A Brooklyn judge ruled on Thursday that the manslaughter conviction of Peter Liang — the former NYPD officer who accidentally shot un u🍎narmed Akai Gurl🅰ey in a public housing project stairwell — will stand and the ex-cop will be sentenced on Tuesday.
Attorneys for Liang had argued that one of the juror’s on the case, Michael Vargas, shouldn’t have been on the panel because he was evasive during jury selection about his family’s ties 🐬to crime, failing to mention🔴 that his estranged father had fatally shot a friend.
Brooklyn S༺upreme Court Justice Danny Chun declared that Vargas showed no “substantial bias,” and dismissed the defense൩’s 11th hour motion.
“His ability to answer questions🅠 was not at the top level of intelligence,” Chun told the court before handing🐈 down his decision. “It is entirely conceivable that his father didn’t enter his mind as he was answering my questions.”
Liang now faces sentencing next Tuesday, where he c🐻ould get up to 15 years in prison for the Gurley sho🥃oting in November 2014. Liang’s bullet ricocheted off a concrete stairwell wall, striking Gurley in the heart.
Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson has recommended Chun hand down a no-jail sentence.
“For juror misconduct to cause an overturning of a jury verdict, it has to be shown that there was jury misconduct,🌄 and it affected a substantial right of the defendant,”🐽 Chun stated calmly. “I find that on both ends the defense has not met this burden.”
The dec▨ree comes after two days of questions were leveled by prosecutors and defense attorneys alike against the former juror, who was caught telling a reporter in March his father had served time for manslaughter — after telling Chun in January no one “close to him” had been “accused” of a crime.
It was later revealed that Vargas told another Brooklyn judge, Alan Marrus, about his 🌺father while being questioned as a prospective juror on another case.
“He didn’t mention his father because he didn’t consider him to be close,” Chun said. “t didn’t enter his mind, this was not🃏 a deliberate withholdin✤g of information.”
“We agree with꧅ the court’s decision,” said a spoke💟sman for the Brooklyn DA’s Office.
Vargas remained evasi💙ve throughout his hearing, saying the two judges ha🌃d asked two different questions, and arguing that because he grew up in a series of boys’ homes, he didn’t “know” his father.
At one point during Thursday’s hearing, Chun interrupted Vargas and Shechtman’s sparring over aℱ series of Vargas’s Facebook posts, which the attorney argued showed a🐼 “deep bias” against law enforcement.
“Is it on the basis ℱof these Facebook postings that you are asking the court to set aside theꦉ verdict?” the judge, clearly irritated, asked.
“I believ💫e I have a great deal more than tha💟t,” Shechtman responded.
“Move on,” the judge barked.
Assista🍸nt DA Joseph Alexis told the court he did not believe Vargas, a retired carpenter, was a “steaไlth juror, who snuck onto the case in order to prejudice jurors.”
After Chun determined the 62-year-old had not “lied” his way onto the jury i🐬n order to avenge some anti-cop vendetta, Vaཧrgas rushed out of the courthouse. He did not return messages.
“He didn’t have any influence on me,” said former Juror No. 10, Carlton S📖creen, when asked about Vargas’s role on the jury. “He conducted himself accordingly, just like everyone else on the jury. He didn’t influence anyone else, he did everything he was supposed to do, and conducted himself professionally all the way through.”
Liang’s friend Karlin Chan, who’s sat by him throughout the 🦩trial, was dismayed by the court’s decision.
“For the second time in as many months, I am in disbelief that the evidence was disregarded–lending credibility to a conspiracy theory to hang Liang,” Chan, executive director of the Chinese Action Network, told The Post.
Gurley’s aunt Hertencia Petersen declined comment as she left the courthouse, and protesters from a rally held earlier in th🌃e day on behalf of Gurley converged on press waiting to speak to attorneys and family.
“He’s a piece of sh-t!” One protester yelled over Assemblyman William Colton, who was ♛in court to support Liang. “He’s a racist killer cop! He’s a murderer!”
One unidentified woman lunged at Liang as ꧅he was escorted by cops into a car, screaming slurs꧑.
“I have felt from the very beginning that there was an injustice being done here. This clearly was an accident, it was not an intentional crime,” Colton later told The Post. “Yet because of the emotional circumstances, there have been those who have treated it as such,” he said, referencing t🍨he vitriolic protestors.
“I’m disappointed,” Liang’s attorney Paul Shechtman sighed as he left the courthouse. “I think we showed this person lied about his father’s manslaughter conviction. If you have to show he told someone he wanted to find Peter Liang guilty….well, I’m not a good enough lawyer to show that.
Lian﷽g intends to speak at the sentencing, according to his at♍torney.
Shechtman said twꦯo other former colleagues of the 28-year-old’s have also submitted letters to be read to the court