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L E T T E R F R OM T HE E D I T OR
Justice Ignored in the Bronx
BY PAUL SCHINDLER
In a conscience-shaking conclusion
to a two-year tragedy in
which a long-bullied gay youth,
Abel Cedeno, was prosecuted for
manslaughter in the stabbing death of
Matthew McCree, who charged at him
in their Bronx classroom in late 2017,
the 19-year-old has been sentenced
to 14 years in prison, of which he will
have to serve at least 12 years.
McCree’s death, of course, is to be
mourned, as is the injury to his friend,
Ariane Laboy, who joined the other
boy in going after Cedeno. Abel Cedeno
made a fatal error in judgment in
carrying a knife to school, but it was
a desperate decision made only after
years in which his pleas for protection
or transfer to another school fell
on deaf ears. And as he saw McCree
and Laboy come at him from the back
of their classroom, he knew them to be
bullies who had beaten his best friend.
The sentence handed down, after a
bench trial heard by Justice Michael
A. Gross, refl ects a failure at every level
and in every sense of the word.
The public school system and the
teachers, counselors, and administrators
at that high school failed Cedeno
at every turn. On repeated occasions,
Cedeno and his mother pleaded with
offi cials to offer him protection from
bullies who called him “faggot” and
“girl” while roughing him up. The trauma
he experienced forced him to leave
school for most of one year, but even
then administrators never okayed his
request for transfer to another, safer
school. (The school where the fatal
encounter took place was shuttered
shortly afterward, with offi cials judging
it irredeemable.)
A report delivered to Justice Gross
in advance of sentencing from the
Friends of the Island Academy, which
works with youthful offenders to help
with reentry after incarceration, detailed
how school counselors advised
Cedeno to “ignore” the bullying, that
“that’s how boys are,” and to “be
smarter than them.” Cedeno told that
group the counselors “were afraid” of
the bullies.” One counselor countenanced
students spreading unfounded
rumors that he and Cedeno were
romantically linked rather than confront
them. On the day he died, Mc-
Cree shoved one of the classroom’s two
teachers aside as he rushed Cedeno.
The other teacher was similarly MIA
as violence broke out.
The Bronx criminal justice system
also failed Cedeno. The lead assistant
district attorney, Nancy Borko, performed
her duties as if a stereotypical
burnt out, cynical, caustic New York
bureaucrat. She put on the stand a
witness forced to admit on cross-examination
that when she saw Cedeno
on the street after he’d been freed on
bail, she took to Facebook to identify
his whereabouts and say, “THERES
NO WAY THIS N----- IS WALKING
THAT COMFORTABLE ND NOT GETTING
TOUCED SMH n----- needa step
up they game up 100.” When asked if
that posting meant she wanted Cedeno
“dead or hurt,” she replied, “Yes.”
Borko painted a picture of Cedeno
completely at odds with the diminutive
young man who had been bullied
since the sixth grade, claiming
he brought the knife to school “set on
creating an opportunity to use it.” His
motivation, she said, was to “prove he’s
not a pussy… prove that he’s tough.”
At Cedeno’s sentencing, she sneered
that he was a “celebrity” defendant,
because people of principle stood up
for the value of mercy.
Borko either has no empathy or appreciation
for the fragile state of mind
and spirit that plagued Cedeno or
she was so bent on winning the day
she would twist the so obviously tormented
young man in front of her into
some scheming monster. Her performance
was a disgrace, especially her
effort to have Cedeno sentenced to up
to 20 years for the manslaughter plus
another 10 for the assault on Laboy —
to run consecutively.
The ultimate responsibility for that
sentencing demand — as well as the
confl ict of interest-riddled decision by
the District Attorney’s Offi ce not to
pursue prosecution of McCree’s brother,
arrested for shaking down students
from the classroom to grab their cell
phones for video evidence they had —
fall on DA Darcel Clark.
But the prosecutors were not alone
in failing Cedeno, who also faced a
hostile judge in Gross. Purported evidence
of McCree and Laboy’s gang
involvement — which was relevant to
Cedeno’s state of mind when the two
came after him — was barred from
the trial. And in handing down his
sentence — and nixing the request
that Cedeno be granted Youthful Offender
status, which carries smaller
penalties — Gross referred to the defendant’s
“murderous rage.” This, despite
a Bronx grand jury’s refusal to
indict Cedeno on the murder charge
prosecutors sought, instead putting
him on trial for manslaughter. It
seems clear neither Borko nor Gross
respected that grand jury decision,
instead treating Cedeno as though he
were on trial for of murder.
In the LGBTQ and wider progressive
communities, we need to look at
how we failed Abel Cedeno. In an interview
with Gay City News, he said
he was unaware resources like the
Harvey Milk High School provided alternatives
to the toxic educational environment
he faced for years. For all
the advocacy groups doing good work
on behalf of LGBTQ youth and students,
somehow that message never
reached a high school in the Bronx.
We need to learn how better to reach
young people most badly in need.
It must also be noted that among
Bronx public offi cials, the only one
who stepped forward prominently to
support Cedeno’s right to be treated
with mercy was Councilmember Ruben
Diaz, Sr., who has justly been criticized
in these pages for his hostility to
LGBTQ rights. To be sure, other public
offi cials stepped up — Councilmember
Daniel Dromm from Queens and
Manhattan Assemblymember Daniel
O’Donnell and former Senator Tom
Duane.
But where were Councilmember
Ritchie Torres, Assemblymember
Michael Blake, and former Council
Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito — each
opposing Diaz in a race for an open
Bronx congressional seat? And where
was mayoral-wannabe Ruben Diaz,
Jr., the borough president?
Maybe their silence refl ects the
awkwardness and political downside
of standing with a young man responsible
for the fi rst in-school killing in
decades. Or perhaps it was deference
to DA Clark, who turns up at Stonewall
Democratic events and at the
borough president’s Pride celebration.
Abel Cedeno needed people willing
to stand by his side after a lifetime of
virtually nobody being there. And as
he faces the prospect of a lengthy and
perilous purgatory in state prison,
people need to step up to demand that
this young man be protected from further
harm.
September 12 - September 25, 2 28 019 | GayCityNews.com
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