- Police Brutality Watch

A former New York police officer has pleaded guilty to federal civil rights charges related to the 1998 death of a Black man he hit in the head with a walkie-talkie, prosecutors said yesterday. The former officer, Craig Yokemick, 36, entered the plea to two felony charges Friday in United States District Court in Manhattan. Mr. Yokemick admitted violating the civil rights of the suspect, Kenneth Banks, when he hurled a police radio at him as Mr. Banks tried to escape on a bicycle. Mr. Banks later died of trauma to the head. Sentencing was set for Nov. 12. Mr. Yokemick could get up to 10 years in prison on each charge. A Manhattan grand jury cleared Mr. Yokemick in 1999 of using excessive force, and the city reportedly paid Mr. Banks' family $750,000 in a civil settlement. Mr. Yokemick also was convicted last year of violating the civil rights of a Westchester County teacher in 2002 when he punched him and threw him to the ground in Yorktown Heights, N.Y. [more] and [more]

Police say that on October 29, 1998 cops observed Banks in a drug transaction and when officers tried to arrest him he fled. Witnesses say that Officer Craig Yokemick came within a few feet of Banks as he tried to get away on a bicycle and threw his two-pound walkie-talkie at the suspect. Banks fell from the bike. He died at Metropolitan Hospital Center on November 10. Twelve days later, the medical examiner ruled that the thrown radio had killed Banks.
A witness said that after Walker was knocked down and it was clear he was knocked out, "the police began dragging brother Banks, unconscious, to the van," claims Stewart. "They literally dragged the brother to the van and threw him in as though he was a dead deer who had been hit crossing the street," adds Stewart, who provided the investigators with names of other witnesses. "They just dropped him in there. I don't know whether they really knew that he was never going to regain consciousness." [more]