{"id":191562,"date":"2026-04-10T00:16:38","date_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:16:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191562\/"},"modified":"2026-04-10T00:16:38","modified_gmt":"2026-04-10T00:16:38","slug":"nypd-hating-lunatic-judges-outrageous-sentence-in-bronx-cooler-cop-case-is-judicial-abuse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/191562\/","title":{"rendered":"NYPD-hating lunatic judge’s outrageous sentence in Bronx \u2018cooler cop\u2019 case is judicial abuse"},"content":{"rendered":"

A radical Bronx judge\u2019s outrageous 3- to 9-year prison sentence for NYPD Sergeant Erik Duran<\/a> surely qualifies as one of the worst judicial abuses ever to come out of a US courtroom.<\/p>\n

The result will be fewer cops making fewer arrests, and crime spiking.<\/p>\n

Judge Guy Mitchell slapped Duran<\/a> after he found him guilty of manslaughter for having hurled a drink cooler at a scooter-fleeing drug suspect \u2014 who then fell, hit his head and died.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday will be forever remembered as one of the darkest days in the history of our profession,\u201d fumed Sergeants Benevolent Association President Vincent Vallelong after the sentence was announced.<\/p>\n

Indeed, every cop in the city should feel betrayed by the conviction and the sentence. As should every New Yorker who cares about public safety.<\/p>\n

Ex-NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly slammed the sentence as \u201ca huge miscarriage of justice.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Indeed, where\u2019s the justification for any imprisonment?<\/p>\n

Mitchell could have used his discretion to knock down the charge to criminally negligent homicide, which would have warranted probation and no prison.<\/p>\n

Instead, the judge justified the sentence by saying it\u2019d serve as a \u201cgeneral deterrent\u201d to other law-enforcement officers. <\/p>\n

Deterrent? Duran was doing his job!<\/p>\n

Mitchell also concluded that Duran threw the cooler<\/a> so he wouldn\u2019t lose an arrest.<\/p>\n

Huh? Should the cop have ditched his duty as an officer and let the apparent criminal escape?<\/p>\n

Truth is, Mitchell had it in for the cop all along: In February, he found him guilty of manslaughter \u2014 making Duran the first cop in a decade to be convicted of killing someone while on duty.<\/p>\n

Ten years ago, Officer Peter Liang was found guilty of manslaughter for fatally shooting an unarmed Akai Gurley in a dark NYCHA stairwell. <\/p>\n

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But Liang was sentenced only to probation and 800 hours of community service.<\/p>\n

One former New York prosecutor told The Post the sentence was way over the top, especially given that Duran is a 15-year veteran officer, a first-time offender and was convicted of a nonviolent crime.<\/p>\n

Heck, Mitchell himself in 2018 gave a gang member only nine months in prison for purposely beating a homeless man to death, though prosecutors begged for at least 10 years. <\/p>\n

Seems like the judge cares more about sending off-base messages to cops than truly deserved \u201cdeterrent\u201d messages to gangs.<\/p>\n

And Mitchell ignored Duran\u2019s sworn testimony that he threw the cooler, at the fleeing suspect, Eric Duprey, during a \u201cbuy-and-bust\u201d operation to protect other cops who were in his path.<\/p>\n

State Attorney General Letitia James\u2019 office brought manslaughter charges against Duran, claiming he chose to throw the cooler at Duprey to stop him from fleeing and avoiding arrest. <\/p>\n

Again, Duran was doing his sworn duties: protecting Bronx residents from drug-dealing gangs and his fellow officers from a perp racing at them on a dangerous vehicle.<\/p>\n

Any reasonable person would conclude that the actions of the fleeing drug suspect set off the chain of events that led to his accidental death.<\/p>\n

The sentence sends a chilling message to cops about taking any action to protect average New Yorkers from dangerous perps. That seems to be Mitchell\u2019s goal.<\/p>\n

With anti-police fanatics like him, AG James and Mayor Zohran Mamdani in charge, New Yorkers should brace for a surge in early police retirements.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, an appellate court should race to vacate Duran\u2019s unjust and punitive sentence. <\/p>\n

And someone should get this cop-hating lunatic off the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A radical Bronx judge\u2019s outrageous 3- to 9-year prison sentence for NYPD Sergeant Erik Duran surely qualifies as…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":191563,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,304,8041,398,6070,9,24,63,103,299,241,3209,129,131,130,82],"class_list":{"0":"post-191562","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-editorial","10":"tag-law-enforcement","11":"tag-letitia-james","12":"tag-manslaughter","13":"tag-new-york","14":"tag-new-york-city","15":"tag-nyc","16":"tag-nypd","17":"tag-opinion","18":"tag-police-officers","19":"tag-sentencing","20":"tag-the-bronx","21":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","22":"tag-the-bronx-news","23":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191562","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191562"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191562\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/191563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191562"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191562"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191562"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}