Fired cop Daniel Pantaleo (pictured) has filed a lawsuit against sue New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill in an attempt to get his job back
The officer who was fired over the 2014 chokehold death of Eric Garner is suing the NYPD and its Police Commissioner, James O’Neill, in order to get his job back.
Daniel Pantaleo filed the lawsuit in Manhattan civil court on Wednesday claiming his termination in August of this year was ‘arbitrary and capricious’.
Pantaleo, who was a 13 year veteran of the force, was earning $85,292 per year before being booted from the job.
Under the rules of his termination, Pantaleo received the money he paid into his pension while he was employed with the NYPD – however it was decided he would receive no further compensation.
If Pantaleo’s legal team wins the case, the former cop will be reinstated to the force and paid damages for lost wages.
Speaking on Wednesday, Pantaleo’s attorney Stuart London told The New York Post that the decision to fire his client was ‘reckless’.
However, outspoken activist Reverend Al Sharpton immediately hit back saying: ‘Pantaleo’s decision to seek his reinstatement is not only disrespectful to the police commissioner and NYPD, but also the Garner family.
On August 19, Commissioner O’Neill announced the firing, claiming Pantaleo could ‘no longer effectively serve as a New York City police officer’.
The decision came after weeks of deliberation as to whether or not to accept NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Trials Rosemarie Maldonado’s recommendation that Pantaleo be fired for using a chokehold on Garner that had been banned since 1993.
New York Police Commissioner James O’Neill (pictured) fired Pantaleo on August 19
Garner died in 2014 after Pantaleo grabbed him and wrestled him to a Staten Island sidewalk. In this still image (left) Garner is seen on the ground unresponsive as officers try to talk to him
Pantaleo was caught on cell phone video putting Garner into the chokehold during a confrontation in Staten Island on July 17 2014. Police had suspected Garner of selling loose, untaxed cigarettes on the street.
In the bystander’s video, it appeared that Pantaleo initially tried to use two approved restraint tactics on Garner, who was much larger at 6-foot-2 and about 400lbs, but ended up wrapping his arm around Garner’s neck for about seven seconds as they struggled against a glass storefront window and fell to the sidewalk.
Meanwhile, another officer pressed Garner’s head to the pavement.
The footage showed Garner, who was 43 at the time, crying out, ‘I can’t breathe,’ at least 11 times before he fell unconscious.
A subsequent report from the city medical examiner’s office ruled Garner’s death a homicide caused by neck compressions from a chokehold.
Following that incident, which hit headlines around the world, Pantaleo was placed on desk duty, where he remained until his firing.
News of Wednesday’s lawsuit no doubt has the support of many police officers, as well as the Police Benevolent Association (PBA), whose president hit out at Commissioner O’Neill following the firing.
Back in August, PBA President Lynch declared O’Neill had ‘chosen to cringe in fear of the anti-police extremists, rather than standing up for New Yorkers who want a functioning police department.’
Eric Garner (pictured) was killed on July 17, 2014. A New York medical examiner ruled his death a homicide due to an asthma attack caused by Pantaleo’s chokehold
‘The damage is already done. The NYPD will remain rudderless and frozen, and Commissioner O’Neill will never be able to bring it back. Now it is time for every PO in this city to make their own choice,’ Lynch said.
Lynch said O’Neill ‘has chosen politics and his own self-interest over the police officers he claims to lead’.
He went on to say that O’Neill ‘will wake up tomorrow to discover that the cop-haters are still not satisfied, but it will be too late’.
However, others welcomed the termination of Pantaleo’s employment, including Mayor Bill de Blasio, who had promised ‘justice’ to the distraught Garner family.
Pantaleo (right) had previously been on desk duty since he was seen in widely viewed cellphone videos using a banned chokehold on Garner (left) on a Staten Island sidewalk during an attempted arrest
At the time of Pantaelo’s firing de Blasio stated: ‘We ended a chapter that has brought our people so much pain and so much fear over the last five years.
‘The pain was because we all watched a human being die before our eyes on a video… a man who should be still alive today.
‘The fear was because for a long time people wondered if we would be left without justice. The place that we had turned, for generations to, a place that was synonymous with making things right failed us.
‘The US Department of Justice, absent and unwilling to act even to come to any decision for five long years.
‘But today, we have finally seen justice done. Today, we saw the NYPD’s own disciplinary process act fairly and impartially.’
In 2015, New York City paid a $5.9million settlement to Garner’s family to avoid a civil lawsuit.
Garner’s death came at a time of a growing public outcry over police killings of unarmed black men that sparked the national Black Lives Matter movement.
Just weeks later, protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri, over the fatal shooting of unarmed teenager Michael Brown.
And later in 2014, a man angry about the Garner and Brown cases shot two New York City police officers to death in their cruiser in retribution.
New York City’s mayor, Bill de Blasio (pictured), welcomed the termination of Pantaleo’s employment