NEW YORK – Prosecutors in New York on Tuesday dropped charges filed against Amy Cooper, the white woman who called 911 on a Black bird-watcher in Central Park last year, after she completed a therapeutic educational program on racial equality, according to multiple reports.
Assistant District Attorney Joan Illuzzi said in court that the decision to dismiss the charges stemmed from Cooper’s lack of a criminal background. Prosecutors asked a judge in court Tuesday to dismiss one count of filing a false report against Cooper, The New York Times reported.
“We offered her, consistent with our position on many misdemeanor cases involving a first arrest, an alternate, restorative justice resolution,” Illuzzi said, according to CNN. “(The resolution was) designed not just to punish but to educate and promote community healing.”
In a statement posted on Twitter, Cooper’s attorney, Robert Barnes, thanked prosecutors for their “thorough & honest inquiry” into the May 2020 incident.
“We thank them for their integrity & concur (with) the outcome,” Barnes wrote. “Others rushed to the wrong conclusion based on inadequate investigation & they may yet face legal consequences.”
Authorities charged Cooper in July with third-degree falsely reporting an incident after she called 911 to report that Christian Cooper was threatening her life. Video shot by Christian Cooper, who is not related to Amy Cooper, showed he had commented about her dog being unleashed in an area of Central Park known as the Ramble. Dogs are supposed to be leashed in the area.
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In the video, Amy Cooper can be heard threatening to call police and “tell them there’s an African American man threatening my life” although no such altercation occurred.
