surprised everyone in the courtroom, especially the prosecution team, by calling the defendant himself to the stand. let s go to the courtroom now live, where gary spath is testifying in his own behalf. mike: we didn t know that gary spath would testify as the trial began. there was some concern on the part of spath s defense attorney robert galantucci, that spath may not be able to handle testifying. he had left the police department. his career was in tatters. he was also facing the possibility that he could be convicted. male: do you swear the testimony you re about to give shall be the truth the whole truth, and nothing but the truth so help you god? patuto: some of the lawyers saying, oh, you never put the defendant on because he could be cross-examined. well, you know, i never subscribe to that, except in rare cases. the jury wants to hear from a police officer. they have to hear from a police officer because if it s left out, you re not going to get his side of the story.
these aren t all the serious side effects. now i m back where i belong. ask your doctor if latuda is right for you. pay as little as zero dollars for your first prescription. whenever heartburn strikes get fast relief with tums. it s time to love food back. tum tum tum tum tums jackie: i don t think the town ever healed from that time.. you know, when gary spath was acquitted, i think part of me thought well, the black community should now understand, he was acquitted.
mike: one of the most important elements of gary spath s career was never really introduced in the trial, and that was the fact that he had a very questionable record of using his gun. each of those shootings raised questions about his fitness to be an officer and whether, in fact, he was making the right decisions. reporter: in october 1985, he shot in the air at an escaping robbery suspect against police guidelines. in december of 1986, he shot at a burglary suspect who jumped out a window. in january of 89, he shot at a suspect on drugs while the suspect s five year old child was in the car. mike: his shooting a phillip pannell was his fourth shooting in five years. that is almost unheard of. loretta: gary spath was responsible for more than his share of unholstering his gun. there should have been a very large red flag. jackie: i did learn that there had been some problems when he used his gun and maybe should not have.
but again, i felt that what happened on april 10th was not some trigger happy police officer running around looking for a black person to harass or even worse. i felt that it was a tragic mistake. luis: well, what we learned at the academy was the only time you draw your weapon and shoot it, is to prevent the imminent threat of death or bodily harm to yourself or someone else. william: police officers could go their entire careers and never shoot their gun at all. when you have 16 firearm discharges by officers in the whole county, then you have one officer who has three of them. that s probably one of the failings that something like that wasn t examined and evaluated, not to punish
thwilliam: what happened inn, teaneck, it s tragedy. you know, you see that you have two families devastated. i was so saddened for the pannells that they lost a child and at the same time, i was sad for gary spath, who his life is devastated. gary spath left the courtroom a free man, but pannell s death took its toll. he retired shortly after the acquittal on a stress related disability. patuto: he had to leave the police department. he had to lead north jersey. his family was traumatized and. forget the case. his actions had killed a young man and that traumatized him, too. reporter: five years after the shooting, it remained very much on his mind. spath: every day. every day.