ADAMS STREET — Shamel Bey, a Moorish National representing himself in a felony trial, presented his opening arguments and diced police officers on cross examination yesterday.

Bey, 32, was arrested and charged with second-degree criminal possession of a weapon and shot in the foot by police Feb. 28, 2001. He has been in jail since his arrest and could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted in a trial before Justice Abraham Gerges.

The defendant’s brother described Moors as a black nationalist organization that seeks to provide African-Americans with the nationalist heritage which was stripped from them when their ancestors were brought here and sold as slaves. Bey believes he has to represent himself in court to be recognized as a Moor, his brother told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Last week, his poor courtroom manners and evident lack of legal training in pretrial hearings drew both cynical and sympathetic court watchers convinced he was constructing his own gallows. However, Bey, wearing a T-shirt and maroon fez, showed a surprising sharpness once the trial got under way. “I was walking down the street, minding my own business, and I was shot,” Bey said in his opening statement.

Assistant District Attorney Vinoo Varghese said a confidential informant told police a man fitting Bey’s description was carrying a gun on Stone Street in Brownsville. Two officers were sent out, and when they spotted Bey, one plainclothes officer showed him the badge and a gun on his belt by lifting his jacket, Varghese said.

Bey sipped something from a bagged bottle (later identified as soda), and the officer told Bey he could not drink beer on the street, Varghese said.

Bey said he did not see the officer’s badge, so he kept walking, trying to ignore the stranger.

Though the officer, Detective James Kuhlmeier, denied it, Bey argued that the man pulled his gun out when Bey tried to walk away.

“That’s why I ran, because I didn’t know who this man actually was,” said Bey.

A foot race between Bey and Kuhlmeier ended in a sand pit in a housing development, where Bey fell and took his gun out, Varghese said. Kuhlmeier, left with nowhere to hide, pulled out his own gun and shot Bey in the foot, the prosecutor said.

“I think he’s doing very well,” Bey’s court-appointed legal advisor, Michael Harrison said outside the courtroom.

Varghese admitted proper police protocol was not followed in reference to the handling of the gun once it was recovered, but Bey seemed determined to undermine the officers’ work in other ways as well.

After Bey was shot and his gun lay on the ground next to him, Kuhlmeier asked the other officer on the scene to find his radio, which had fallen from his pocket in the chase, Varghese said. But since a crowd had gathered, she did not want to leave the gun, and picked it up and took it with her in violation of police policy, the assistant district attorney said.

No fingerprints were found on the gun when investigators got it, and Bey said the weapon did not show up in a police lab for three days.

Bey intimated in his opening argument and in a hearing yesterday morning that since the confidential informant would not testify, police could show no cause for approaching him on the street at the beginning of the incident.

The officer who spoke with the confidential informant said he had no written record of their conversation and admitted he was unsure how long or at what time they spoke.

“Why don’t you have a memo book?” Bey asked the officer.

At that point, Harrison looked into the gallery and smiled proudly.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2004