Bank Officer Defarra Gaymon Killed by Cop Gunning for Gays at Parks

 1.  Follow up after funeral                                       The detective is 29-year-old Edward Esposito, of Morris County, who in May was awarded a medal of merit -- along with three other officers -- for his part in trying to break up an attempted carjacking in November. He was also, at one point, the driver for Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, who attended the award ceremony.

 2. /2011/01/ceo-defarra-gaymon-shot-dead-           

  The two links above are both two of the four or more I’ve posted through the years. To have a decent man, loved by his mom, family, neighbors, coworker and friends and be shot by s stupid homophobic cop because he found him in the park in Jersey where there was cruising of gays. What ever Mr. Gaymon was doing is none of any cops concern. He had a right to be there.  This officer Esposito was gunning for gays, he had no other worthwhile thing to do. He was the no.1 “officer’ doing this. You most wonder why. I have and come up with just one conclusion.

To pay a law enforcement officer to go to parks looking and encouraging guys that sometimes have no other place to go, to go after ‘them' so they can be handcuffed, humiliated, loss of jobs, dishonor to their families. There is something Sado-Machistic in that.

The superiors of this little excuse of a man that everyone calls “Officer Esposito” the media doesn’t even uses his first name. This Officer Esposito shot this man. I never gave up, but this is been way too long.  3 years. Why does it take this long to bring a shooter to trial? Im glad I can pick up the trail again and print anything that comes out. I hope I can report that this Esposito get his 25 to life. 

DeFarra Gaymon was shot to death in Newark’s Branch Brook Park on July 16, 2010.

BY DUNCAN OSBORNE | New documents filed in a lawsuit suggest that a sheriff’s deputy may have had DeFarra Gaymon under control just before he shot and killed the unarmed man during a 2010 public sex sting in a Newark park.

“Officer Esposito chased decedent Gaymon to a pond located within the park,” wrote Christopher W. Kinum, the attorney for the Gaymon family, in an amended complaint filed in federal court on February 15. “Decedent Gaymon got down on his knees. At this point, decedent Gaymon had no avenue of escape due to the pond being in front of him… Officer Esposito approached decedent Gaymon from behind. Defendant Officer Esposito kicked decedent Gaymon several times.”

Amended complaint in 2010 DeFarra Gaymon death points to statement sheriff’s deputy Edward Esposito made days later

The complaint asserts that Edward Esposito, a sheriff’s deputy in the Essex County Sheriff’s Office, then drew his gun and fired a single shot into the 48-year-old Gaymon’s stomach, killing him.

“At the time he was shot, Defarra was unarmed and helpless, and in no way posed a threat to Defendant Officer Esposito’s safety or to the safety of any other persons,” wrote Kinum, who wrote in a separate brief that he was relying on “Officer Esposito’s written statement made three days after the shooting.”

That statement has not been made public.

The killing occurred in Newark’s Branch Brook Park on July 16, 2010. In 2011, an Essex County grand jury declined to indict Esposito on any criminal charges. The Gaymon family sued Esposito, the county, the sheriff’s office, and two senior officers in that office in 2011. The amended complaint names additional sheriff’s officers.

In a 2011 statement, the Essex County prosecutor’s office said the chase led to the pond, with Gaymon repeatedly threatening Esposito, and that Gaymon “then lunged at and attempted to disarm the officer while reaching into his own pocket. Fearing for his life, the officer discharged his service weapon, hitting Mr. Gaymon once.”

Esposito and his partner were in plainclothes and conducting a public sex sting. Just prior to the shooting, they fought with another man and Esposito lost his handcuffs. After that first man was secured, Esposito went back into the park to retrieve his handcuffs when he encountered Gaymon, who was “who was engaged in a sex act at the time,” according to the prosecutor’s statement.

Esposito is the sole witness to the killing.

In 2009, Esposito was involved in three public sex arrests that also turned violent. Resisting arrest was charged in another two Esposito arrests that year. Gaymon was the head of an Atlanta credit union and was in Newark to attend his high school reunion. He was married with four children.

These new facts make the circumstances of the killing murkier. None of the parties in the lawsuit responded to emails seeking an explanation or comment. The prosecutor’s office referred questions to the attorney representing the county.

“How did DeFarra Gaymon end up dead?” said William Dobbs, a longtime gay activist who has followed the case closely. “The latest court papers are alarming. Let’s hope some truth comes out. On a beautiful, sunny day, how and why did an unarmed man get killed?”

It is possible that Kinum has selected facts that are most favorable to his clients just as Esposito may have colored his facts or even lied to present himself in the best light.

An equally likely explanation is that Esposito invited Gaymon and other men to expose themselves or touch him, then arrested them when they did. That trick –– which would make the exposure or groping legal under New Jersey law –– might have made the men angry enough to fight back. They might also have believed that a man who seconds earlier had urged them to engage in sexual conduct was not a police officer, but posed a threat of some kind, leading them to react with violence.

Garden State Equality, New Jersey’s statewide gay lobby, was still reviewing the court documents as Gay City News went to press. That group has questioned the shooting and the investigation into the shooting repeatedly.