QUEENS--A cleaning crew supervisor at the Port Authority's Jamaica Air Train Station has been charged with tampering with a witness during the Queens Grand Jury investigation into the Sean Bell police shooting.

"One of the major purposes of grand jury secrecy is to obtain the full cooperation of witnesses and to protect them from outside interference that might affect their testimony", Queens district attorney Richard Brown said.

Melvin Cordero, 46, of Brooklyn, is a supervisor of Meridian Cleaning in Jamaica, Queens, a Port Authority subcontractor. He was arraigned before Queens Criminal Court Judge Robert M. Raciti on the charges of two counts of third-degree intimidating a victim or witness, a class E-felony, two counts of second-degree coercion and two counts of fourth-degree tampering with a witness. If convicted, he faces up to four years in prison.

Brown said that, according to a criminal court complaint, between Nov. 25, 2006 and March 16, following the Sean Bell police shooting, in front of the Jamaica Air Train Station, the defendant on numerous occasions told one of his employees, a cleaner and alleged witness to the shooting, to not tell anyone what occurred on Nov. 25, in relation to a police shooting under investigation by a Queens Grand Jury or he would go to jail, be deported and get fired.

Cordero is additionally alleged to have on March 15, at about 1:30 p.m., called the witness on his cell phone and stated, "Don't testify, you are going to get fired, go to jail and be deported." The defendant is further alleged, on that same day, March 15 at 10 p.m., called the witness on his cell phone and stated, "The building is full of blacks that are going to kill you and you are going to be deported and fired," causing the employee fear of physical harm and losing his job.

Cordero was arrested by detectives of the Port Authority Police Department after the victim had made a complaint to his manager about the Cordero's alleged intimidation and the PAPD referred the matter to the District Attorney's Integrity Bureau.

Bail was set at $5,000 bond/$2,500 cash and a return date set for April 2.

Cordero allegedly made an oral statement to a Port Authority detective after his arrest, stating, "I opened up my big mouth and I shouldn't have and all I was trying to do was save my job. I told him he could be deported and he was going to be arrested and fired. I have a criminal record and I didn't want the job to find out that I had a criminal record."

Bell was shot and killed by plainclothes New York Police Department detectives on Nov. 25 as he and two friends were leaving Bell's bachelor party at a strip club in Jamaica, Queens. Three of the five detectives involved in the shooting have been indicted.

Officer Gescard Isnora, who fired the first shot, and Officer Michael Oliver, who fired 31 of the 50 shots, face charges of manslaughter, reckless endangerment and assault while Detective Marc Cooper faces the lesser charge of two counts of reckless endangerment.

All three detectives pleaded not guilty at their March 19 arraignment. Isnora and Oliver were released on bail and Cooper was released on his own recognizance. 3-30-07

© 2007 North Country Gazette