The first witness in the upcoming NYPD trial of Daniel Pantaleo will be the man who filmed the cop who put Eric Garner in a fatal chokehold.
Ramsey Orta may testify via video from Groveland Correctional Facility, where he is serving a four-year sentence for drugs and weapons charges.
An attorney for the Civilian Complaint Review Board told Orta’s attorney, Andrew Plasse, that the incarcerated 27-year-old Staten Islander would be the first to testify. The departmental trial of Officer Pantaleo begins May 13.
Orta’s testimony is not expected to stray beyond the events he captured on July 17, 2014, Plasse said.
His allegations that he was targeted by police after Garner’s death, which was ruled a homicide, will likely not be raised in the departmental trial regarding whether Pantaleo used a banned chokehold. The cop could lose his job.
“He wants to do the right thing by the (Garner) family and his friend,” Plasse said.
“A lot of people don’t realize he witnessed one of his good friends getting killed. He filmed it. And it left him with quite a bit of psychological trauma. He didn’t just happen to be there.”
Panteleo’s attorney Stu London said he’d prefer to have Orta in the courtroom, testifying in person.
“I’ll save my credibility questions for when we’re in the courtroom,” London added.
After Garner’s death, Orta had frequent run-ins with the law. He has alleged in a lawsuit that the NYPD targeted him at protests and elsewhere. The city has denied wrongdoing.
Authorities charged they caught Orta selling crack, heroin, oxycodone and marijuana in the Staten Island park across from where Garner died. Orta was busted with a gun in a separate incident. He pleaded guilty in October 2017.
At Fishkill Correctional Facility, Orta claimed that he was roughed up by correction officers retaliating against him for filming the Garner video. A suit over the alleged abuse is ongoing in the Court of Claims. He was in and out of solitary at the prison, Plasse said.
Orta also made a separate May 2018 allegation regarding an altercation with a correction officer. The charge was not substantiated following a “through investigation,” a Corrections spokesman said.
Orta is fairing better at Groveland. He’s participating in arts and crafts programs and studying botany, according to Plasse.
“He’s not having any problems with the correctional staff there,” he said. “He’s doing his time.”
Pantaleo still faces the possibility of a federal indictment for violating Garner’s civil rights. Orta was not called as a witness before the grand jury considering the charge, Plasse said.
