{"id":192882,"date":"2026-04-11T00:05:41","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:05:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192882\/"},"modified":"2026-04-11T00:05:41","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T00:05:41","slug":"lawyers-for-nypd-cooler-cop-blindsided-by-judges-obvious-anti-police-bias-despite-his-background-as-prosecutor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/192882\/","title":{"rendered":"Lawyers for NYPD ‘cooler cop’ blindsided by judge’s ‘obvious anti-police bias’ despite his background as prosecutor"},"content":{"rendered":"

The judge who convicted and controversially\u00a0sentenced ex-NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran to prison\u00a0<\/a>left the former cop\u2019s legal team blindsided by what one of the attorneys dubbed his \u201cobvious anti-cop bias\u201d Friday.<\/p>\n

Veteran trial attorney Andrew Quinn, in an interview with The Post, said Duran\u2019s lawyers had vetted Bronx Supreme Court Justice Guy Mitchell and trusted him for his years as a narcotics prosecutor \u2014 leaving them \u201cshocked\u201d by his verdict.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we vetted Judge Mitchell [before trial], we saw that he had a narcotics background, which we believed would have led him to have the insight to understand the dangers inherent in narcotics enforcement,\u201d Quinn said.<\/p>\n

Former NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran is sentenced in Bronx Court Thursday. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

\u201cTherefore, we felt comfortable trying the case in front of him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Quinn, who provides legal counsel for the Sergeants Benevolent Association union, ripped Mitchell for slamming his client with 3-to-9 years in prison Thursday for tossing\u00a0a picnic cooler at a fleeing drug suspect during a 2023 undercover operation \u2014 calling the decision \u201crepugnant.\u201d<\/p>\n

Duran, a 38-year-old dad of three, opted\u00a0to have\u00a0a non-jury trial\u00a0after he was indicted on charges\u00a0<\/a>of manslaughter, criminally negligent homicide and assault in the case brought by state Attorney General Letitia James\u2019 Office.<\/p>\n

But after the three-week proceedings, Mitchell found the 13-year veteran of the force guilty of second-degree manslaughter \u2014 ruling he recklessly caused 30-year-old Eric Duprey\u2019s death when he chucked the red cooler at him on Aug. 23, 2023 in Kingsbridge Heights.<\/p>\n

Duprey, a dad of two and delivery driver with a criminal record, had been fleeing arrest on a motorized scooter after selling $20 of crack cocaine to an undercover officer when the flying cooler hit him, causing him to lose control, crash into a parked car and crack his head on the pavement.<\/p>\n

The sentencing guidelines called for anywhere from probation without jail time to 15 years behind bars.<\/p>\n

Quinn said his client opted to let the judge, not a jury, determine his fate to give him a better chance at beating the rap.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe understanding among the police community is you don\u2019t trust a Bronx jury with a cop\u2019s fate,\u201d Quinn said, adding, \u201cI don\u2019t think that\u2019s true anymore, can\u2019t trust the judge either anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n

The cooler thrown by the cop. Tomas E. Gaston .. for NY Post<\/p>\n

Mitchell was a prosecutor across every level of government before he was first tapped to be a judge in 2015 by Mayor Bill de Blasio and then re-appointed in 2022 by Mayor Eric Adams.<\/p>\n

One of his jobs was as chief of the criminal division for the US Virgin Islands Department of Justice, where he managed a staff of prosecutors and homed in on major crimes, including narcotics, according to his LinkedIn profile.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He coordinated with the US Drug Enforcement Administration and the \u201cHigh Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas\u201d program,\u00a0according to a 2015 Amsterdam News article<\/a>\u00a0about his appointment to the bench.\u00a0He was also a prosecutor for the Bronx District Attorney\u2019s Office and worked for the state Attorney General\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n

Quinn argued the evidence indicated that Duran\u2019s actions were justified, stating\u00a0he was trying to save the lives\u00a0<\/a>of other officers in the path of Duprey\u2019s moped.<\/p>\n

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He also called out Mitchell for his statement at sentencing that the punishment\u00a0would serve as a \u201cgeneral deterrent\u201d\u00a0<\/a>to other police officers, charging that it revealed a slant against law enforcement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we believe was revealed during his comments at sentencing was a fundamental misunderstanding of what police officers are expected to do and an obvious anti-police bias,\u201d Quinn told The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut we didn\u2019t see that until sentencing yesterday.\u201d<\/p>\n

NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran is sentenced in Queens Court Thursday, April 9, 2026. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Duran will now undertake a robust appeals process in hopes of getting his conviction tossed \u2013 a prospect legal observers believe will be a tough road ahead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Defense attorneys who argued cases in front of Mitchell in the past said he had not shown a bias against police, as far as they knew.<\/p>\n

\u201cI certainly have never had an impression that he was an anti-cop kind of guy,\u201d said Sam Braverman, of the New York-based\u00a0Anderson Kill P.C. law firm, who told The Post has\u00a0known Mitchell for decades and even tried a case against him when the judge was a Bronx prosecutor 25 years ago.\u00a0\u201cI have no reason to believe that there is any truth to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Family of NYPD officer Erik Duran outside of Bronx Supreme court. Matthew McDermott for NY Post<\/p>\n

Troy Smith, a former Bronx prosecutor-turned-defense lawyer who has appeared numerous times in front of Mitchell, called him \u201ca fair-minded judge and at the same time, a very law and order judge, period.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t have the reputation of being a soft-on-crime judge in the courthouse,\u201d added attorney\u00a0\u00a0Brian Kennedy, who has worked as a prosecutor and defense counsel, saying he knew Mitchell as a jurist who has \u201ccalled it right down the middle\u201d during his tenure.<\/p>\n

But he agreed the sentencing against Duran\u00a0\u201cseems excessive,\u201d and also argued the AG\u2019s Office should get some of the flack for pursuing the manslaughter charge.<\/p>\n

Scene during the trial of police Sgt Erik Duran, regarding the death of Eric Duprey after the defendant threw an ice cooler at him on August 23-2023, at 190 Street and Aqueduct Avenue in the Bronx, NY. Tomas E. Gaston for NY Post<\/p>\n

Defense lawyer and former Manhattan prosecutor Mark Bederow was also surprised by the sentence, calling it \u201cvery high.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI can\u2019t recall the last time any police officer in New York convicted for an alleged use of force to defend someone got that kind of sentence,\u201d he said, adding he believed the judge\u2019s statement about it being a deterrent for other cops was \u201cvery damaging.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThat strikes me as telling the cops you may get in trouble for making split-second decisions in an effort to try to save people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Additional reporting by Kyle Schnitzer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The judge who convicted and controversially\u00a0sentenced ex-NYPD Sgt. Erik Duran to prison\u00a0left the former cop\u2019s legal team blindsided…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":192883,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,4234,57,9,24,63,103,4719,129,131,130,58],"class_list":{"0":"post-192882","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-the-bronx","8":"tag-bronx","9":"tag-judges","10":"tag-metro","11":"tag-new-york","12":"tag-new-york-city","13":"tag-nyc","14":"tag-nypd","15":"tag-prisons","16":"tag-the-bronx","17":"tag-the-bronx-headlines","18":"tag-the-bronx-news","19":"tag-us-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192882","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=192882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/192882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/192883"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=192882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=192882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=192882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}