Pubdate: Sat, 18 Mar 2000 Source: New York Post (NY) Copyright: 2000, N.Y.P. Holdings, Inc. Contact: http://nypostonline.com/ Author: Angela C. Allen, Clemente Lisi, Maggie Haberman And Dan Kadison Bookmark: MAP's link to New York articles is: http://www.mapinc.org/states/ny KIN DISMISS DEAD MAN'S RECORD AS ERRORS OF YOUTH The devastated family of an unarmed man killed by undercover cops was outraged yesterday at his depiction by the mayor and cops as a criminal with a long rap sheet. The two wildly divergent portraits of Patrick Dorismond, 26, emerged as his close-knit Haitian kin and loyal friends faced off with officials eager to avoid any comparison with the cop killing in February 1999 of unarmed African immigrant Amadou Diallo. "Police killed my son, my only son. Why do the police have to kill black men?" said Dorismond's distraught mother, Marie. "He didn't deserve to die," said fiancee Karen Sturkey, 22, with whom Dorismond had a 1-year-old daughter, Destiny. "He just went to work and came home." Sturkey, who lived with Dorismond on East 92nd Street in Brooklyn, said her fiance worked hard to provide for his youngest daughter and another daughter, 5-year-old Infiniti, whom he had with former girlfriend Dwana Sobers. He worked for the 34th Street Partnership as a security officer and also picked up work as a popular disc jockey known as Avalanche, who organized parties in a heavily Haitian section of Flatbush. The officer who fatally shot Dorismond in the chest, Detective Anthony Vasquez, and two other undercover cops who confronted Dorismond on Eighth Avenue and 37th Street in Midtown were Hispanic. A lawyer for Vasquez, Philip Karasyk, said the shooting was accidental, sparked by Dorismond "lunging" for Vasquez's gun after Dorismond punched one of the undercover cops. But friends of Dorismond doubt it, saying the security officer was hardworking and dreamed of one day becoming a cop. They said past transgressions were nothing more serious than the foolishness of youth. "He's not the type of guy who would throw the first punch," said Junior Celestin, a security guard at a store on Eighth Avenue who knew Dorismond for two years. The NYPD responded to the criticism by releasing Dorismond's past history of arrests: *Court records showed Dorismond was arrested in October 1989 and appeared in Kings County Family Court, but the record is officially sealed. *He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct and was given a conditional discharge for an Aug. 11, 1993 assault. In the incident, Dorismond punched a friend to whom he'd given $15 to buy marijuana, but who had only returned with $5 worth of the drug. *He pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct again, getting a conditional discharge along with community service, for a Jan. 11, 1996 roadway confrontation with two men who claimed Dorismond came at them with a gun and threatened them. No gun was ever found. *He was arrested for possession of a drug April 9, 1996 in a buy-and-bust operation in Brooklyn in which he allegedly told an undercover cop where to buy marijuana. The case was adjourned in contemplation of dismissal, which means after six months and no further trouble, the record is wiped clean. "He didn't commit a crime [on Thursday]," said upstairs neighbor Angela Jones, 39. "Why mention his rap sheet? He was just a very quiet guy, a very nice man." - --- MAP posted-by: Don Beck