The Common Council wants to know what the city can do for former Buffalo Police Officer Cariol Holloman-Horne, who says she was fired 14 years ago for stopping a fellow officer from using a chokehold on a handcuffed suspect.
The Council will ask the city's Corporation Counsel Timothy A. Ball for a written opinion on what, if any, legal recourse the city has in the matter, especially as it concerns Holloman-Horne's pension eligibility. Council President Darius G. Pridgen filed the request in a resolution to be addressed during the Council's business meeting Tuesday.
Members also are waiting to hear back from Ball on the Buffalo Police Department's "duty to intervene" policy, which could be turned into law, Pridgen said.
"We want corporation counsel to opine on the difference on the policy if we made it into law," Pridgen said. "What would be the differences? It's kind of the first step to make the 'duty to intervene' policy into law."
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Police Capt. Jeff Rinaldo said the department's "duty to intervene" policy went into effect last year as part of the department's "updated use of force policy with accreditation and updated guidelines from New York State." The department gained accreditation in June 2019 through a New York State program that sets uniform standards for law enforcement.
Holloman-Horne has pushing for the city to pass "Cariol's Law," legislation that would require a police officer to intervene when another officer is using excessive force. The law also would hold officers who fail to intervene accountable and protect whistleblowers.
Holloman-Horne, who is Black, had a 2006 on-duty confrontation with fellow Officer Gregory Kwiatkowski during a violent arrest. She claimed Kwiatkowski – who is white – was choking a Black suspect whom officers were placing under arrest. Kwiatkowski alleged Holloman-Horne jumped on his back while he was trying to subdue the man, who other officers said escalated a dispute with his ex-girlfriend over a $626 Social Security check into a violent struggle.
Holloman-Horne was fired in 2008 following an internal affairs review and a disciplinary proceeding. A jury in 2012 found no wrongdoing by the five Buffalo police officers whom the suspect sued in civil court for false arrest and battery. The jury, made up of five whites and one Black, voted 5 to 1 in favor of the police officers. The only juror who sided with the defendant was a Black female juror.
Holloman-Horne had 19 years on the job, one year short of getting her pension.
In 2018, in an unrelated case, Kwiatkowski pleaded guilty in federal court to a misdemeanor count of deprivation of rights under color of law and was sentenced to four months in prison.
Holloman-Horne first introduced "Cariol's Law" in 2016 but it has gained new interest amid protests that began in late May in Buffalo – and across the country – following the death of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer, local resentment about the way police treat Black residents and institutionalized racism. Holloman-Horne has been a leading figure at local protests, marching with crowds and rallying demonstrators.
Late last month, Holloman-Horne announced the new push for Cariol's Law.
