“There’s actually one query right here,” lawyer Andrew Celli Jr. informed reporters Friday. “And that’s, was there a cover-up?”
Celli mentioned his investigation goals to find out a timeline of occasions, whether or not there was alleged inside cover-up, and the way the details about Prude’s dying was stored from the general public within the metropolis in western New York.
His staff plans to subject a number of subpoenas by Monday to the workplace of Rochester Mayor Pretty Warren, the Rochester Police Division, town regulation division and town council itself. However these 4 subpoenas are simply the beginning, Celli mentioned, and he expects “various” individuals will likely be deposed beneath oath.
“Nobody is off limits,” he mentioned.
Celli plans to make the record of subpoenas and depositions publicly out there when it is full, he mentioned. On the finish of what Celli expects to be a three-month investigation, the ultimate report will likely be made public in addition to transcripts of the depositions.
The impartial investigation won’t deal with street-level police practices, Celli mentioned, however particularly on the governmental processes after the interplay between police and Prude.
The impartial investigation won’t deal with street-level police practices, Celli mentioned, however particularly on the governmental processes after the interplay between police and Prude.
The mayor’s workplace declined to remark additional on the upcoming subpoenas on Friday. CNN didn’t hear again for remark from the Rochester Police Division.
A spokesman for town council declined to remark additional on the upcoming subpoenas. Councilman Malik Evans informed CNN in a separate assertion that he was “happy that Council voted unanimously to begin an investigation into the circumstances round Daniel Prude’s dying. Andrew Celli and his staff will likely be attending to work instantly to comply with the information round this tragedy.”
Attorneys for the household launched police bodycam footage that exhibits officers handcuff a unadorned Prude and canopy his head with a “spit sock” after he claimed he had coronavirus and was spitting. Officers maintain the 41-year-old and push him to the bottom in a susceptible place, the video exhibits.
He stopped respiratory and was declared brain-dead at a hospital, the place he died per week later, on March 30.
The health worker dominated Prude’s dying a murder, citing issues of asphyxia within the setting of bodily restraint. The report additionally cites excited delirium and acute PCP intoxication as contributing elements to the fast reason behind dying.
CNN’s Madeline Holcombe, Eric Levenson, Taylor Romine and Evan Simko-Benarski contributed to this report.
