Black Buffalo police officer fired for trying to stop chokehold wins verdict in order to get retirement

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The officer, Cariol Horne, was fired after an incident in 2006 in which she tried to prevent an officer from using a stranglehold on a suspect in handcuffs. Horne served 19 of the 20 years it took to receive a pension with the Buffalo Police Department.

“I had five kids and I lost all but [the suspect] didn’t lose his life, “Horne said then.” So if I have nothing else to live for in life, at least I can know that I did the right thing and that [he] still breathing. “

Tuesday’s ruling restored Horne’s pension and cleared a previous court ruling upholding her resignation.

When Don Lemon was asked by CNN on Wednesday if she felt justified by the ruling, she said, “It will get there.”

She added, “If not everyone is justified, then I am not justified,” she said she would continue to push for accountability to the police.

CNN contacted the city on Wednesday but did not receive an immediate response. Buffalo spokesman Michael J. DeGeorge told the Buffalo News, “The city has always backed any additional judicial review available to Officer Horne and respects the court’s decision.”

Neither the Buffalo Police Department nor the Buffalo Police Benevolent Association immediately responded to a request for comment.

“At the very least, the justice system may be the mechanism to help justice prevail, even if it is too late,” Erie County Supreme Court Judge Dennis E. Ward wrote in his decision.

Ward was referring to the cases of George Floyd – who died after a Minneapolis police officer shoved his knee into the neck for nearly nine and a half minutes – and Eric Garner – the New York man who died after falling into a chokehold – among other alleged cases of excessive force by the police.

“One of the problems in all these cases is the role of other agents on the ground, and in particular their complicity in not intervening to save the life of a person subject to such unreasonable physical violence,” wrote Ward.

Ward referred to Buffalo lawmakers who drafted a law requiring police officers to intervene in cases of excessive force and named the legislation after Horne. In doing so, Ward wrote, “the city has already determined that Officer Horne intervened to save the life of a civilian.

Horne addressed the court’s decision in a statement issued through her attorney.

“My justification takes 15 years, but what has been gained cannot be measured,” she said. “I never wanted another police officer to go through what I went through to do the right thing.”

She called on lawmakers across the country to pass legislation similar to “Cariol’s Law”, which requires officers to intervene and legally protect those who do.

Speaking to Lemon, Horne said the law “punishes an officer if they don’t intervene” and that for officers: “If you feel like you’re going to break the law, you won’t break it, or at least you should. don’t break it. “

CNN’s Sheena Jones contributed to this report.

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