Another day in Staten Island Supreme Court yesterday for Ramsey Orta, the young man who filmed the viral video of the chokehold death of Eric Garner last July 17th. Since then, Ramsey has been arrested three times on what, he says, are bogus charges and are in retaliation for filming the Eric Garner video. There has still been no indictment for the cop, Daniel Pantaleo, who put Eric Garner into the chokehold with five other cops assisting, ultimately leading to his death and which was even ruled a homicide by the Staten Island medical examiner.
At least two handfuls of supporters were also in the courtroom to stand with Ramsey, the man they feel needs support for doing a brave thing by taping the chokehold death of Eric Garner. Most of the supporters including Ramsey’s mother, Emily, and his aunt, Lisa Mercado were wearing t-shirts reading, Ramsey Orta, “Video Eric Garner Chokehold”, “Orta in the Court”, “Come Out and Support Staten Island” at the Supreme court with various dates of when Ramsey has had to visit the judge.
On the back of the t-shirts was a quote by Bob Marley, “How long shall they kill our prophets while we stand aside and look?” with the link to the GoFundMe.com page for Ramsey’s legal expenses.
Ramsey’s lawyers, Ken Perry and Will Aronin, haggled with the judge over the release of a supposed video of a drug transaction with Ramsey and an undercover cop. The prosecution argues that the identity of the undercover cops will be revealed if the video is turned over. Ken Perry has told me in the past that it’s impossible to even see who is in the video. He wants an unedited version of it, not the edited version they’ve been allowed to see. The arguments over the drug video have been ongoing for months now.
What was also argued in court yesterday was to have an article retracted that was published by the Daily News this month accusing Ramsey Orta of “rape” in 2010 when he was 18 years old. The Daily News has said they were given this false information by the Staten Island DA.
According to Ken Perry, an attorney for Ramsey Orta, he told the Daily News BEFORE they printed the story that Orta was never CHARGED with rape and never plead to rape. They decided to totally ignore his statement and did not check it out other than to get the document from the DA’s office. Ken Perry raised that issue to Judge Rooney and the Assistant DA said they did not release that info to the Daily News. Ken Perry is sending the info from the Daily News showing the opposite to the DA and to the Judge. A motion for sanctions will follow their response.
The official New York State rap sheet shows that what they printed was not true and that they were told that by Ken Perry yet the Daily News printed it regardless and did no investigation to determine the truth of what the Daily News SAID the Staten Island DA told them.
According to the Assistant DA at the Court date on Wednesday, they have no knowledge of how the Daily News got that information, the documents they were using were never filed with the Court and Orta was never charged.
The court was adjourned until September 15th which happens to be the birthday of Eric Garner. Ramsey Orta’s birthday is 3 days later which will make him 24. Eric Garner would have been 44 years old this month.
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