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NY court reseals records in case of off-duty NYPD officer who fatally shot Delrawn Small
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Mar 29, 2025
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Erik McGregor/LightRocket via Getty Images
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Mar 29, 2025
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Court records in the case of an off-duty NYPD officer who shot and killed an unarmed man should not have been unsealed, a state appellate court ruled this week, as the officer faces a disciplinary trial.
The ruling is the latest development in a years-long legal battle over whether NYPD officer Wayne Isaacs — who remains on the force — will face discipline for the 2016 killing of Delrawn Small in front of his family.
Isaacs was acquitted of murder and manslaughter charges in 2017, but the city’s police watchdog, the Civilian Complaint Review Board, planned to use court records from the case in an NYPD administrative trial. The board did not respond to multiple requests for comment from Gothamist.
Smalls' younger brother, Victor Dempsey, told Gothamist he was “shocked” and “blindsided” by the court ruling, which overturned a March 2023 state Supreme Court decision to unseal the records.
“Not shocked because of them overturning it. I was more shocked because we are still having to adjust hurdles and fight for accountability,” Dempsey said. “It's just another thing we have to deal with, y’know?”
NYPD Officer Wayne Isaacs has maintained he fired in self-defense when Small approached his car on July 4, 2016. The Appellate Court’s ruling cites a complaint to the review board saying Small was driving on Atlantic Avenue with his girlfriend, their infant son and the girlfriend’s teenage daughter when Small cut him off. When Small got out of his car at a red light and approached Isaacs’ vehicle, Isaacs shot him three times, got out of his own car, and called 911, it says.
A jury acquitted Isaacs of all charges and he returned to full duty as a police officer in 2018 after the NYPD’s Use of Force Review Board didn’t find any violation of department policy. A CCRB review found Isaacs had committed misconduct.
Isaacs unsuccessfully tried to get the agency's investigation dismissed in 2022, but then-NYPD Commissioner Keechant Sewell agreed to let the proceedings move forward.
In its ruling Wednesday, the State Supreme Court, Second Appellate Division, rejected a lower court decision and arguments from the CCRB that it needed the records from Isaacs' 2017 trial to pursue a disciplinary case. It said the agency didn’t demonstrate the kind of extraordinary circumstances that would justify letting a court unseal them.
The court said the watchdog agency didn’t demonstrate that it had exhausted other means of gathering testimony from witnesses — and already had received some relative documents in the case from the NYPD.
“The CCRB was able to conduct its investigation, determine that the defendant had committed misconduct, and recommend that he face charges before it moved to unseal the records,” the court wrote.
Patrick Hendry, who heads the Police Benevolent Association praised the ruling in a statement.
“By attempting to strip police officers of the fundamental due process rights afforded to every other New Yorker, CCRB has demonstrated once again that they have no interest whatsoever in fairness or justice,” he said. “Their goal is to completely dismantle the NYPD by making it impossible for police officers to take and keep this job.”
Dempsey told Gothamist the court ruling adds another obstacle to their legal quest.
“It’s not just us proving that this guy murdered our brother — it’s us also holding the city accountable,” he said.
Tagged
nypd
public safety
homicides
brooklyn
Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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