Verdict in Praying While Black trial stuns Nassau County prosecutors

“Not Guilty.”

The Nassau District Attorney's office racked up yet another loss at trial this week in a Mineola courtroom.

Over and over, count after count, the words rang across the courtroom, clear as a bell from the jury foreman: “Not Guilty... Not Guilty... Not Guilty...”

1st Precinct Police testified they arrived at a gathering outside a house in Baldwin, with music playing and candles flickering in the dark.Photo byC.J. Teevan

Prosecutors cringed. Not Guilty on all five counts of the indictment they have been struggling to prove since they were handed down by a Grand Jury in 2020.

Done.

The complete acquittal concludes a dark 4-year saga for a family and a 5-day trial for defense attorney Joseph Lopiccolo. His client was arrested with nine friends and family members who gathered in Baldwin in May 2020, meeting at the home of their grandparents to share grief in the unexpected loss of an adored young relative.

Furnie B. "JoJo" Oden V, now 21 -- and unanimously acquitted of all criminal charges by a Nassau County jury -- had just won a college basketball scholarship when he was arrested at his grandparents’ house.

The verdict was surely a shock for prosecutors. Earlier in the week they disclosed privately they thought the trial was going "well" for them. They expected a conviction. Their first trial win. Surely it was coming.

They were wrong.

The Dean Dr house in Baldwin, raided by police in May 2020. Homeowner Furnie B. Oden III, who was also arrested, has since passed away.Photo byC.J. Teevan

The former L.I. high school basketball star faced 15 years in prison and a $15,000 fine if convicted of the 3 Felonies and 2 Misdemeanor charges: 2 counts of Assaulting police officers. Rioting. Obstructing. Resisting arrest.

Police officer after police officer testified. There was no Taser, said some. There was no pepper spray, said others. There were no batons -- not, at least, without reason.

But other witnesses testified the defendant was “punched” and “kicked” by police when cornered by cops, then zapped with a Taser in his grandparents’ kitchen. He told jurors he rushed a young cousin into the house to escape the violence that suddenly erupted when police arrived.

Police parked vehicles onto the lawn and began to attack civilians standing outside the house, several victims have testified. The cellphone video recordings backed them up.

Nassau County Police said they chased defendant JoJo Oden after one officer guessed he was the person who had hurled a bottle at a police officer. They testified that Oden confirmed when he ran into the house when he saw them approaching him.

But on the witness stand, Oden testified he wasn't running away. He took his young cousin into the house, he said, to protect him from the police.

The Nassau County 1st Precinct Police Station.Photo byC.J. Teevan

“White shirt! White shirt!” one officer yelled, pointing at the defendant, according to officers who testified how Oden became a target.

Prosecutors said it didn't matter whether Oden threw the bottle or not -- or even if he didn't injure any of the police. He was acting in concert with those who did.

“He played on the team,” said a prosecutor, describing the family that came to pray, sing and celebrate the life of a nephew, cousin, brother and friend they would never see again.

But that "played on the team" argument did not pass the smell test for the jury. 12 unanimously concluded that Furnie Oden V was Not Guilty of any of the criminal charges against him.

It's the final chapter in a story of deepest sorrow, a mother’s darkest nightmare shared in a Facebook post: She had just given consent to take her son off life support.

One by one, family members agreed to meet in Baldwin. They would celebrate together the life of Donnell Moses with a candle-lighting ceremony and the music he loved.

If only he could be there.

The defendant's grandmother, Barbara Oden, also testified. Mrs. Oden described the green balloons her family released in the afternoon sun -- "his favorite color" -- while they played Donnell's music. Barbara Oden had spent the day in her kitchen cooking -- the same room that police would later Taze and pepper-spray her grandson while children screamed in terror in the next room.

Mug Shot: Furnie "JoJo" Oden V, was 18 years old when this mug shot was taken. He had just won a college basketball scholarship.Photo byNassau County Police Mug Shot

Nassau County Police insisted it was only a routine response to a “complaint”.

Police cars blocked off the street, parked outside the house, and drove vehicles across the lawn after Furnie Oden III explained they were holding a “memorial service” and a “prayer vigil” for his grandson.

Candles flickering at the curb would later appear in Newsday with a story describing the police raid as a "disturbance". The 10 arrests were heavily covered in the press the next day. Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly circulated the names, ages, charges and mug shots of the arrested people in a press release. There was no reference to the dieing young man or the vigil.

Fearing conviction and costly legal fees, some of those arrested that night agreed to take the DA's plea offers.

Police brought violence to 800 Dean Dr that night, lawyer Joseph Lopiccolo told a jury. "Physical evidence doesn't support what they say."Photo byScott RodgersononUnsplash

But not all of them.

Grandfather Furnie Oden III -- married to Barbara Oden -- was also arrested. He demanded a trial, determined to prove his innocence. But he passed away before that ever happened.

That turned out to be the only trial prosecutors didn't lose.

Grandson Jaquan Oden also rejected his plea deal to plead guilty to disorderly conduct, an infraction. At trial last year, Jaquan Oden was acquitted of all criminal charges with his co-defendant uncle, Furnie Oden IV -- father of the tall, basketball-playing defendant JoJo Oden.

Desperate to secure a conviction, prosecutors insisted JoJo Oden must be guilty because his family did not take cellphone videos depicting the loud, violent "disturbance" police said they shut down.

Prosecutors also described the entire family as lawbreakers with "an anti-police mentality" who lie under oath to help each other.

Family members gathered to grieve the loss of 24-year-old Donnell Moses, who was being taken off life support.Photo byAlexander GreyonUnsplash

Police testified that they were attacked by the family during a "riot", resulting in injuries to two police officers -- a Felony. Prosecutors noted -- and witnesses confirmed -- the "odor of Marijuana" and drinking outside the house. Marijuana possession was at that time unlawful, but a violation -- not a crime that would justify arrest.

Drinking alcohol on private property has been legal since Prohibition.

The defendant's grandmother testified she was drinking wine that night when police suddenly blocked off her street and began tearing up her front lawn with marked vehicles. Several videos recorded loud screams and crying children in the background with police yelling orders to "Get back! Get back!"

Police maintained that the "rioters" unlawfully interfered with their arrest of Jaquan Oden. But cellphone videos collected that night showed otherwise.

The anguished brother of Donnell Moses, Jaquan Oden spent hours by the candles, gazing into them, sometimes talking out loud to his deceased sibling, family members testified.

Until he was arrested.

Police said they saw bottles thrown and heard the sound of breaking glass. Crime scene photos however would show no broken glass.Photo byRoss SneddononUnsplash

Witnesess testified that Jaquan Oden did his best to ignore police when they drove onto the grass near him. He kept ignoring them when they confronted him. Then, according to his uncle Furnie Oden V on the witness stand, Jaquan made an obscene remark.

That got him arrested, offending the police. It was a turning point of the evening, triggering insults and obscenities from the angry, offended family.

Oden IV -- a retired U.S. Marine -- called 911 when his sister fainted. As he pleaded for help, the call recorded 3 1/2 minutes of police punching and kicking civilians, then Oden's panic when he discovered his son -- defendant Furnie V, "Jo-Jo" -- on the kitchen floor lying stiffly with "his eyes bulging out".

"I thought he was dead," Oden IV said.

Testifying this week, JoJo Oden V rated his pain from the Taser "10" on a scale of 1-10.

Police said they had to lift him off the floor and carry him outside, placing him down on the grass before handcuffing him.

Then Oden V, too, was arrested. The arrest ended his 9-1-1 call for an ambulance.

The Baldwin home of Mr. and Mrs. Furnie Oden III was this large family's headquarters. Barbara Oden testified she has 30+ grandchildren.Photo byC.J. Teevan

"They arrested so many people they ran out of handcuffs," attorney Lopiccolo noted for the jury. Police need at least 10 arrests for the Felony "Rioting" charge to apply.

Predictably, prosecutors accused witnesses of lying. The defendant’s grandmother was asked if she loved her family, then asked to confirm that she would lie to protect them.

Then came challenges to testimony by the defendant’s father.

Grilling Furnie Oden IV, a retired Marine, about the Taser wire and spent cartridge police left in the kitchen, the prosecutor concluded that Oden IV doesn't understand "Nassau County Police Department issued Tasers." He was not trained in these Tasers "so you don' t know how they work."

Oden IV shot back: "I do know how to use a Taser! I'm a Marine!"

Judge Terence Murphy stuck to the court schedule and grew weary when prosecutors rephrased questions over and over looking for different answers. "Asked and answered," he said several times. "Next question." "That's it."

The Oden house, Baldwin. Juries have acquitted all defendants of criminal charges; a 2023 disorderly conduct violation is being appealed.Photo byC.J. Teevan

In perhaps the lowest point of the trial, a confused prosecutor questioned Furnie Oden IV about a non-existent criminal record in Georgia for battery. Oden IV does not have a criminal history. The judge called a bench conference and the subject was dropped.

It was onloy a matter of hours before the jury was done deliberating. Just past 2:15 p.m. Thursday, prosecutors and defense were notified the verdict had been reached. Count by count, the Oden family heard the words they have been waiting to hear for four years.

The defendant's mother began to cry.

Outside the courtroom, the grateful parents clutched their son. Stoic prosecutors marched by, silent -- all that work, all that preparation, they never guessed they'd lose this trial, too.

Maybe next time.

Happiness is ...: Furnie "JoJo" Oden V, with his mother (in tears) and father (all smiles) outside the courthouse after yesterday's verdict.Photo byC.J. Teevan