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Louna Dennis, mother of the dead youth, Matthew McCree, with her family’s attorney, Sanford Rubenstein,
who is representing them in a $25 million lawsuit against the city and Abel Cedeno.
➤ ABEL CEDENO CONVICTED, from p.4
of were not admitted into evidence
by the judge. The defense of “justifi
cation” or self-defense was rejected.
While the judge was indeed impassive
through most all of the
trial, he seemed moved by the
testimony of slash victim LaBoy
and reprimanded defense counsel
Feldman for the hectoring tone
of his cross-examination of the
youth. The judge also saw several
of the student witnesses break
down in tears and require breaks
from testimony as they recounted
the fatal fi ght.
One student witness, however,
had to acknowledge she had
called on social media for harm
for Cedeno when he was let out on
bail.
But many student witnesses —
most of whom corroborated Cedeno’s
account of the fi ght — were
not produced in court. The Department
of Education opposed
any and all defense attempts to
locate them. And the DA would
only concede who their witnesses
were the day before their testimony,
giving defense little time to
prepare.
Under a new state law that goes
into effect in January, prosecutors
have to turn over everything
they have in discovery within 15
days. While the defense sought
the names and addresses of student
witnesses in pre-trial hearings,
the judge hearing those motions
left it up to the trial judge.
Lynn said when they sought subpoenas
from Judge Gross for more
of these witnesses, “He said, ‘You
should have done this a long time
ago.’ But the fact is, we did and
were rebuffed.”
ANDY HUMM
Cedeno requested to be sent to
the LGBTQ unit at Rikers. The
judge agreed to that and also to
psychiatric supervision.
“I’m concerned about his safety,”
Lynn told Gay City News. “It is important
that the court grant him
youthful offender status. It makes
him eligible for alternatives to incarceration.
He is in danger from
gangs. If something happens to
him in prison, a lot of people will
share responsibility for it.”
Mustafa Sullivan of FIERCE!,
an LGBTQ youth group based
in the Bronx, had been monitoring
the case from the beginning.
After the verdict he told Gay City
News, “It is so sad. There were
three adults in that class. Abel
is paying the price for the lack of
a plan in that school to stop bullying
and school violence. Both
families are suffering now. Witnesses
confi rmed what Abel said
— that he was terrorized in that
classroom. The judge is saying to
students being bullied that they
can’t fi ght back — that they have
to have their hands tied. Abel was
trying to defend himself, but the
DA wanted to make an example
of him.”
Sullivan participated in City
Council hearings after this incident
before out gay Queens City
Councilmember Daniel Dromm’s
Education Committee in 2017,
when Chancellor Carmen Fariña
promised that more resources
and more funding would be put in
the budget to aid efforts to combat
bullying and de-isolate LGBTQ
youth.
Asked after Cedeno’s verdict
was announced if things have
gotten better since then, Sullivan
responded, “No. The schools are
out of control.”
GayCityNews.com | July 18 - July 31, 2019 5
/GayCityNews.com
