By Kibret Markos
Herald News
A New York State parole officer was cleared Wednesday of charges that he rushed to a Teaneck parking lot while his car was being towed and drew his gun on the tow-truck operator.
“Justice delayed don’t mean justice denied,” a beaming Eugene Deal said outside a courtroom in Superior Court in Hackensack, after a judge ended his bench trial by finding him not guilty of aggravated assault.
Several of Deal’s colleagues attended the hearing and applauded when Judge Liliana DeAvila-Silebi read the lengthy verdict, in which she blasted the tow-truck operator, Ricardo Whilby, and dismissed his allegations as “completely incredible.”
Whilby sat on the other side of the courtroom, looking distinctly unhappy. “This is just the system protecting one of their own,” he said later. “If you are not a cop, then you are a criminal. If you go up against a cop, then trust me, you will be the criminal.”
Deal, who once worked as a bodyguard for rapper and producer Sean Combs, parked his Mercedes-Benz in the parking lot of a strip mall on Teaneck Road on Sept. 18, 2009, and went across the street to get a haircut, according to testimony at the trial.
Whilby, whose Haledon-based company has a contract with the owner of the lot to tow illegally parked cars, then arrived at the lot and began towing Deal’s car.
Deal returned to the lot and the two began to argue. Whilby testified that Deal pulled out his service gun and put it to Whilby’s temple during the argument.
Deal denied that he took out his gun. Several witnesses testified that Deal, who weighs about 300 pounds, fell on his back when the truck’s tow bar slid and hit his heels, swiping him off the ground. Silebi ruled that Deal’s gun must have come out of its holster when he took the tumble.
An indictment charged Deal with criminal possession of a firearm and aggravated assault by pointing a firearm. The weapons possession charge was dismissed.
The same indictment charged Whilby with criminal mischief. Whilby later pleaded guilty to a disorderly persons offense and agreed to pay $1,000 in restitution for the damage to Deal’s car.
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