Lawyers for Jabez Chakraborty, the 23-year-old man who was shot by police while experiencing a psychotic break, are moving to dismiss attempted assault charges against him, contending that the Queens District Attorney secretly indicted him before Chakraborty, his family or his psychiatrist could testify to the grand jury about his mental condition.
On Jan. 26 police shot Chakraborty, who is diagnosed with schizophrenia, when he advanced toward them with a knife inside his family’s home. The family had called 911 requesting that he be involuntarily transported to a hospital because he was breaking glasses.
Chakraborty, who was critically injured, was arrested and detained at Jamaica Hospital, where he was shackled to a bed.
Lawyers for the Legal Aid Society allege that though the DA was aware from the day of the incident that Chakraborty had legal representation, they ignored repeated requests to allow Chakraborty, his family members and his treating psychiatrist to testify to the grand jury about his mental state at the time of the interaction.
As they made these requests, Legal Aid says the DA twice told the family the case was still under investigation and did not disclose that it had already been presented to the grand jury, which voted on Jan. 30 to indict him.
On Feb. 13 Chakraborty was arraigned on one count of attempted assault and one count of weapons possession.
The DA “intentionally rushed a direct presentment of their case to a grand jury and filed the indictment under seal within days of the shooting,” attorney Laura Eraso wrote. “There is no reason for this other than wanting to prevent Mr. Chakraborty and his family from testifying and presenting evidence in the Grand Jury on a highly publicized police shooting.”
Eraso also argued that the secret indictment was “likely motivated by wanting to preempt any investigations of the officer for excessive use of force” by the state Attorney General’s Law Enforcement Misconduct Investigation Office or any other agency.
Brendan Brosh, a spokesperson for Queens DA Melinda Katz, did not immediately respond to THE CITY’s request seeking comment.
On Wednesday Queens Criminal Court Justice Toni Cimino said she would rule on the request to toss the case on April 1.
Chakraborty’s shooting is one of several interactions involving the NYPD responding to 911 calls about people in mental health crisis that resulted in police shooting or tasing the subject of the call.
His family had tried unsuccessfully to get him treatment before the confrontation with police, but he was discharged after three days from Queens Hospital and was still on a waiting list for a longer term program when he was shot.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani visited Chakraborty in his hospital room and then posted on X on Feb. 2 about the visit and promised that the body camera footage would soon be released. He added, “Jabez needs mental health care, not criminal prosecution by a District Attorney.”
By then, Chakraborty had already been indicted.
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