WP Cop Suspended for Slur During Chamberlain Incident
Departmental disciplinary charges have been filed against White Plains Police Officer Steven Hart, who was accused of using a racial slur during a police confrontation last November that ended in the death of White Plains resident Kenneth Chamberlain.
The charges were served Friday, the White Plains Department of Public Safety announced in a press release, and were “based on misconduct allegedly committed” by Hart outside Chamberlain’s apartment at 135 South Lexington. In recordings of the incident released by the police in May an officer, apparently Hart, is heard telling Chamberlain, who was black, “Stop, we’ve got to talk, n*****.” Hart is white.
Hart has until July 30 to answer the charges and has been suspended without pay. If he is found guilty the penalty, imposed by Public Safety Commissioner David Chong, could range from a reprimand to Hart’s dismissal from the department.
Police responded to Chamberlain’s apartment in the city’s Winbrook Houses just after 5 a.m. on the morning of Nov. 19, 2011 after Chamberlain, a 68-year-old former Marine with a heart condition, activated his Life Aid medical alert button and did not respond when LifeAid operators tried to contact him. When police arrived at his apartment Chamberlain insisted he did not need assistance and refused to open the door. After a nearly 90-minute standoff, police broke down Chamberlain’s door and found him armed with a kitchen knife, according to police accounts. Chamberlain was shot and killed by Officer Anthony Carelli after Chamberlain attempted to stab Sgt. Keith Martin, officers on the scene said in incident reports filed afterwards.
In May, Westchester District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced a grand jury had decided not to file criminal charges against any of the officers involved in the shooting but acknowledged a racial epithet had been used. She didn’t name the officer who used the slur but said he had been at Chamberlain’s back window trying to distract him so police could enter the apartment.
“While this utterance itself is not a crime under New York State law, the use of a racial epithet in any context is offensive to the dignity of every one of us,” DiFiore said at a May 3 press conference. “The use of words by anyone, let alone a public servant who is sworn to uphold the public good, is intolerable and should never, ever be condoned or ignored and I have been assured by the White Plains Police Department that they will be reviewing this conduct as well.”
Hart and Carelli, members of the department’s Neighborhood Conditions Unit, arrived at Chamberlain’s apartment just before 5:20 p.m. the night of the shooting, 10 minutes or so after police first responded. Though they had just finished a 10-hour shift at 4 a.m., Hart and Carelli had been asked to join the officers at Chamberlain’s apartment because they had the master key to the building.
In his incident report, Hart says Martin asked him to go to Chamberlain’s bedroom window to try to draw him away from the door so the other officers could enter the apartment.
“I went to the window and started banging on the window and yelling for Chamberlain to come to the window so I could see if he was alright,” Hart states in his report, filed the day after the shooting. “Chamberlain refused several times. After approximately 5 to 10 minutes of trying to get Chamberlain to come to his bedroom window, with negative results, I returned to the apartment door.”
Martin does not mention making this request in his report.
The shooting is under review by the office of U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York. Chamberlain’s son, Kenneth Chamberlain Jr., has also filed a $21 million federal lawsuit against the city.
Chamberlain Jr. said he’s glad to see Hart suspended but is still hoping for federal charges.
“I’m pleased that he did get suspended and it’s a step in the right direction,” Chamberlain Jr. said Friday in a phone interview. “We’re just waiting to find out what the Department of Justice is going to do, and whether they’re going to come back with an indictment. That’s what we’re hoping for.”
Police said they would not comment further on the charges.
Adam has worked in the local news industry for the past two decades in Westchester County and the broader Hudson Valley. Read more from Adam’s author bio here.
