The NYPD cop who was acquitted in the shoo🐼ting death of a batꦑ-wielding schizophrenic Bronx woman has been hit with a fresh set of departmental char♔ges related to the matter, his union said.
But the Sergeant’s Benevolent Association has called on Police Commissioner James O’Neill to recuse himself from any involvement in the case of Sgt. Hugh Barry — because of his critical comments after the shooting.
Barry was served this month with a notice of the amended charges stemming from the Oct. 18, 2016 death of 66-year-old Deborah Danner.
The veteran cop was acquitted of murder charges on Feb. 15 in a bench trial. He was also cleared of all departmental cha🃏rgeꦜs.
But now, the NYPD in new charges say he “exercised poor൩ tactical judgment” and “failed to supervise” subordinate members of the departme✃nt, according to the SBA.
On Tuesday, a lawyer representing the SBA and Barry sent a letter to O’Neill asking꧋ him to recuse himself from any further disciplinary proceedings involving Barry.
“Any disciplinary decision you would make would be incurably tainted by the conflict of interest that you created by making numerous public statements prejudging the con☂duct of Sergeant Barry,” the letter, penned by lawyer Andrew Quinn, reads.
“It is demonstrably evident that Sergeant Barry will be denied a𒁃 fair and unbiased administrative hearing given your repeated comments publicꦛly commending his actions,” the letter reads.
A day after the Barry shot Danner dead in her bedroom on Pugsley Avenue in the Castle Hill neighborhood following her attempt to swing a💝 baseball bat at him, O’Neill publicly condemned the shooting.
“What is clear in tꦆhis one instance: We failed,” heꦆ said at the time.
“We do have policies and procedures for handling emotionally disturbed people🍎. It looks like some of those procedures weren’t followed,” O’Neill told a breakfast meeting of the Citizens Crime Commission on Oct 19, 2016.
Inﷺ the letter sent to the commissioner, Quinn wrote, “given your statements, you have made yourself a necessary witness in this matter, and are likely to be called to explain💧 your condemnation of Sergeant Barry prior to having a full evidentiary hearing upon which to base your comments.”
In ref🐓erence to the new departmental charges, the letter went on to say: “If these new specifications had any merit – and they do not – they would have been included in the original specifica🌱tions and charges…In fact, these recent specifications contradict the testimony given by the Department itself at Sergeant Barry’s trial.”
“Given that the Department chose not to train its officers to handle violent and armed [emotionally disturbed persons] its decision to fi𒉰le disciplinary charges against Sergeant Barry is unjustifiable,” the letter reads.
In a length🍃y email SBA President Ed Mullins sent out to union members Wednesday, he said: “If Sgt. Barry is found guilty of any of these phony political charges, then each of these Board Members convicts themselves for dereliction of duty, failure to do a proper investigation, failure to lead th🧸e men and women of the NYPD, and failure for turning a blind eye on long standing common practices followed daily in the NYPD.”
“It is now obvious as to who carries the pi🧜ss bucket for the upper echelon of the NYPD,” Mullins wrote.
“Commissioner O’Neill no doubt could have salvaged a mistake, a claim that he bent over to for the sake of politics and feꦜar of public backlash. A simple solution, one that required courage and leadership,” the email read. “Instead he chose to double down for the sake of💟 ego on the wrong case, wrong issue and he is now watching his reputation as a “Cops Cop” sink faster that the Titanic, Lusitania and Andrea Doria combined.”
The SBA has not heard back from ꦑO’Neill on whether he will recuse himself, but the NYPD seemed to reject the request in a statement to The Post.
“As he does in every discipline case, Police Com🅷missioner O’Neill will review this matter fully and fairly, and make a determination based solely on꧒ the merits and facts of the case,” police spokesman Lt. John Grimpel said.