Newly released transcripts show that a grand jury investigating the police suffocation death of Daniel Prude last year in Rochester, New York, voted 15-5 to clear the three officers involved in his restraint of a criminally negligent homicide charge sought by prosecutors.
That was the only charge prosecutors from the state attorney generals office asked the grand jury to consider after nine days of testimony from witnesses including Prudes brother, other police officers and experts.
The names of witnesses and jurors were blacked out of the transcripts, which were released Friday, weeks after State Attorney General Letitia James secured a judges OK to make the usually secret material public.
One juror praised the prosecution team for helping make sense of the case, telling them: You guys did amazing work. If it wasnt for everything that you presented to us, I dont think anybody would have come up with a decision. You worked very hard and Im sure nobody took it lightly. It was a very serious case. Its horrible what happened to him.