Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. shooting: Family says White Plains police officer Steven Hart shouted slur

Kenneth Chamberlain Sr., as seen during his service as a Marine in the 1970s. / File photo/The Journal News

WHITE PLAINS -- White Plains police Officer Steven Hart was the cop who shouted a racial slur at Kenneth Chamberlain Sr. during a standoff before Chamberlain was fatally shot by another officer, a lawyer for the dead man's family said today.

And Hart is also named in a civil lawsuit alleging police brutality brought by a man who said he was slammed down to the ground during an arrest 15 months ago.

Randolph McLaughlin, the Chamberlain family attorney, said Hart can be heard on audio tapes of the Chamberlain shooting using the "N word" as he stood at the 68-year-old's apartment window Nov. 19, trying to convince him to open his door.

"He's outside, at the window, tapping, tapping, tapping and you hear him say 'Mr. Chamberlain, Mr. Chamberlain. Stop. We have to talk n-'," McLaughlin said.

"Here you have a white officer outside a predominately African-American housing unit, using the n word," McLaughlin said. "What is going on in the White Plains Police Department."

McLaughlin, a Pace University Law School professor and lawyer with the Newman Ferrara law firm, said Hart is identified in transcripts of the audio, which was recorded by a telephone hooked up to Chamberlain's life alert device.

McLaughlin provided The Journal News with a civil lawsuit filed in state Supreme Court in December by Edgar Maurad. Maurad claims that he was falsely arrested, beaten and slammed face first to the ground by Hart and another officer in a Jan. 15, 2011, incident at 2 a.m. on Mamaroneck Avenue.

A disorderly conduct violation against Maurad was later dismissed in White Plains City Court.

Public Safety Commissioner David Chong was not immediately available for comment.

Earlier this month, Chong confirmed that Officer Anthony Carelli fired the shots that killed Chamberlain. Carelli and other officers are defendents in a police brutality lawsuit in U.S. District Court in White Plains, which includes claims that he used racial slurs. Carelli has denied the allegations.

A trial in that case was to have begun on Monday but has been adjourned until July. Details of the fatal shooting would not be admissible at that trial, but the officers' lawyer expressed concern about how much prospective jurors have learned about that case from media accounts.

Chamberlain, a retired Westchester County Corrections officer, was killed Nov. 19 after an hourlong standoff with police who came to his 135 S. Lexington Ave. apartment at 5:30 a.m. when his medical alert went off, apparently by accident.

Family members say that Chamberlain, who had a chronic heart condition, told police there was no emergency and that he was OK, but that they insisted on coming inside.

Police say Chamberlain was "emotionally disturbed" and screaming at cops, and that they were concerned someone else might have been in the apartment in some type of danger. An autopsy shows that Chamberlain was legally drunk at the time.

Chong said Chamberlain attacked officers with a hatchet and a knife and ignored orders to drop his weapons. Despite being shot with a stun gun and bean bags, police say Chamberlain kept coming at them and was killed when Carelli fired a shot that went through Chamberlain's arm and into his chest as he was about to stab an officer.

Family members who were shown video and audio of the incident by the Westchester County District Attorney's Office, say police taunted and used slurs against Chamberlain in a standoff that escalated until police broke his door down.

They say the video shows that Chamberlain was unarmed, standing several feet from the door, with his hands at his sides. Once the door is taken from its hinges, the family and their lawyers say, police immediately, without warning, shot Chamberlain with a Taser.

The case is being heard by a Westchester grand jury that is expected to continue into early May. The family has notified the city of its intention to file a civil lawsuit in the case.

McLaughlin said the DA's office showed him a transcript of the Hart recording on Tuesday. DA spokesman Lucian Chalfin said the transcript was shown "as a courtesy" despite the fact that the case is currently being presented to a grand jury.

"The DA has been very cooperative in terms of sharing information with us, and we appreciate that," McLaughlin said.

( originally published: April 19, 2012 )

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Inquiries about this case may be directed to Newman Ferrara attorney Professor Randolph McLaughlin at 212-619-5400