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=183265"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=183265"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.panix.com\/~msaroff\/40years\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=183265"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}