What on earth was Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Ruth Shillingford thinking Wednesday? A gangbanger with a lengthy record is convicted of dragging an NYPD detective with a stolen car, and she gives him just one and one-third to four years behind bars?
That ruling merely rubbed salt in Detective Dalsh Veve’s wounds — injuries that left him so brain-damaged that at times he can’t even recognize his own family.
Detective Veve pulled a Honda Civic over for a routine check in 2017, whereupon the driver, Justin Murrell, hit the gas with the cop hanging on — viciously dragging him for three blocks.
Nor was this a case of a foolish one-off act by an otherwise decent kid: At 15, Murrell was already a purported member of the Crips gang who’d had 11 run-ins with cops.
“Eighteen months later, we are still trying to put the pieces of our life together,” Esther Veve said on behalf of her husband — who was unable to speak for himself.
The jury had already disappointed Veve’s loved ones and colleagues by acquitting Murrell of attempted murder, convicting him only on the lesser charge of assault.
But Shillingford still could have given Murrell as much as 3 ¹/₂-to-10 years. Instead she issued a sentence so light that he may be eligible for immediate release, thanks to time already served.
“The judge spit on every shield on every chest in this city,” fumed Police Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch.
“The behavioral bar has been driven down so low by our politicians,” added Detectives’ Endowment Association chief Michael Palladino. “It’s only a matter of time,” he warned, before average citizens suffer because of the “no-bail, no-jail mentality” that has gripped local politicians and courts.
Judge Shillingford apparently took mercy on Murrell because of his age — but the law already does that, by setting lesser sentences for juvenile offenders: An adult felon would have faced up to 25 years behind bars for Murrell’s crime.
This is a travesty of justice.