Anthony Baez - Criminal Trials and Investigations

Criminal Trials and Investigations

In March 1995, a Bronx grand jury indicted Livoti on charges of manslaughter in the second degree. Homicide charges were thrown out after an indictment with an incorrect charge was noted.

In December 1995, Livoti was reindicted for criminally negligent homicide. Livoti's trial began in September, 1996. He had waived his right to a jury trial and instead opted to have the case heard solely by a judge. In October 1996, Officer Francis Livoti was acquitted by a State Supreme Court Justice. Fearing reprisals and heeding to the outcries of the public, the Feds stepped in.

The Federal prosecutors were not constrained by double jeopardy, which is, charging Livoti twice with the same crime. Instead they turned to the same civil rights statute that was used to convict Los Angeles police officers Stacey C. Koon and Laurence Powell for the beating of Rodney King. Officer Daisy Boria was considered a distant relative of the Baezes and was present at his arrest in 1994. She contradicted three of her fellow police officers, including her partner. Boria had testified that she saw no confrontaton between Livoti and Baez. However, in 1987, she had been indicted on perjury charges by the Manhattan District Attorney for lying about an insurance case. She was later acquitted. In 2003, disciplinary charges were brought against two other officers, Mario Erotokritou and Anthony Farnan, involved in the death of Anthony Baez. Both officers were summarily dismissed.