NEW YORK (AP) 鈥� A New York City police officer who was the first prosecuted under a local law banning chokeholds and some other methods of restraint was convicted Thursday.
was convicted of the misdemeanor established in the law that was passed after ‘s killing, along with felony strangulation and misdemeanor assault, and is facing up to seven years in prison, news outlets reported.
Habib has also been dismissed from the New York Police Department. He had previously been suspended without pay.
Bronx Criminal Supreme Court Judge Cynthia Isales ordered him held without bail, according to the New York Daily 91欧美激情.
Habib, who joined the department in 2007, was responding to a 911 call at a Bronx catering hall in 2023 when a drunk and disorderly man resisted arrest, Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark said. Habib placed the man in a chokehold so tight it impeded his breathing and circulation and made him pass out, according to the district attorney.
Jacob Z. Weinstein, Habib鈥檚 attorney, argued during the trial that other factors could have caused the man to pass out, including drinking without eating enough food.
Patrick Hendry, president of a New York police union, said the verdict was 鈥渇urther proof of a grim reality: every second police officers spend on this job puts them at risk of criminal prosecution, and pervasive anti-police propaganda has made it incredibly difficult to receive a fair trial,鈥� according to the New York Daily 91欧美激情.
Habib was charged under a 2020 city law passed after Floyd鈥檚 death that makes it a crime for police officers to use chokeholds or sit, kneel, or stand on someone鈥檚 torso during an arrest.
The law was challenged by police unions but was by New York state鈥檚 highest court.
Police use of chokeholds was already banned in most cases by NYPD regulations at the time the law was enacted, but officers who used them were rarely prosecuted.
A police officer accused of using a prohibited chokehold on Eric Garner, , lost his job with the city but faced no criminal charges.
Before his recent arrest, Habib had a history of substantiated misconduct complaints about excessive force and abusing his authority. He was previously cited by the department for using a chokehold in 2017, an incident that was later the about officers continuing to use banned restraints.
Habib was also accused of and in a 2016 gun raid, prompting several defendants to withdraw their guilty pleas.
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