Ramarley Graham Records Could Put Cops At Risk, Lawyer Argues

TRIBECA, NY — A city lawyer argued Wednesday that releasing records related to the NYPD's 2012 killing of Ramarley Graham could put the three cops responsible in danger — a claim a lawyer for Graham's mother called "obnoxious."

Defending the NYPD in a Freedom of Information lawsuit in Manhattan Supreme Court, city Law Department attorney Evan Schnittman said releasing scores of documents about the case could subject the officers to harassment and threats from supporters of Graham's mother, Constance Malcolm, who say the cops involved should be fired.

Schnittman invoked the 2014 murders of Brooklyn officers Rafael Ramos and Wenjian Liu in arguing the records' release could pose a "substantial risk of harm" to Officer John McLoughlin and Sgt. Scott Morris and former Officer Richard Haste, given police-reform advocates' fervor for their firings.

"There can be no doubt that there's a substantial, realistic possibility of harassment and violence against Sgt. Morris, Officer McLoughlin, any other person connected to this incident," Schnittman told Justice Manuel Mendez on Wednesday.

Malcolm is suing the NYPD for a large cache of documents she requested under the state's Freedom of Information Law relating to then-Officer Richard Haste's February 2012 killing of her unarmed son in his Bronx apartment. Haste shot Graham, then 18, in the chest thinking he had a gun.

McLoughlin and Morris were also on the scene. Prosecutors eventually dropped a manslaughter charge against Haste.

The NYPD rejected Malcolm's records request, citing section 50-a of the state civil rights law, which city lawyers argue bars the release of any personnel records.

Making the records public could also interfere with the NYPD disciplinary proceedings against McLoughlin and Morris, which have yet to begin, Schnittman said. Haste quit the NYPD after a similar trial against him started.

Gideon Oliver, Malcolm's attorney, said she and her supporters' position that the cops should be fired doesn't justify withholding records that would give Malcolm answers about her son's death.

"It's offensive, frankly, to say that their calling to do that [fire the officers] is the same thing as threatening those officers," Oliver said in court.

Oliver argued the city is interpreting section 50-a too broadly. Many of the records Malcolm wants aren't "personnel records" in a strict sense, he said. Advocates and news organizaitons have sued to challenge the city's interpretation of the statute.

The Police Department already made many of the records public in Haste's NYPD trial, Oliver said, meaning they couldn't meaningfully impact proceedings against the other two cops.

Loyda Colon of the Justice Committee, a police-reform advocacy group, said the city is "trying to criminalize Ramarley Graham's mother and supporters" for seeking accountability for the cops who killed the teen.

"What mother that didn't get justice for their child — these officers never went to prison, never went to jail for a day — wouldn't have called for them to be fired?" Malcolm told reporters after Wednesday's hearing.

A Law Department spokesman contested the advocates' charge.

"As we’ve argued in court, the police department properly withheld records that if disclosed, would interfere with the pending disciplinary proceedings of two officers involved in this tragic incident," spokesman Nick Paolucci said in an email. "The requested records are also exempt from disclosure under FOIL."

The NYPD reportedly settled a separate lawsuit with Graham's family for $3.9 million in 2015.

Lead image: Gideon Oliver, a lawyer for Ramarley Graham's mother Constance Malcolm (right), speaks to reporters after a Wednesday court hearing in Manhattan. Photo by Noah Manskar