The St. Anthony police officer who shot and killed Philando Castile last July during a traffic stop has agreed to leave his job with the city.
Jeronimo Yanez will receive $48,500 and any unused personal leave pay he is due from the city as part of a voluntary separation agreement he signed on Monday, according to documents provided by the city of St. Anthony.
St. Anthony officials announced they would offer Yanez such an agreement immediately after a Ramsey County jury found him not guilty of manslaughter in Castile’s death on June 16. The 2016 shooting prompted weeks of protests in the Twin Cities and elsewhere.
“The City concluded this was the most thoughtful way to move forward and help the community-wide healing process proceed,” St. Anthony officials said in a news release issued Monday afternoon. “Since Officer Yanez was not convicted of a crime, as a public employee, he would have appeal and grievance rights if terminated.”
Yanez waived these rights by signing the separation agreement, which “brings to a close one part of this horrible tragedy,” the statement reads.
The five-page agreement stipulates that Yanez’s decision to sign it does not constitute an admission of any wrongdoing on his part, but that he and St. Anthony “agree that the public will be best served if you are no longer a police officer in the City.”
The agreement prohibits Yanez from disclosing its terms to anyone except his immediate family, financial advisers and attorneys. It lists his official date of separation as June 30, 2017.
Yanez shot Castile, a 32-year-old black man, during a traffic stop in Falcon Heights on July 6, 2016. Yanez, who is Hispanic, was put on leave from the St. Anthony Police Department and later charged by Ramsey County prosecutors in Castile’s death — likely making him the first Minnesota officer in modern memory taken to trial for such an incident.
Yanez testified during the trial that Castile ignored his orders and was gripping his gun when the officer shot. Prosecutors, as well as Castile’s girlfriend Diamond Reynolds, said Castile was trying to get his wallet so he could hand over the driver’s license the officer had just requested when Yanez shot him.
Yanez, 29, was acquitted on manslaughter and other related charges last month after the three-week trial in St. Paul. St. Anthony announced after the acquittal, though, it would part ways with Yanez. He had been an officer in the city for about four years.
After the trial, St. Anthony reached a $3 million settlement with Castile’s mother, Valerie Castile, precluding a wrongful death lawsuit.
Source: http://www.twincities.com