The three undercover police detectives facing trial in the death of Sean Bell waived their right to a jury trial, after unsuccessfully attempting to move the trial out of Queens. Bell was killed early on the morning of his wedding, as he left the Kalua stripclub in Queens with friends. They had been celebrating Bell's impending nuptials while undercover cops were simultaneously conducting an investigation into the illegal gun trade.
The trial will attempt to determine the exact facts about what happened as Bell left the club on November 25, 2006. Cops believed there was a dispute involving a gun and followed Bell and his friends. When undercover police demanded that Bell leave his car, he tried to drive off, possibly because he feared he was being carjacked (it's unclear whether the undercover cops clearly identified themselves before firing), and detectives ultimately fired fifty rounds at Bell, killing him and wounding his passengers. There has been some question about whether undercover sting cops had been drinking inside the club; the NYPD has since instituted policy forcing any cop involved in a shooting to automatically submit to blood alcohol testing.
Lawyers for Detectives Michael Oliver, Gescard Isnora, and Marc Cooper, who were indicted last March, had wanted the trial moved out of Queens, arguing the jury pool had been poisoned by more than a year's worth of media coverage about the case. That request was turned down this week, so the three decided that they'd rather take their chances with a single judge than a jury of their peers. Judge Arthur Cooper will hear the case, beginning on February 25; Cooper faces reckless endangerment charges while Oliver and Isnora face manslaughter charges.
The Reverend Al Sharpton, who appeared with Bell's widow Nicole Paultre-Bell (a judge approved the name change after Bell's death) and the surviving victims of the barrage of bullets,
denounced the judge's decision. He said it was a disgrace that the three detectives were opting out of being judged by the community they were paid to serve and protect. He didn't mention whether he bore any responsibility for creating an environment where the detectives thought they stood a very poor chance before that community.
