By Naba’a Muhammad, StraightWords.com
(CHICAGO – October 6, 2024) – Now that a New York appeals court has reinstated a murder charge, State Attorney General Letitia James is ready to prosecute a former New York state trooper in the death of an 11-year-old Black girl during a high-speed chase.
The appeals court ruled against ex-trooper Christopher Baldner, saying he was responsible for dangerous, unauthorized “perilous, unsanctioned high-speed collisions.” One of those chases killed Monica Goods in New York’s Hudson Valley in December 2020.
“As a former state trooper, Christopher Baldner was responsible for serving and protecting the people of New York, but the indictment alleges that he violated that sacred oath and used his vehicle as a deadly weapon, resulting in the senseless death of a young girl,” said Attorney General James after the ruling was announced.
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“While nothing can return Monica Goods to her family’s loving arms, this decision from the court will enable my office to continue our efforts to seek some semblance of justice for the Goods family.
“We must hold law enforcement professionals to the highest standards, and we will continue our work on this case to ensure that justice is served,” she vowed.
“The court found that the Office of the Attorney General presented sufficient evidence to the grand jury that former Trooper Baldner acted with depraved indifference. While on patrol along the New York State Thruway in Ulster County in December 2020, former Trooper Baldner allegedly used his police vehicle to ram a car occupied by four members of the Goods family, resulting in the death of 11-year-old Monica Goods,” said her statement.
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“Monica would have been 15 next month. She should be here to see it. Unfortunately, her life was stolen horribly, and so was Tristina’s childhood,” said Monica’s mother, Michelle Surrency, according to the New York Daily News. She also said her elder daughter, who survived the crash, is traumatized. “I hope this criminal is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she added.
The police union, which is paying Mr. Baldner’s legal fees, wasn’t happy with the court and said it would try to appeal to higher state courts.
Mr. Baldner retired in 2022 and also faces manslaughter and other charges. Last year, a trial judge dismissed the murder charge.
“According to the Albany-based appeals court’s Sept. 19 ruling, witnesses, including Monica’s father, told a grand jury that Mr. Baldner stopped the family’s SUV, saying it was speeding on the New York State Thruway in Ulster County. The family was en route to a holiday season visit with relatives,” reported the Associated Press.
“After quarreling with the father, Mr. Baldner pepper-sprayed the inside of the SUV. The father drove off, Mr. Baldner pursued, and he twice rammed the family’s SUV, according to the ruling. The vehicle overturned multiple times, and Monica was killed,” said the newswire.
According to the ruling, Mr. Baldner told a superior that Goods’ father had repeatedly rammed his patrol car, not the other way around.
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The court also noted Mr. Baldner said the collisions were caused by the SUV, including the second one, “which caused the SUV to lose control and crash.” That was “proof tending to show that defendant was avoiding supervisory scrutiny and fabricating a record,” said the court.
The New York Daily News broke the story of the trooper’s lies via audio, falsely saying the child’s father rammed his patrol car.
The UK-based Independent published a story headlined, “New York state trooper exposed for lying about a high-speed chase that killed an 11-year-old girl.” After being pepper sprayed, “Mr. Goods then sped off, saying later he feared for his and his family’s life. … Eventually, Mr. Baldner rammed Mr. Goods’s car twice at high speed, according to a New York State Police analysis obtained as part of a series of lawsuits against Mr. Baldner.
“The rammings ejected one of Mr. Goods’s daughters, Monica, who wasn’t wearing a seat belt, from the car, killing her. In the audio obtained by the Daily News, the trooper can be heard claiming it was Mr. Goods who rammed his car,” said the Independent.
“ ‘Please help me, my baby’s dying man,’ Mr. Goods pleads later in the recording once the officer caught up with his crashed car on the side of the road. ‘Please. These my girls, I love them, man.’
“ ‘You f***ing hit me with the f***ing car,’ Baldner says.
“ ‘I didn’t hit you,’ Mr. Goods replies. ‘I swear to God,’ ” reported the Independent.
Mr. Baldner, free on $100,000 bail, is awaiting a trial date.
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Chronogram Magazine, which covers New York’s Hudson Valley Region, reported, “After Monica’s death, Michelle Surrency launched a campaign called Justice for Monica Goods, and community activists in Ulster County collectively mobilized around the issue. … The activists say there have been countless unnecessary traffic stops by New York State Police and police in Kingston and Ulster County, and that those stops and other police incidents have long targeted people of color.”
The Times Union, in Albany, N.Y., reported on state and federal civil lawsuits against the trooper, New York State Police, and the girl’s father by her mother. The lawsuits were filed in 2022. Ms. Surrency was not in the vehicle when her daughter died.
The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Albany, charges Mr. Baldner acted aggressively and cursed during his interaction with Monica’s father. According to Times Union reporting on the suit, “The complaint also claims Baldner violated State Police pursuit policy by ramming the minivan without first getting approval from a supervisor and that the vehicle posed no danger to Baldner or anyone else when he rammed it. The second time Baldner rammed the minivan, it flipped into the opposite lanes of the Thruway, ejecting Monica Goods, who was then crushed by the tumbling vehicle, according to the lawsuit. Her 12-year-old sister, who was also injured in the crash, was aware at the scene that her sister had died.”
“The lawsuits also bring up two previously reported incidents, in 2017 and 2019, in which Baldner allegedly rammed vehicles on the Thruway, arguing the State Police exhibited ‘deliberate indifference’ in not addressing the two prior collisions, ‘emboldening’ Baldner to ram vehicles again,” said the Times Union.
“We now look forward to the trial and full justice for this horrible wrongful death, which never should have happened,” said lawyer Sanford Rubenstein, who represents Ms. Surrency in civil lawsuits against Baldner and the state.
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