Vanguard News Desk Editor
OAKLAND, CA – Alameda County District Attorney’s Office prosecutors Friday announced they are dismissing a criminal case against an Alameda City police officer in the killing in April 2021 of Mario Gonzalez, who died in custody handcuffed on the ground.
Prosecutors said they decided, in a statement released Friday, to dismiss the involuntary manslaughter charge against Officer Eric McKinley because of “inconsistent statements made under penalty of perjury by Dr. Bennett Omalu,” a forensic pathologist hired by Gonzalez’s family in a civil suit.
Officers McKinley, James Fisher and Cameron Leahy, said prosecutors, were “detaining Mr. Gonzalez in response to a public disturbance call, when he died as he lay face-down on the ground in handcuffs.”
Prosecutors explained the “initial autopsy by the Alameda County Coroner, and three of their forensic pathologists opined that the cause of death was toxic effects of methamphetamine,” but Omalu said the cause of death was “restraint asphyxiation.”
However, the county claims Dr. Omalu recently filed a Motion to Quash the DA’s subpoena compelling him to appear in court to testify in the criminal case, claiming in a signed declaration
under penalty of perjury facts “inconsistent with his sworn deposition in the civil case.”
“Although Dr. Omalu did not change his ultimate opinion on the cause of death, multiple key inconsistencies by this now hostile yet necessary witness led the People to conclude they could
not meet their burden of proving Officer McKinley committed involuntary manslaughter beyond a reasonable doubt,” argued the Alameda District Attorney’s Office.
The prosecution added, “Another possible forensic pathology expert who could testify on cause of death for the prosecution relied on Dr. Omalu for review, leaving no way to avoid calling Dr. Omalu to the witness stand. But Dr. Omalu would more than likely have been impeached were the People to call him to testify in their case.”
The DA’s Office noted the court previously dismissed the cases against Fisher and Leahy, leaving Officer Eric McKinley to face prosecution alone.
