Newly obtained documents appear to detail the disciplinary history of the officer who choked Eric Garner to death on Staten Island in 2014.
The documents were sent to the website ThinkProgress by an anonymous employee of the Civilian Complaint Review Board, the website said.
The site said that the CCRB substantiated four complaints and recommended disciplinary action against Pantaleo years before he encountered Garner, who was selling loose cigarettes on July 17, 2014.
The agency found credible allegations about an “abusive” stop and frisk in 2011, the website said. The CCRB recommended he receive a talking-to, but no further discipline.
Allegations of an abusive stop and frisk in 2012 were also substantiated, according to the website. The CCRB recommended the loss of eight vacation days as punishment. The NYPD gave him just two.
The website said Pantaleo was also accused of failing to seek medical aid for someone in 2009, struck another person with an object in 2011 and made bad car stops and searches twice in 2012, the website said. He also was accused of improperly using physical force in 2013.
All of those cases were closed either because the CCRB ruled the claims could not be verified or the victim became uncooperative.
In all, eight or more CCRB complaints were filed against Pantaleo - higher than normal for an individual NYPD officer.
Garner yelled “I can’t breathe” repeatedly during the encounter with Pantaleo - a term that became a battle cry of the Black Lives Matter Movement.
In December 2014, a Staten Island grand jury declined to indict the officer. A federal civil rights investigation is ongoing, with no end in sight. The city settled with Garner’s family in a lawsuit they filed for $5.9 million.
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