WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. -- The city police officer who allegedly
used a racial slur during the Nov. 19 standoff that ended with the death of a
retired corrections officer and former Marine has been suspended without pay
and now faces departmental disciplinary charges.
Officer Steven Hart was presented with the charges Friday,
Public Safety Commissioner David Chong said, and has until July 30 to respond.
Chong would not say what the specific charges are, but said if found guilty he
faces penalties ranging from a reprimand to dismissal from the police force.
Hart's suspension "is entirely appropriate, based on
his conduct and the things he said" said Mayo Bartlett, one of the
attorneys representing the family of Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. "It was
conduct unbecoming an officer."
Earlier this month the Chamberlain family filed a $21
million federal lawsuit, claiming among other things that cops taunted the
68-year-old Chamberlain for more than an hour before breaking down his
apartment door. Police, responding to an accidentally activated medical alarm
device, said Chamberlain, who had been drinking, attacked them with a knife and
a hatchet and threatened to kill them.
During the standoff, Hart went outside to the window of
Chamberlain's apartment and allegedly used the n-word. Although Chamberlain
insisted that he was OK and did not need help, police demanded that he open his
door so they could check on him. He refused and became agitated. On audio
recorded by his medical alert device and a police stun gun, Chamberlain can be
heard talking to the president, the Marines and others.
Eventually, police broke down his door and shot him with a
stun gun and bean bags. Police said Chamberlain charged at them and was shot
and killed by Officer Anthony Carelli when he was about to stab another
officer.
Both Carelli and Hart are defendants in separate federal
police brutality lawsuits stemming from earlier incidents.
In May, a Westchester County grand
jury declined to file criminal charges against any of the eight officers
involved in the Chamberlain case. The incident is now being reviewed by the
U.S. Justice Department.
Rob Riley, president of the White Plains Police Benevolent
Association, said he has not yet seen the charges against Hart and could not
comment on them.
He did call into question the public announcement of the
charges, "I find it peculiar that the city would release information about
disciplinary charges to the media when information about internal discipline
has never been released before."
Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., who has attended several council
meetings to demand that the officers involved be disciplined, called Hart's
suspension "a step in the right direction."
"All of the officers should be brought up on charges
and suspended," he said. "Hopefully, this is just the start, and not
the end. Otherwise, Officer Hart is just being used as a scapegoat for the
actions of all of the officers involved."