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NEW YORK >> The judge who oversaw the grand jury investigating the death of Eric Garner has recused himself from considering a request to release transcripts of the proceedings, citing the potential appearance of a conflict of interest involving his wife, officials said Wednesday.
The judge, Justice Stephen J. Rooney of state Supreme Court on Staten Island, was to hear arguments on Friday on whether to release transcripts from the grand jury that decided this month not to bring criminal charges against Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who placed Garner into a chokehold during an arrest that led to his death in July.
On Wednesday, the judge met with the parties seeking the transcripts — including the city’s public advocate and the New York Civil Liberties Union — and told them of the conflict: His wife, Kathryn K. Rooney, is a board chairwoman of the hospital, Richmond University Medical Center, whose emergency medical workers responded after Garner was fatally injured.
With Stephen Rooney’s recusal, the hearing was postponed until a new judge can be assigned and a hearing date set, probably in January.
The grand jury’s decision set off nationwide protests and brought immediate calls for the release of the full testimony.
The potential appearance of a conflict did not arise earlier for the judge, said David Bookstaver, the spokesman for the New York State court system, because judges do little more than swear in the jurors during a grand jury proceeding, "The conflict doesn’t arise until there is a request for the minutes themselves," Bookstaver said.
Immediately after the grand jury’s decision, the Staten Island district attorney, Daniel M. Donovan Jr., requested that Rooney release limited information; he did not request the transcripts. The judge did not recuse himself at that point, Bookstaver said, because of the limited nature of that request.
Rooney, 66, in his response to Donovan, allowed for limited disclosures, among them that the grand jury had heard from 50 witnesses, including emergency medical personnel and doctors.
Reached by phone on Wednesday at his home, Rooney declined to discuss the case, his recusal or its timing, but said he had never recused himself from a case before. "I don’t think I ever have," he said. "This is the first time."
