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Judge rules for Black Buffalo police officer fired for stopping colleague's chokehold

14 April 2021
Dan Ackermann

A New York court on Tuesday reinstated the pension of former Buffalo police officer Cariol Horne, who was fired for intervening when a white colleague had a Black man in a chokehold during a 2006 arrest.

Driving the news: State Supreme Court Judge Dennis Ward noted in his ruling similar cases, like the death of George Floyd. Ward said the role of other officers at the scene in such instances had come under scrutiny, "particularly their complicity in failing to intervene to save the life of a person to whom such unreasonable physical force is being applied."

Over a decade of fighting and @CariolHorne has finally received justice.

Today the State of New York Supreme Court vacated and annulled the City of Buffalo's decision to fire her and take her benefits. She'll be getting her pension, benefits, and back-pay from 2010. pic.twitter.com/FZy8AAH6CX

— Jecorey Arthur (@jecoreyarthur) April 14, 2021
"To her credit, Officer Horne did not merely stand by, but instead sought to intervene, despite the penalty she ultimately paid for doing so ... She saved a life that day, and history will now record her for the hero she is."
Judge Ward
  • Ward partially based his decision to overturn a 2010 ruling that upheld her firing on legislation signed by Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown in October, known as "Cariol's Law" — which makes it a "crime for a law enforcement officer to fail to intervene when another officer is using excessive force and also protects whistleblowers," per the Buffalo News.

The big picture: Horne, who is Black, said she heard the handcuffed man say he couldn't breathe — invoking the deaths in police custody of Floyd and Eric Garner, two Black men who uttered this in their dying words, which have become a "national rallying cry against police brutality," the New York Times notes.

  • She said her fellow officer punched her in the face when she tried to stop him.
  • The Buffalo Police Department claimed she had put her fellow officers at risk and she was fired in 2008, per NPR.
  • There was no video of the incident.

Of note: The judge ruling in favor of Horne's lawsuit means Horne will receive a full pension, backpay and benefits.

What they're saying: Harvard Law School Criminal Justice Institute director Ronald Sullivan, an attorney representing Horne, said in a statement the ruling was "a significant step in correcting an injustice."

  • The team was grateful to the court for acknowledging that "to her credit Officer Horne did not merely stand by, but instead sought to intervene, despite the penalty she ultimately paid for doing so," he added.
  • City of Buffalo spokesperson Michael DeGeorge told 7 Eyewitness News in a statement, "The City has always supported any additional judicial review available to Officer Horne and respects the Court's Decision."

Read the decision and judgment in full, via DocumentCloud:

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.