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A retired NYPD Crime Scene Unit detective who processed the site of the Sean Bell shooting weathered a storm of questions Monday from a defense attorney attempting to establish the possibility of a disorganized and insufficient investigation.

Det. David Rivera, who served with the Jamaica-based CSU for more than six years, was grilled Monday morning by James Culleton, attorney for Det. Michael Oliver, about crime scene access and several key pieces of evidence.

Culleton displayed to the court three photographs taken at three different angles of the site of the collision between Bell’s Nissan Altima and the police’s unmarked Ford Freestar. While Rivera snapped more than 100 photos of the entire scene, he admitted he did not know who took the three photos, nor could he identify individuals captured in the photos with cameras in their hands.

Culleton went on to show 27 more photos of the scene. Again, Rivera had never seen them before and did not know who took them.

Rivera said he was developing a sketch of the crime scene at the time the photos were taken, and noted that he was not responsible for any entry/exit log documenting personnel movements in and out of the scene. No log was found.
Rivera also stated he was not made aware that an ambulance had driven through the crime scene, or that bullets fell out of Joseph Guzman’s clothes as he was being extricated from the front passenger seat of the Altima.

Culleton hammered Rivera for not noticing quickly enough a plastic bag with smaller plastic baggies inside containing “a green, leafy substance” on the ground near a tree. The bag sat in liquid resembling antifreeze for some time before being sent to the police lab for latent fingerprint analysis.

Some of the photos Culleton displayed showed the Freestar with damage to the front driver’s side bumper, the Altima’s front license plate and part of its grill lying in the street behind the Altima, and significant damage to the Altima’s rear bumper. This lent credence to the defense’s assertion that the Altima collided with the Freestar twice – causing detectives to think the vehicle was being used as a weapon.

Rivera admitted he did not examine either bumper of either vehicle, nor did he ask that any of them be sent to the lab for paint-transfer analysis. He also said he did not take any paint samples from a doorway roll-gate on a building on the east sidewalk of Liverpool Street. The defense claims Bell reversed into the gate just before colliding with the Freestar the second time.

Oliver and Det. Gescard “Jesse” Isnora are on trial for manslaughter, assault and reckless endangerment. Det. Marc Cooper is facing two counts of reckless endangerment. Five officers fired 50 shots in a barrage that killed Bell and injured Guzman and Trent Benefield on Bell’s wedding day.