Court Reinstates Indictment Against Police Officers Charged with Beating Student Athlete

Black Issues in Higher Education, Jan 21, 1999

ALBANY, N.Y. -- A state appeals court has reinstated an indictment against two Albany police officers accused of beating a Black local college basketball player.

The Appellate Division of the state Supreme Court late last month reinstated the assault charges against officers William Bonanni, 31, and Sean McKenna, 29. The panel ruled that Albany County Court Judge Larry Rosen erred last August when he found that the pair could not be charged because they had been granted immunity when they testified before a grand jury.

The pair are accused of beating former College of Saint Rose basketball star Jermaine Henderson, 23, while he was handcuffed in a police parking garage in October 1997 after getting involved in an altercation at a bar earlier in the night.

The police officers, who were off duty at the time, maintain that Henderson attacked them. A misdemeanor assault indictment against Henderson was dismissed in August.

Special District Attorney John Dorfman said in a statement that he welcomed the decision and would quickly move to prosecute the case in Albany County Court. His statement also said he would continue to pursue the perjury indictment case against the officers that had been initiated after the assault charges were thrown out.

On Dec. 16, a grand jury returned perjury indictments against Bonanni and McKenna for allegedly lying in testimony they gave to the original grand jury that investigated the case.

Henderson's father, Gerald Henderson, played in the NBA from 1979 to 1989 with the Boston Celtics and the New York Knicks.