Thursday, March 12, 2009

Cop Who Shot Driver Could Get Reduced Charges

NEW YORK (AP) - "Prosecutors want a judge to consider lower charges if necessary in deciding a verdict for an off-duty New York City police officer on trial for killing an unarmed drunken driver.

Rafael Lora testified Wednesday that he shot Fermin Arzu in self-defense. Afterward, prosecutors asked the judge at the non-jury trial — if he finds they didn't prove first-degree manslaughter — to consider second-degree manslaughter or criminally negligent homicide as an alternative.

Fermin Arzu crashed his minivan into a parked car outside the officer's Bronx home in April 2007. The officer says he fired when Arzu trapped him with the minivan door and dragged him.

The judge is expected to announce his verdict next month."

Uh huh. It isn't the defense asking the judge to go easy on the guy, but the prosecution. I'm sure we'd all be afforded the same mercy if we raced outside to see who was making such a racket in the neighborhood and then shot the place up, killing one, and injuring many trash cans and windows and lampposts.

Witnesses testified that the only time the officer was "trapped" was after he shot the driver to death and the minivan went careening down the sidewalk, but what's a few distorted facts among the uber privileged gestapo and their enablers.

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