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SUNDAY MARCH 07, 2021 VOL. 51

NEWSPAPER

Others detail allegations of abuse by officer who knelt on George Floyd

Cuomo accuser tells CBS she reported governor’s behavior, was told there was no need for an investigation

People gather for a news conference Thursday outside the Hennepin County Government Center in Minneapolis, where local activists and organizers announced plans to demonstrate when jury selection begins in the trial of former Minneapolis police Officer Derek Chauvin.

Charlotte Bennett, a former aide to New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) who has accused him By: TERRY HUGHEY of sexual harassment, said she reported the governor’s behavior to his chief of staff and was later told by his general counsel that there was no In November 2013, Minneapolis police Chauvin, who is charged with second-degree murder in need for an investigation, according to an pulled over LaSean Braddock shortly after Floyd's death, is set to stand trial Monday. exclusive interview with Norah O’Donnell of CBS midnight as he drove home from a double Evening News. shift as a mental health worker at Hennepin Braddock said he believes Floyd might still be alive if County Medical Center. the complaint he filed alleging excessive force by In the interview, portions of which aired Chauvin the day after their encounter had been taken Thursday and Friday, Bennett said she told Braddock, 48, said he had grown somewhat seriously and not dismissed. Cuomo’s chief of staff that she no longer wanted accustomed to being stopped by police to work directly for him after he had “crossed a because his identity had been stolen and he "It's unfortunate that they didn't do anything to Derek line,” and that she was transferred to a new job was sometimes mistaken for the man who Chauvin," Braddock said in a recent interview. "If they two days later. had been using his name. had done something about it, it might not have went that far." Bennett told O’Donnell she asked for there not to He carried paperwork with him from the be an investigation because she was terrified — Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension Multiple people who had run-ins with Chauvin before but that she also texted her mother afterward that as proof, he said, so the stops were usually the deadly encounter have accused him in interviews she was “happy and relieved and sad” and that brief: He would show the paperwork to with news outlets and official complaints of using Cuomo “shouldn’t have robbed this experience or officers; they'd review it and let him go. excessive force. this path from me.” But the officer at his driver's side window Chauvin, who was a 19-year veteran of the department Bennett said she later had “a long and thorough that day stuffed the documents in his pocket before he was fired, was named in more than a dozen conversation” with Cuomo’s chief of staff and without looking at them, Braddock said. complaints that resulted in no disciplinary action and general counsel. one that led to a "letter of reprimand." When he hesitated to get out of the car, the “They said it was inappropriate,” Bennett said. officer aggressively hit the driver's side The Minneapolis Police Department declined to “When I asked them if they could let it go ... window with a flashlight, Braddock said. Two comment about past complaints against Chauvin. [Cuomo’s general counsel] said, ‘You came to us officers then tried to pull him from the car before anything serious happened.’ It was just before he got out on his own. The Minnesota Attorney General's Office, which is grooming and it was not yet considered sexual prosecuting Chauvin's case, sought to introduce harassment, so for that, we do not need to “Then they tried to slam me on the ground, several arrests involving Chauvin dating as far back as investigate.” but I was about 240 pounds,” Braddock said, 2014, alleging that they showed a history of excessive adding that although he still was unsure why force. Bennett’s lawyer told O’Donnell that they should he was stopped, he complied to avoid injury. have told Bennett they had “a legal duty to “Then they jumped on my head and my neck Jurors may hear about one of those cases, the arrest of investigate.” and my back. I was lying flat on the ground.” Zoya Code in 2017.

In portions of the interview that aired previously, More than six years later, Braddock saw one of 'Don't kill me' Bennett said the governor asked whether she had those officers again as he watched a harrowing slept with older men and told her that he would video of George Floyd's final moments. Derek According to court documents, Chauvin went to Code's be interested in relationships with women in their Chauvin, Braddock said, was one of the officers home on June 25, 2017, on a report of a domestic 20s. She has said she thought the governor was who had treated him roughly. A police report dispute. A relative had accused Code, 38, of trying to propositioning her for sex and that she felt from that night confirms that Chauvin was one choke her with an extension cord, but Code denied “deeply uncomfortable” in her encounters with of the arresting officers. having done so. Cuomo. Floyd, who was Black, died May 25 after Code, who declined a request for an interview, told The Bennett said she had confidence in the Chauvin, who is white, pressed his knee against Marshall Project, a nonprofit news organization that investigation into Cuomo being led by the New his neck for several minutes while he cried out covers the criminal justice system, that the relative was for help in handcuffs and said he couldn't York state attorney general’s office and that swinging the cord around and that she had grabbed a breathe. His death sparked months of racial Cuomo should resign “if this investigation finds hold of it. (continued on page 4) justice protests in dozens of cities around the that he has conducted himself this way. world.

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Boynton Beach man arrested after wife's remains found buried in backyard

By: CHERYL HUGHEY

A 66-year-old man was arrested early Saturday after his wife's remains were found in the backyard of his Boynton Beach home, police said.

Roberto Colon was booked into the main Palm Beach County jail on a charge of first-degree murder.

Boynton Beach police spokeswoman Stephanie Slater said Friday night that human remains were found at a home on Southeast 28th Court.

Mary Stella Gomez-Mullet, 45, had been missing for several weeks.

Our heartfelt condolences are with Mary's family and loved ones," Boynton Beach Police Chief Michael G. Gregory said in a statement. "We remain dedicated to this ongoing investigation and bringing justice to her family."

Palm Beach County court records show that a marriage certificate for the couple was issued in January, when a ceremony was performed at the courthouse in Delray Beach.

According to a probable cause affidavit, Gomez-Mullet was reported missing Feb. 20, after a 911 caller said she hadn't been heard from since the afternoon of Feb. 18, when she was headed to Colon's home.

Colon later told police that he married the missing woman "after meeting her as part of a deal that she would take care of his mother in exchange for U.S. citizenship through the marriage." Colon had accused Gomez-Mullet of defrauding his mother out of several thousand dollars over several months.

According to the affidavit, Colon told police that he had been in an argument with Gomez-Mullet and "terminated (her) from her employment."

After returning from a doctor's office about an hour later, Colon said, Gomez-Mullet was gone, and he didn't know where she went.

Three days later on Feb. 23, a bloody purse was located less than a mile from Colon's house. Items in the purse were identified by family members as belonging to Gomez-Mullet.

When police interviewed Colon the next day, he said that Gomez-Mullet had bumped into a wall but denied she suffered any injuries and said he did not hurt her.

Detectives found several red markings, later confirmed to be blood, on the front door to Colon's home. Colon told detectives the blood came from a cut he got doing work on the house.

Later, when told blood was found in a garage/workshop, Colon said he hadn't noticed it, but one of his dogs had died there about five years ago.

He also told police he had buried about six of his dogs in the backyard.

Additional evidence was collected Feb. 26 after the blood was confirmed to be human.

According to the affidavit, Colon told detectives that Gomez-Mullet was "swimming with the fishes" and described her as a "piece of (expletive)."

"Find the body," Colon yelled to detectives. As detectives left, Colon said to them with a smirk, "Well, at least you didn't find a body at my house."

A source told police Wednesday that Colon had threatened to strangle Gomez-Mullet and bury her in his backyard during a January argument. The source went on to say that she had been near Colon while he was on the phone with Gomez-Mullet and mentioned after hanging up with her that he would like to kill Gomez-Mullet and bury her in his backyard.

Police arrested Colon on drug charges Friday stemming from a previous search of the home.

According to the affidavit, before he was taken to the police station, Colon believed nobody was listening when he told a friend, "There's one thing they can't do. They can't put -- what's his name? -- Humpty Dumpty back together again."

During a search of the backyard Friday, investigators found human remains that were positively identified as belonging to Gomez-Mullet.

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SUNDAY MARCH 07, 2021 NEWSPAPER

Hernandez was charged with misdemeanor disorderly Others detail allegations of abuse (continued) conduct. He pleaded guilty a couple of months later and, after he stayed out of trouble for a year, the court vacated the plea and dismissed the case, records show.

Hernandez's case was among those prosecutors sought to submit as evidence, but a judge denied the request. "What he did to me was nothing compared to what he did to that poor Black dude," Hernandez said, referring to Floyd. "You can't take the law in your own hands."

In a court filing, Chauvin's attorney, Eric Nelson, said he acted appropriately. The filing says the encounter with Hernandez involved Chauvin "at bar close after Valentine's Day, in the dark, early morning hours dealing with a resistant, aggressive arrestee by himself." LaSean Braddock Zoya Code Julian Hernandez "Chauvin ascertained and reported that the arrestee Code said she had left the house to cool off 'He choked me out on the ground' was actively resisting," the filing states. "Under the after the dispute and that when she returned, Minneapolis Police Department Use of Force policy in she encountered Chauvin and another officer. Other people who encountered Chauvin said effect at the time, a neck restraint could 'be used his actions were much less measured. Julian against a subject who is actively resisting.'" As Code walked by, Chauvin grabbed one of Hernandez, a carpenter, said he was on a road her arms and told her she was under arrest, trip to Minneapolis in February 2015, with 20 Nelson didn't return a request for comment about the prosecutors said in court documents. or so of his co-workers to see a band at the El allegations. Nuevo Rodeo nightclub, where Chauvin worked When she pulled away, Chauvin pulled her to as an off-duty security officer for almost 17 the ground in the prone position and knelt on years. her, they said. Hernandez said that he had been drinking and After she was handcuffed, she refused to went to the bar to try to buy cigarettes but that stand, so Chauvin carried her out of the house they were too expensive. Hernandez said that in a prone position and set her face down on as he walked away from the bar, he heard the sidewalk. someone say, "It's time to go." He turned around and encountered Chauvin, who he said Code told The Marshall Project that she began forced him to an exit. pleading: "Don't kill me." "The whole club was still going," said According to the prosecutors' account, based Hernandez, 38. "And he picked me out of on the police report and body camera video, at everybody and told me that I had to go that point, Chauvin told his partner to Hernandez said he believes that if Chauvin's superiors because they were going to close." restrain Code's ankles, "even though she was had "looked more into" complaints about "his not providing any physical resistance." aggressiveness" and reprimanded him, "he would still He said he tried to tell Chauvin that he be a cop and George Floyd would be alive." Code told The Marshall Project that as he tied needed to retrieve his jacket from the coat her, she told the officer: "You're learning from check and even showed him his ticket. Braddock agreed. an animal. That man — that's evilness right there." "I'm like, 'Dude, let me go get my jacket at Braddock, a former St. Paul resident who now lives in least. It's wintertime,'" Hernandez said. , said that the morning he was arrested, he Code was charged with misdemeanor "And he wouldn't let me." asked Chauvin and the other officer why they had domestic assault and disorderly conduct. The stopped him but that they never gave him an answer. charges were dismissed March 12, 2018. Once they got outside, "things got physical," Hernandez said. He was booked in the Hennepin County Jail on Code is listed as a prospective witness for the charges of failure to comply with police orders and state in Chauvin's trial. Prosecutors will "He tried to grab me from my neck, and, of obstruction of the legal process, according to a public juxtapose Code's treatment with Chauvin's course, I reacted," Hernandez said. "And information report, which said "a routine license plate actions in another case to demonstrate that then, after that, he choked me out on the check" of his vehicle showed the owner as having a Chauvin knew how to use reasonable force to ground." felony warrant. restrain a person. Chauvin restrained Hernandez "by applying The case was dismissed in January 2014. Braddock's pressure to" his lingual artery below his chin attorney at the time, Jordan Deckenbach, said and "pressing him" against a wall, according prosecutors tossed the case after the City Attorney's to prosecutors. He then pulled Hernandez Office reviewed the video from the squad car. The City to the ground, placed him in a prone Attorney's Office said it no longer had a record of why position, handcuffed him and waited for the case was dismissed. other officers to arrive, they said. The formal complaint Braddock filed against Chauvin He said he distinctly recalled Chauvin's the day after his detainment was also dismissed, he In that incident, Chauvin rendered aid to a choking him. Hernandez said that at the and his attorney said. suicidal, intoxicated and mentally disturbed time, he had been clean for about six years man. "Defendant observed other officers fight after having served time in prison in "The fact that Mr. Braddock's complaint was with and tase the male," prosecutors wrote in California in his early 20s for selling drugs. dismissed without him being contacted and a court filing. interviewed is evidence that the complaint was not taken seriously," Deckenbach said. Hernandez said he filed a formal complaint "Defendant then observed other officers place the day after the incident, which was later "If Officer Chauvin had been disciplined for physically the male in a side-recovery position, dismissed, and that he tried to sue the police abusing Mr. Braddock, to include kneeling on Mr. consistent with training." department but that no lawyer would take Braddock's neck, perhaps Officer Chauvin would have his case. He wasn't trying to sue for taken a different approach with George Floyd, Chauvin rode to the hospital with the man, financial reasons, he said. "I just wanted resulting in George Floyd still being alive today."*** according to prosecutors. He and the other them to know what kind of cop they have on officers were commended by the police their squad," he said. department for their efforts. PAGE 4

SUNDAY MARCH 07, 2021 NEWSPAPER

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“It would be disingenuous to say politics and who’s who is not a part of it,” said Pastor Clarence Williams of the Greater Mt. Zion AME Church on the FL system to make distribution of COVID-19 south side of St. Petersburg. His community has been hit hard by the virus. His church hosted a state clinic last month. But getting the clinic took a vaccine more equal to minorities church member who had a line to a Senator in Tallahassee. The church member, Rene Flowers, also happens to be Pinellas County Commissioner.

We asked Flowers if she thought the state’s selection process was based on data or relationships. “It’s relationships, it’s not data. If it was data, the state would reach out and contact organizations within those communities of color, within those high risk zip codes and begin providing service,” Flowers said.

Meantime, Reverend Wayne Thompson of the First Baptist Institutional Church also in St. Petersburg has been ready, willing and able to host a clinic. Last month, he invited the media to his church for a press conference about the continued racial disparities of the state’s vaccination distribution plan. At

the time he said, he and neighboring church leaders had identified dozens of Investigative Reporter Katie LaGrone digs into how churches are being chosen to churches ready to help but no-one had heard anything from the state. When host vaccination sites in minority communities and uncovered the process relies we asked Reverend Dr. Thompson what he knew about how the state was on relationships over data. selecting churches to host vaccine clinics, he replied “I don’t know, but I

know it’s not working,” Thompson said. Florida’s process to make the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine more equitable to minorities is full of inequities, we found. The result is leaving churches with connections to state leaders and politicians at the front of the line On the east coast, Florida Representative Omari Hardy told us it took calling to become vaccination sites. his buddy in Tallahassee to get a church to host a clinic in the heart of the African American community in West Palm Beach. That buddy is Jared The numbers are clear minorities are disproportionately impacted by Moskowitz, Director of Florida’s Division of Emergency Management which Coronavirus. In addition, minorities are targets to effective misinformation is on the front line of deciding who gets vaccines in the state. Ten days later, campaigns surrounding the vaccine. In an effort to combat thee challenges and Hardy said the Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church, was chosen as a encourage more minorities to take the vaccine, in January, state leaders vaccine clinic. The church is one of five churches to host a vaccine clinic in announced they would be partnering up with Florida churches in black and the county. brown communities. “That’s not the way it should work,” said Hardy. “There should be a data The state would provide select churches up to 500 COVID-19 vaccines to host day driven that decides which sites are selected. It shouldn’t be based on or two-day long vaccination clinics. These temporary church vaccination sites relationships that folks in office have with each other,” said Hardy. would be the state’s shot at closing the gap of vaccine inequality. But we found the state’s process of selecting churches in minority communities is The state admits its church selection process is based not on data it collects, not based on data but instead depends on a wing, a prayer and a whole lot of but on the word of people in communities. connections. PAGE 5 SUNDAY MARCH 07, 2021 NEWSPAPER

This Week in Sports

MIAMI HEAT: THE PROS AND The Heat have led the league in dribble handoff The shooting percentage helped him possessions in the first 25 games averaging 10.8 generate 5.2 points in 5.5 possessions per CONS OF A KYLE LOWRY TRADE per game. Duncan Robinson, , and game, 28 percent of his scoring output. Goran Dragic have accounted for 61.1 percent of the possessions averaging 6.6 per game. On the The Cons of a Kyle Lowry trade for other hand, the Heat are 20th in pick and roll the possessions averaging 18.8 per game. Unfortunately for Miami, Lowry’s asking Goran Dragic and Butler are responsible for 70.7 price is expected to be high as we approach percent of those possessions averaging 13.3 per the deadline. game. John Hollinger of the Athletic stated in Miami’s system has forced the rest of the November that Toronto could get Gary rotation to become floor spacers. For example, Harris, Will Barton, and draft picks from Avery Bradley and have taken at Denver in exchange for Kyle Lowry. least 45 percent of their shots from behind the arc averaging 3.8 and 5.1 per game, respectively. If he is correct, Miami would have to include one of their top three young assets BY: TERRY HUGHEY More than 70 percent of those attempts were and salary filler to match Denver’s catch and shoots as they are averaging 3.7 and hypothetical offense. There is a perception around the league that the 3.6 per game, respectively. For example, they would have to offer Tyler Miami Heat will be one of the favorites to land Consequently, Lowry should spend a significant Herro, , Kelly Olynyk, and a Kyle Lowry if Toronto puts him on the trading amount of his minutes off the ball as a floor draft pick to acquire Lowry from Toronto. . spacer. Fortunately for the Heat, Lowry has the Miami’s hypothetical offer would reduce skills to thrive as a floor spacer. their roster depth, which they have leaned One Eastern Conference told Jake Fischer of on to avoid game postponements this Bleacher Report that Miami makes sense as a Lowry has converted 38.8 percent of his catch season. landing spot for Lowry due to their playing style and shoots since the 2013-14 season on 3.5 and title aspirations. attempts per game. Avery Bradley, , Butler, Dragic, and Herro have all missed at least The Pros of a Kyle Lowry trade for Catch and shoots have accounted for 50 percent two games this season due to health and the Miami Heat of his threes as he has made 37.6 percent of his safety protocols or injuries. field goals from behind the arc on 7 attempts per Although the Eastern Conference official game. Miami’s roster availability issues have believes that Lowry and the Heat are a perfect forced Spoelstra to give Gable Vincent, KZ match for each other, let’s look at how he would Lowry can also slide into the role of ball Okpala, and Max Strus significant minutes fit into their offense. handler/playmaker when one of the perimeter on certain nights. players rest on the bench or doesn’t play. Lowry Head coach runs an offensive has been a passable pick and roll ball handler For instance, Strus played 25.1 minutes on system centered around dribble handoffs and over the 5+ seasons. He has shot 43.1 percent February 11th against Houston as Herro pick and rolls. from the field on 4 attempts per game. was unavailable due to health and safety protocols.

LOCAL NEWS

Port St. Lucie police officer arrested, Police said an argument between Ochoa and his wife, prompted his wife faces battery charge, after domestic to enter and close a bathroom door Ochoa then broke the bathroom disturbance with wife door open and continued yelling, according to investigators.

Police said Ochoa then grabbed the victim's phone, threw it on the ground and stomped on it. They said he also stomped on her foot.

As she attempted to leave the residence, police said Ochoa began "chest- bumping" the victim into the wall.

His wife was able to escape the home and went to a neighbor's house to A Port St. Lucie officer faces a battery call police. charge following a domestic disturbance with his wife Saturday evening, police Officers said Ochoa denied any physical contact with the victim. said. He was placed on administrative leave without pay and charged with The incident occurred around 6 p.m. at battery, criminal mischief and obstructing justice. the home of Officer Nelson Ochoa, who was off-duty at the time. Ochoa was hired by the Port St. Lucie Police Department in 2018.

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