Judge lifts stay on Sean Bell case, settlement conference scheduled
By JANON FISHER
Last Updated: 3:08 PM, May 18, 2010
Posted: 3:02 PM, May 18, 2010
After three years of delays, a federal civil rights claim filed by the widow of a man shot and killed by police on his wedding day can finally go forward.
Brooklyn Federal Judge Sterling Johnson lifted a stay on the lawsuit brought by the widow of Sean Bell, who was shot after coming out of a strip club in Queens on the morning before his nuptials.
A federal magistrate also scheduled a settlement conference for the case on July 20th and ordered the police officers involved in the case to attend.
"Because of the nature of this case, we ought to have persons of authority to settle the case present in the courtroom," said the judge.
The case has hit a series of snags since it was filed in 2007.
It was first delayed while the five cops who shot Bell were tried in a Queens criminal trial. They were acquitted of any wrong doing, but the family asked the U.S. Justice Department to pursue a civil rights investigation into why the cops had opened a fusillade -- 50 shots -- on the wedding party.
The Justice Department found no grounds for a civil rights claim in February.
The judge allowed the city to delay the case again for three months while the officers involved in the shooting were brought up on violating departmental procedures that could end with their dismissal from the force.
Yesterday, the city had not even begun an internal investigation.
"I am unimpressed," said the judge. "I am lifting the stay and we will proceed."
The judge's decision came Bell's birthday, said his widow, Nicole Paultre-Bell. He would have been 27 years old.
Paultre Bell commemorated the day by visiting his grave and then going to a ceremony renaming the street he died on "Sean Bell Way."
"We need some type of justice for Sean," said Paultre Bell. "Everywhere we turn we've been denied."
Judge lifts stay on Sean Bell case, settlement conference scheduled - NYPOST.com.
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