http://www.nypostonline.com/news/25285.htm

FEDS EXAMINING CASE WITH EYE TOWARD CIVIL RIGHTS CHARGES By MARILYN RAUBER and DEVLIN BARRETT

Within an hour of the not-guilty verdicts for the Diallo cops yesterday, federal prosecutors in New York announced they were examining the case for possible civil rights charges. The feds had been quietly preparing for the possibility of a full acquittal in state court since well before the trial began.

Washington even sent a Justice Department lawyer to Albany to sit in the courtroom and monitor the entire trial, sources told The Post.

Manhattan U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White issued a statement last night saying her office would conduct an extensive review of the explosive case.

White vowed to "review all of the available evidence with respect to the death of Mr. Diallo, including the evidence available to the District Attorney's Office in Bronx County, to determine whether there were any violations of the federal criminal civil rights law."

But both the language of the civil rights statute and Justice Department guidelines may be stacked in the cops' favor, legal experts said.

Before charges can be brought, prosecutors must believe there was "a miscarriage of justice" in the state case.

"It's a judgment call of the U.S. Attorney's Office," said lawyer Mark Pomerantz, a former federal prosecutor who won a civil rights conviction against Bronx chokehold-cop Francis Livoti.

High-ranking Washington officials at Justice's Civil Rights Division must also approve any new federal charges in such a case.

If the feds clear both those hurdles, they must go into a courtroom and prove "intent" -- that the police meant to use excessive force.

But the cops' lawyers would argue that the shooting was not "excessive" because the officers believed Diallo had a gun.

"The intent' requirement in federal court is certainly more difficult to meet than a lot of state charges, including criminally negligent homicide," Pomerantz said.

The four cops were acquitted of that charge, so the feds may be skeptical of retrying the case from a weaker starting point.

White is already probing the tactics of the NYPD's Street Crime Unit -- where the four cops worked.

Norman Siegel, head of the New York Civil Liberties Union, last night called for both the cops and the city to be slapped with civil rights charges.

Siegel called the shooting of Diallo "the almost inevitable outcome of widespread unconstitutional practices by the city and the NYPD."

-- Markus Archus (apxov@mail.com), February 26, 2000

Answers

Never underestimate how far this regime will go corrupting the laws of the land, or the will of the people, in exchange for a few more votes. I hardly think justice is paramount here.

-- JB (noway@jose.com), February 26, 2000.

If they shot a whitey this subject would be moot. Rev Sharpton is a Hitler type rable rouser.

-- fred (fred@net.com), February 26, 2000.