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| A police officer cries after laying flowers in memory of Officer Randolph Holder at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, Thursday, Oct. 22, 2015. Tyrone Howard is charged with first-degree murder and robbery, accused of stealing a bike and fatally shooting Holder in the head after a chase Tuesday night. |
NEW YORK
(AP) -- Arrested in a 19-person drug sweep, Tyrone Howard was one of
only three who got sent to drug court, which offered him treatment
instead of prison.
Eight months later, Howard
is behind bars on murder charges, accused of putting a bullet in the
head of a police officer who was chasing him Tuesday.
Officer
Randolph Holder's slaying has raised questions about the risks and
potential shortcomings of drug courts, or drug diversion programs, which
have been embraced nationwide as a way to ease jail overcrowding and
reduce crime by attacking it at one of its sources: drug abuse.
New
York's mayor and police commissioner have branded Howard a career
criminal who had once been arrested in a 2009 gunfight on an East Harlem
basketball court and should not have been out on the streets.
"He
would have been the last person in New York City I would've wanted to
see in the diversion program," Police Commissioner William Bratton said.
Yet
the judge who handled the case said Howard - a longtime PCP user who
despite his long rap sheet had no convictions for violent crimes - was a
compelling candidate for drug court.
"I don't
get a crystal ball when I get the robe," said state Supreme Court
Justice Edward McLaughlin. He defended his decision as "accurate and
appropriate," saying that doing time hadn't helped Howard before.
He
also said he was never made aware of the 2009 shooting case, which
records show ultimately wasn't prosecuted against Howard. A law
enforcement official who is familiar with the prosecution of the other
defendant in that shooting, and who wasn't authorized to discuss the
case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity, said there was no
eyewitness testimony placing Howard as the shooter.
Since
their start in Miami in 1989, drug diversion programs have multiplied
to 2,500 courts across the country, together handling about 120,000
cases a year, according to the federal National Office of Drug Control
Policy.
The agency calls the programs "a
proven tool for improving public health and public safety." President
Barack Obama mentioned them approvingly in a July speech, saying such
programs can save taxpayer dollars.
Drug
courts generally target nonviolent offenders who commit crimes to feed
their addictions. The courts use treatment, drug testing, incentives and
penalties to try to get defendants sober and straightened out.
"We
can hold people accountable for their dangerous actions, while at the
same time providing them with needed treatment and other services they
need to change their lives," the National Association of Drug Court
Professionals says.
Studies have credited drug
courts with reducing recidivism and drug-use relapses. Some research
estimates those reductions save society more money than the treatment
costs, though some studies have found the opposite, according to a 2011
congressional report.
But some research has
also found drug-court dropout rates of 60 percent, said David Lilley, a
criminal justice professor at the University of Toledo.
And
some prosecutors and police fear diversion sometimes ends up giving
breaks to drug dealers who claim they're addicts to avoid prison.
"It's
critically important that you get the right people" into drug court,
said Jim Pasco, executive director of the national Fraternal Order of
Police. "You're making life-changing decisions for the subject and
potentially life-threatening decisions for the public."
At
30, Howard has been arrested more than two dozen times since he was 13
and sentenced to state prison twice since 2007 for drug possession and
sale. One term came after he tried unsuccessfully for drug court in a
2011 case charging him with smoking PCP while carrying 22 bags of crack
cocaine. Howard eventually pleaded guilty to drug possession.
In
October 2014, he was charged with selling crack to an undercover
officer. He was swept up as part of a larger drug case. Prosecutors
sought six years behind bars.
But after
reviewing Howard's record, troubled home life and longtime addiction,
McLaughlin agreed to refer his case for evaluation for drug court, where
another judge OK'd Howard for the program.
McLaughlin
said he didn't learn about the 2009 gunbattle until this week. Howard
was believed to have shot and wounded another man, Dan Evans, according
to court papers. Evans was eventually convicted in the wounding of two
bystanders, plus a 2006 murder.
The record
doesn't explain why the case against Howard was dropped, and the
district attorney's office hasn't commented. But the law enforcement
official said no one identified Howard as a shooter except Evans, the
defendant.
After being approved for drug
court, Howard was released on $35,000 bail in February and pleaded
guilty to the drug charge in May.
He started
missing monthly status meetings and various court dates in August, then
became a suspect in a Sept. 1 shooting. An arrest warrant was issued
Sept. 17, and police tried 10 times to locate him, authorities said.
Then,
on Tuesday, Holder and his partner caught up with him while chasing
after a bicycle thief, police said. Holder, 33, was shot in the head;
Howard was wounded in the leg as police returned fire.
Howard's lawyer, Brian Kennedy, has said there are "a lot of missing details" in the case.
