Thread by @aaronlmorrison

In 2012, Rashad McNulty pleaded guilty to drug and firearms offenses, following one of @PreetBharara’s gang takedowns in Yonkers, NY. Rashad would probably be out of prison today, if he had made it to his sentencing.

New from me @theappeal: theappeal.org/they-sent-him-…

In the early morning hours of Jan. 29, 2013 — just two weeks before his sentencing — Rashad collapsed at the Westchetser County Jail in Valhalla, NY. He had just complained of chest and stomach pains, worst than he’d ever felt before. (Video first published by @lohud)

A jail nurse who responded to Rashad’s cell block said she would take him to the clinic for further treatment. But she changed her mind when he suddenly got up on his own and slumped into a waiting wheelchair. “I’ve been doing this too long to be fooled,” she remarked to a peer.

Rashad took his last steps into a cell at Westchester County Jail. The nurses left him in what a correction commissioner later said was “obvious distress.” Rashad moaned so loud that other inmates waved down a guard. Then he was unresponsive. He was pronounced dead at 6:16 a.m.

Rashad’s death is the subject of an ongoing lawsuit. The jail is accused of being “grossly negligent” in its medical care. The 36YO father of six children was engaged to be married.

So, how is this about the gang takedowns and @PreetBharara? I’ll explain. theappeal.org/they-sent-him-…

Rashad was one of 62 alleged members of the Elm Street Wolves, a street gang that had operated in Yonkers since ~2000. But unlike others he was arrested with, Rashad’s alleged involvement was limited. On or about July 2011, he sold crack and carried a gun, Bharara said.

But when Rashad agreed to plead guilty, it was for allegedly selling the equivalent of a small crack rock and possessing -NOT FIRING- a gun in relation to the dealing.

Why does this matter now? A new study suggests @PreetBharara’s gang takedowns were essentially overkill.

One prominent, recent example is the NYC #Bronx120 raid in 2016. @PreetBharara used the full force of federal, state and local law enforcement to target black and brown communities with trumped up gang charges. The dragnet effort yielded mostly pleas to weed sales.

Just 4% of #Bronx120 pleaded guilty to violent crimes like murder or assault. (Read the study from @CUNYLaw’s Babe Howell report here: bronx120.report)

@avitale told me these gang takedowns are “overly broad” and mislabel deep social networks as gang connectedness.

Rashad’s family doesn’t believe he was ever a member of the Elm Street Wolves, as @PreetBharara alleged in the gang indictment.

Instead of sentencing to lesser charges, Attorney Jared Rice (@CouncilmanRice) tells me Rashad got “a death sentence.” theappeal.org/they-sent-him-…

I asked @PreetBharara for comment. He did not respond. However, he is scheduled to appear at an event to discuss his new book, “Doing Justice.”

https://twitter.com/BrennanCenter/status/1121097997184569346