PETITION SEEKING A SUMMARY INQUIRY PURSUANT TO THE NYC CHARTER INTO THE CIRCUMSTANCES SURROUNDING ERIC GARNER’S ARREST AND DEATH PROPERLY GRANTED (FIRST DEPT).

The First Department, in a full-fledged opinion by Justice Singh, determined Supreme Court properly granted the petition seeking seeking a “summary inquiry pursuant to NYC Charter section 1109” into the circumstances surrounding the arrest and death of Eric Garner. The opinion is too detailed and comprehensive to fairly summarize here:

This appeal from the grant of a petition for summary inquiry pursuant to New York City Charter § 1109 has its genesis in the fatal arrest of Eric Garner and the subsequent investigations and actions that this tragedy prompted. We find that this is the rare case in which allegations of significant violations of duty, coupled with a serious lack of substantial investigation and public explanation, warrant a summary inquiry to bring transparency to a matter of profound public importance: the death of an unarmed civilian during the course of an arrest. * * *

… Petitioners seek an order convening a summary inquiry into “violations and neglect of duties” by respondents in seven areas:

(1) the stop and arrest of Garner and the force used by officers on him;

(2) the failure, after Garner’s death, to train NYPD officers adequately as to appropriate guidelines for the use of force and the prohibition on the use of chokeholds;

(3) filing false official NYPD documents concerning the arrest and making false statements in connection with NYPD’s internal investigation of Garner’s death;

(4) unlawfully leaking Garner’s alleged arrest and medical histories;

(5) incomplete and inaccurate statements to the media by the City concerning Garner’s arrest;

(6) the medical care provided to Garner; and

(7) the City’s investigation and adjudication of, and imposition of discipline for the foregoing, including false statements by NYPD officers concerning the arrest. Matter of Carr v De Blasio, 2021 NY Slip Op 04412, First Dept 7-15-21