Amy Cooper, a white woman who called police on a black bird-watcher in Central Park, made another call on 911, without a previous report, in which she falsely claimed that the man “tried to attack her,” a prosecutor said. Said on Wednesday.
Ms. Cooper, who appeared in remote court to respond to allegations of misconduct for filing a false report, was negotiating an application deal with the plaintiffs that would have him jailed.
Senior prosecutor John Iluzi said Ms. Coupe used police in her two 911 calls in May in a way that “both were designed to be racially abusive and intimidating” and that her actions were “something that cannot be ignored.”
However, Ms. Iluzi told the court that the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office is seeking a resolution to the case, in which Ms. Cooper will have to publicly take responsibility for her actions in court and attend the event to educate her about how harmful she is.
“We hope that this process will expose, heal and prevent similar damage to our community in the future,” Ms. Iluzi said.
The trial was adjourned until November 17 to give Cooper’s lawyer, Robert Barnes, and public prosecutors time to release details of the agreement.
The news of the second call was the latest development of the Memorial Day Weekend Encounter that reverberated across the country and rekindled discussions about the potential dangers of false allegations made against police about black people.
Mr. Copper was filmed calling 911 from a different area of Central Park, when a black man asked him to restrain his dog, as rules were required. During the call, she said several times that the “African-American man” was threatening her when she raised her voice and insisted on her race against the race parrot.
Video of the encounter, Shot on his phone by a man named Christian Cooper, has been viewed more than 44 million times. His time, a day before protests erupted across the country over the assassination of George Floyd in Minneapolis, prompted many to play a role in fueling the outrage seen as an example of everyday racism.
In July, the Manhattan District Attorney charged Ms. Cooper with filing a false report, which resulted in the perpetrator being sentenced to up to one year in prison. The criminal charge was that a white man from the United States had to face a false complaint to the police about a black man.
Manhattan District Attorney, Cyrus R. “We are committed to holding the perpetrators of this behavior accountable,” Vance Jr. said in July.
Her lawyer, Mr Barnes, said at the time that she would not be found guilty and called for “cancel the epidemic of culture”.
“How many lives will we destroy based on a 60-second misunderstanding on social media?” He asked.
Mr. Vance’s decision to take over from Ms. Cooper led to mixed reactions from black community leaders and supporters of reforming the criminal justice system. He also did not have the support of Mr. Cooper, who has long been a prominent bidder in the city and sits on the board of the New York City Aud Duban Society.
As the episode drew widespread attention from the country’s state legislators and activists, Ms. Cooper, who had been head of insurance portfolio management at Franklin Templeton, lost her job and was publicly embarrassed. She was forced to temporarily hand over her dog to the rescue group from which she was adopted.
At the time, Mr. Cooper, a Harvard graduate working in communications, said he was faced with the consequences and the public backlash. He did not co-operate with the prosecution’s investigation and said in a statement in July that “it would be a pity to bring him more grief.”
Weeks after the confrontation, New York State legislators also gave people the legal right to a “private right to prosecute” if they were to be called by the police because of race, gender, nationality, or any other protected class. The move was a direct response to the Central Park run-in and other false reports to police about black people.
The collision between Mr. Cooper and Ms. Cooper, who has nothing to do, began when he rode a bike to search for birds in a semi-wild section of a park called Ramble, where dogs should be tamed. He confronted Ms. Cooper, walking with an unleashed dog, and said in a Facebook post that he refused to restrain the dog when asked.
He wrote that he offered the dog treatment in an attempt to persuade Ms. Cooper to comply with area rules. After that, the video called her on 911 and told the operator operator, “I’m in Ramble, there’s a man, African-American. He has a bicycle helmet and he’s recording me and threatening me and my dog.”
A day after the incident, Ms. Cooper publicly apologized.
“I reacted emotionally and made false assumptions about his intentions, when in fact, I was the one who was behaving inappropriately while controlling my dog,” Ms. Cooper said in a statement. “I am well aware of the tragedy that sensitive statements about the cause of the tragedy and the character.”
Sarah Muslin Neer and Jan Ransom contributed to the reporting.
