Snake eyes for Bell pal in gambling raid

BY WARREN WOODBERRY JR.

One of the men wounded in the fatal police shooting of Sean Bell answered three outstanding warrants in Queens criminal court yesterday - after he was busted inside an illegal Harlem gambling den, authorities said.

Trent Benefield, 23, was on crutches and leaning against a dice table about 9 p.m. Thursday when cops raided the gambling den on the second floor of a W. 128th St. building, a police source said.

He was among 36 people issued a loitering summons. After cops issued Benefield the summons, they found he had three outstanding warrants for minor infractions for trespassing, disorderly conduct and carrying an open container of alcohol.

The trespassing and disorderly conduct charges were dismissed yesterday when Benefield went to court, and a judge will handle the open-container violation next month, according to Benefield's attorney, Michael Hardy.

"My client denies doing anything improper," Hardy said.

Benefield and Joseph Guzman, 31, were in Bell's car on Nov. 25 when five undercover cops fired 50 shots into the vehicle near the Kalua Cabaret strip club in Jamaica. Bell, Benefield and Guzman were not armed.

Benefield and Guzman, who were both wounded, have said cops never identified themselves before firing. The officers involved in the case, who insist they followed procedure, have been placed on leave pending the outcome of a grand jury probe. 
December 30, 2006