Gounden holding a copy of the DVD given to him by Queens County DA Richard Brown’s office, which actually supports his version of the incident.
[Truth To Empower]
On Kris Gounden’s next court date on June 27, I invite readers to attend if they can. I want the public to see how the Queens County District Attorney Richard Brown is wasting taxpayers’ money.
In my Tuesday morning column I wrote that after “beating two bogus prosecution cases brought by Richard Brown the Queen’ s County District Attorney, Kris Gounden hopes a third case against him –even more preposterous than the earlier two– will be dismissed when the trial continues today, May 15, before Judge Michelle Johnson, in Queens Criminal Court.”
Yes, the case is even more preposterous than I had discussed in my column. On Tuesday, an assistant district attorney handed a DVD container to Kris Gounden that he claimed had evidence supporting the charges against him that he had hit a man named Joseph Adorno with his car on February 5, 2018 then fled from the scene of the crime.
The case is now before Judge Toni Cimino, not Judge Johnson whom Gounden had accused of bias.
The charges are based on a police report filed by Adorno on February 5 and signed by Officer Carlos A. Bello of the 106 precinct–the same precinct that has carried out an 11-year hate campaign against Gounden; he believes it’s on behalf of a local politician. As I’ve recounted in previous columns, Gounden and his family were victims of racist backlash when they bought a two-house water-front property in 2006 in Howard Beach.
In recent weeks, two of three cases against Gounden have collapsed. One was dismissed by Judge Johnson and one was withdrawn by the ADA Brian Cox, soon after one of the cases was dismissed–he had handed over Gounden an empty DVD container claiming it contained video from a Home Depot surveillance camera showing him switching prices on merchandize in a Home Depot in 2015 so he could pay $80 less. A petty and bogus case. “They could have at least concocted something better,” Gounden lamented.
The remaining case stems from an incident on February 5. The details are in my two previous columns.
One of the two sides is lying; either Gounden or Adorno and the arresting officer Bello and Queens DA Brown.
When Adorno filed his police report he claimed the incident happened near 116-32 117 Street, in Queens, a few blocks from where Gounden lives with his grandmother. Gounden allegedly hit him with his car and then drove away. The first question would be what was Adorno doing in the middle of the road –walking– if Gounden did in fact strike him with his car? The second question would then be how was he able to get into a car and drive after Gounden to his grandmother’s house under his own power if he’d been hit with an automobile?
But here’s something even better in favor of Gounden’s own defense.
Gounden made a 911 call at 2:26 PM to report that it was Adorno who was the aggressor, as I recounted in my Tuesday column. He said, unprovoked, Adorno had struck his own car with his BMW while he had stopped at a stop sign, driven by him when he pulled up, jumped out of his car, charged at him and kicked and punched Gounden’s car. Gounden said “I told them I was being attacked by a crazed man,” when he called 911.
Gounden told me that he drove back to his grandmother’s house, and Adorno, drove after him and continued to hit his car from the rear until he pulled into his grandmother’s home.
Adorno did not pull into Gounden’s grandmother’s home, he says, but continued to drive back and forth in front of the house. Meanwhile Gounden had again dialed 911, this time at 2:34 PM.
Gounden has screenshots of both his 911 calls even though as I reported on Tuesday, the NYPD refuses to provide him transcripts and audio of the two calls for his defense. They rejected Gounden’s FOIL demand letter for the evidence. The NYPD also refuses to provide copies to The Black Star News; the NYPD also rejected my FOIL demand letters, and rejected my appeal of the FOIL rejection–copies of which I sent to Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill and Mayor Bill de Blasio.
Perhaps Adorno, Officer Bello and Queens DA Brown were hoping that by denying Gounden copies of the transcript and audio of his 911 calls he could be convicted in a Kangaroo court.
Here’s what helps Gounden.
When Bello and other officers responded to Gounden’s call and came to his grandmother’s home and arrested him instead of Adorno, they were all unware at the time that Gounden had the recorder on his second cell phone running. The tape-recording, a copy of which he has provided to me as well as to a lawyer for Allstate Insurance Co –Adorno has filed an insurance claim contending that Gounden struck him with his car and fled– contradicts the most critical information in Adorno’s police report.
In the tape-recording, Bello can be heard telling Gounden that Adorno and his wife told him that Gounden hit them with his car in front of a shopping mall in Five Towns, and then fled the scene of the incident. They also claim they had recorded the entire incident. How their purported recording was made was never discussed. Was Adorno’s wife just randomly recording her husband when Gounden, driving by, struck him with his car?
But here is something even much more important. In the recording Gounden can be heard telling Officer Bello and his partner that he was never at Five Towns –which is over six miles away from where he claims Adorno attacked him– on February 5. So how could he have hit Adorno with his car? Gounden can also be heard demanding that the video the Adornos claim they had be played so they could all see it.
Officer Bello, with his great wisdom, makes no such demand on the Adornos but instead arrests Gounden, based on the words of Joseph Adorno and his wife.
Gounden believes Adorno was an off-duty NYPD police officer, who deliberately followed him that day and struck his car to instigate the incident knowing full well that the NYPD would support his concocted version of the incident. (The NYPD and Queens County DA Brown have both declined to answer my question as to whether Adorno is indeed a police officer).
Gounden was subsequently charged based on the police report signed by Bello. In that report, there is now no mention of Five Towns at all.
Joseph Adorno now conveniently places the incident at 116-32 117 Street. “They didn’t know I recorded the entire conversation when Bello was arresting me,” Gounden says. “There must be some consequences to filing a false police report and false insurance claim. There must also be consequences to an officer signing a police report he knows was false since Bello knows Adnorno told him the incident happened at Five Towns when he arrested me.”
So what about the famous vide-recording the Adornos claim they had?
On Tuesday morning before the trial date was set for June 27, an assistant DA handed Gounden a DVD with the video. The video, which lasts less than one minute does not show Gounden hitting Adorno with his car. In fact it does not show anyone being hit by a car. The video was not shot anywhere close to Five Towns. In fact the recording –shot while the camera is facing the windscreen of presumably Adorno’s BMW– shows Adorno chasing after Gounden, a few blocks from his grandmother’s home.
The video recording provided to Gounden, by another bumbling ADA, actually supports Gounden’s contention that after striking him and attacking his car near 116-32 117 Street, Joseph Adorno then chased him to his grandmother’s nearby house from where officers then arrested him instead of Adorno.
The DA did not provide Gounden with copies of the transcripts or audio of the 911 calls –Gounden hopes to get these through deposition although he’s also concerned the evidence could conveniently “disappear.”
Meanwhile the hateful vendetta-prosecution of Gounden by Richard Brown continues. Hopefully some readers will show up for the next hearing to see how their taxpayers’ money is being put to good use.
The Queens Criminal Court is at 125-01 Queens Blvd., Kew Gardens, N.Y., 11415. Take the E or F train to Kew Gardens. Gounden’s case is in AP5 on the basement level; readers who attend can also check the roster on the wall for Kris Gounden or ask court officers.
Contact: [email protected]
