Attorneys made closing arguments yesterday in the trial of former NYPD officer Patrick Pogan, who faces up to four years in prison if the jury decides that he falsified police documents after the violent arrest of a cyclist during a 2008 Critical Mass ride through Times Square. He also faces up to three months in jail if found guilty of attempted assault. Yesterday, lawyers on both sides took their final shots.
"Everything he said was not true, except for the fact [Long] was traveling on Seventh Avenue," prosecutor Ryan Connors told the jury. "He's covering up the assault." As you no doubt know, a YouTube video showed Pogan slamming biker Christopher Long off his bike, seemingly without provocation. But on the police report Pogan claimed that Long "drove" his bicycle "directly into [Pogan's] body, causing [Pogan] to fall to the ground." That allegation led to a charge of assault against Long, which could have landed him behind bars—had a tourist's stunning video not surfaced.
Pogan largely stuck to his story in subsequent testimony, though yesterday he finally conceded that he was never "knocked down," he just "went" down. His lawyer has argued that Pogan was simply confused when describing the incident to the assistant DA and his sergeant, who filled out the report for Pogan to sign. The defense also sought to portray Long as a stoner (which Long freely admitted on the witness stand) and a "professional agitator" who cunningly provoked Pogan to violently arrest him for the cameras and a subsequent civil lawsuit.
"Long knew exactly what he was doing. He's a con man, ladies and gentlemen," Pogan's attorney, Stuart London, told the jury during his closing arguments. "He made Patrick Pogan a scapegoat... Video can be misleading and deceiving... and Pogan was just a New York City cop trying to do his job."
