Law&Crime Sidebar - Reckless Teen Runs Over Cop, Claims Father's Diplomat Status Grants Immunity: Authorities

Episode Date: February 5, 2024

Avraham Gil, 19, is accused of intentionally running down a Florida police officer because he “hates waiting in traffic.” Gil’s attorneys claimed the teen was protected from prosecution by his father’s status as consul for the Israeli Consulate, but the U.S. State Department disagreed. Law&Crime’s Jesse Weber discusses it all with criminal defense attorney Melba Pearson.PLEASE SUPPORT THE SHOW: This episode of Sidebar is sponsored by BetterHelp. Give online therapy a try at https://www.betterhelp.com/sidebar and get on your way to being your best self!HOST:Jesse Weber: https://twitter.com/jessecordweberLAW&CRIME SIDEBAR PRODUCTION:YouTube Management - Bobby SzokePodcasting - Sam GoldbergVideo Editing - Michael DeiningerScript Writing & Producing - Savannah WilliamsonGuest Booking - Alyssa Fisher & Diane KayeSocial Media Management - Vanessa BeinSTAY UP-TO-DATE WITH THE LAW&CRIME NETWORK:Watch Law&Crime Network on YouTubeTV: https://bit.ly/3td2e3yWhere To Watch Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3akxLK5Sign Up For Law&Crime's Daily Newsletter: https://bit.ly/LawandCrimeNewsletterRead Fascinating Articles From Law&Crime Network: https://bit.ly/3td2IqoLAW&CRIME NETWORK SOCIAL MEDIA:Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lawandcrime/Twitter: https://twitter.com/LawCrimeNetworkFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/lawandcrimeTwitch: https://www.twitch.tv/lawandcrimenetworkTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lawandcrimeSee Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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will keep you on the edge of your seat. Don't let your fears take hold of you as you dive into this addictive series. Love thrillers with a paranormal twist? The entire Oracle trilogy is available on Audible. Listen now on Audible. A 19-year-old hoping to avoid felony charges by using his father's potential status as a diplomat at his hopes dashed by the court system. We break down what he's accused of doing to a police officer near Miami, allegedly because he hates waiting in traffic, with criminal law attorney, Elba Pearson. Welcome to Sidebar, presented by law and crime. I'm Jesse Weber. So this is a little bit of a different story for us. In fact, the legal issue we're going to be talking about, I don't think we've ever talked about here on Sidebar,

now that I'm thinking about it. Let's go to Florida, because police who patrol Sunny Isles Beach, Florida, not very far from Miami. They say that a young man on a motorcycle was weaving in and out of cars, stopped in traffic on January 27th. And that is when an officer tried to get him to stop. This motorcyclist allegedly continued to ride toward the officer and intentionally ran him over. That's the allegation that intentionally ran him over. Now, the officer did sustain an injury to his leg after being hit, but he was able to

grab the motorcyclist, 19-year-old Avraham Gill, grabbed him off the bike, took him to the ground, Gil wasn't injured in his arrest. he did take quite the mugshot, though, where he appears to be sobbing, so that's pretty interesting to see. Now, according to a police report, Gil, quote, spontaneously uttered that he was sorry and that he was driving in between vehicles to cut in front of the line because he hates waiting behind traffic. Of course, that's complete justification.

Everybody loves traffic. While he was slapped with two felony charges, aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer, and resisting an officer with violence, police also said, that his motorcycle didn't have a license plate and that he was driving without a valid license. Now, you might be saying, this is an interesting story, but I don't get it. What is so crazy about this? Why do you say it's so unique? That is where it gets me to the second part.

Because during a bond hearing the following day, Gil's attorneys tried to argue that the charges should be dropped because Miami-Dade County law doesn't apply to him. Avraham Gill is the son of Israeli consulate consul for administration in Miami, Eli Gil. And he argued that therefore, he has diplomatic immunity, meaning the laws don't apply to him. Quick primer on that. So diplomatic immunity, it's usually granted to diplomats. It exempts them from the laws of a foreign country. This really came about from the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations. Most countries have ratified this. Diplomats, they're granted almost total immunity from criminal prosecution or civil lawsuits. These actions in foreign countries,

In the United States, diplomatic community is governed under the Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978. There are only limited exceptions where this wouldn't apply, like, if it concerns property or succession or any professional or commercial activity that is done outside of the diplomat's official duties. None of that applies here. What is interesting, and where this does get interesting, is that while Gil was released on bail, his argument about diplomatic community was next. Yeah, the State Department released the statement saying, quote, the Department is aware of this incident. We can confirm that as the dependent of an Israeli consular officer, the concerned individual is not entitled to civil or criminal immunity.

So the argument here is whether Eli Gill would be considered an actual diplomatic agent or just the consul of the embassy. And does this apply to his son? There is a distinction here. Consular immunity carries far fewer protections than the immunity given to full-fledged diplomatic agents make sense because diplomats are really about having communication between the different countries. They have a larger role.

All right. To talk more about this, to make sense of all of this, because I know it could be confusing. It's confusing to me. Let me bring in our expert on this, criminal law attorney, Melba Pearson. Melba, good to see you. First of all, let me just say, when I was thinking about this, do you know what the first thing that came into my mind? Have you ever seen lethal weapon to when the guy goes diplomatic immunity?

And then he, you know, what was it, Danny Glover shoots him in the head. He's like, you know, it's been revoked. I just thought about that. But anyway, good to see you. This is a real life situation. What do you make of this? Yeah, so Jesse, always great to see you. And one of the key things to remember is that the U.S.

Department of State is the one that decides whether or not someone can be granted immunity. And also, the host country can have discussions with the country that's sent for person over. So for instance, in this case, it's the country of Israel. Basically, Israel can say, you know what? We don't support people running over police officers. So therefore, I'm not going to give you immunity in this situation and you will face prosecution in the host country. So, you know, there's a lot of different aspects that have to be considered when you're trying to put a case like this together, when the police department may call you as a prosecutor, seeking advice as to, can I arrest this person? Can I move forward? These are some of the nuances that

come up, not often, but they do come up and you have to be aware of, you know, the laws and the rules surrounding that and especially who to call. Hey, so I don't think I say nearly enough, but one of the things that I enjoy most about being a host here at Long Crime is how passionate you guys are, our audience. You don't just sit back and watch, you engage, you leave comments. You give us feedback. You make your opinions known. I can't tell you how much we appreciate that. And one of the most popular opinions is how much you love our police body cam videos. I tell you what, I have to agree. Because not only are they, of course, unpredictable and dramatic, but from a legal point of view, they're so important because they let you see firsthand

what's going on in any given situation instead of just hearing about it later in testimony or from police reports. Well, I am excited to tell you that we hear at law and crime, we've heard you loud and clear, and we have launched a whole new YouTube channel dedicated only to police body cam videos. That's right. It is aptly named Law and Crime Body Cam, and it is going to be your new destination for all of the most shocking police interactions on the internet. We're talking high-speed chases, dramatic DUIs, arrests that you got to really see to believe.

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I'm going to see you there. So in a statement to us, to sidebar, Gil's attorney, David Seltzer, said, quote, it is critical for a law enforcement officer to identify quickly and accurately the status of any person identifying themselves as part of a diplomatic attachment, which Mr. Gill did several times per procedure. Numerous documents are associated with foreign diplomats, which make it difficult without verification to discern a diplomat status. In the instant matter, Sunny Isle Police Department failed to follow protocols and procedures in place to identify if Mr. Gill, in fact, had immunity. And then he goes on to say, quote, as can be seen from the video moments before the incident, Mr. Gill was simply driving and had no intention to hit the police officer, and there was no evidence to the contrary. When all the facts come to light, we are confident Mr. Gill will be exonerated. So that seems to be more of like the legal argument, but the idea that the police officers didn't properly understand what his legal status.

was or is diplomatic status? What do you make of that statement? You know, actually, I do know the attorney quite well. And, you know, I very creative argument, definitely give him credit for that. But at the same token, in the heat of the moment, a police officer can't exactly get a hold of the state department, right? They don't have them on speed dial. This is something that's way beyond the street officers rank. This is something about the police chief has to make that call or reaching out to the state attorney's office, because again, we're in Miami and is the state attorney, not district attorney or any other title, reaching out to the state attorney's office and saying, okay, what do we need to do to

verify that this person, in fact, has diplomatic immunity? And we even saw that he was released on bail pending further investigation as to whether or not he had immunity. So this is not necessarily something that can be ascertained within five minutes. It's a process. So some patients has to be, you know, granted so that the process can go through accurately and, you know, make sure that the correct decision is made and that someone is not being held on just them. Can we just go back to the idea of the titles here? So let's play this game for a second. Assuming for a minute that Eli Gill, the father, was a diplomat. Okay, not a consul, diplomat. would his would he and his son be immune from prosecution for this very event let's start there

probably based on my understanding of the law they would have full diplomatic community again it's all about the rank and sort of where you fall within the the administration if you're in that lower level and this is not be smirching anybody's role it's just a matter of where the hierarchy is if you're sort of poor in the hierarchy you get less immunity another aspect involves the length of time you're in the country. So if you're doing a 90-day assignment, let's say, on behalf of the country of Israel in the United States, you're probably not going to get immunity because of the fact that you're only there for a short amount of time. Also, age is an issue. So if you're over the age of 21, even if your parent is a diplomat, you may not necessarily get that immunity

because you've aged. If you're married, that's another aspect if you're a married child. So if you'll say you're 22 years old, there's another aspect where if you are up to the age of 23, but you're attending a United States university, you also get immunity up until that point. But if you get married, you lose that immunity. So, like, there's all these little intricate details. But if we assume now that he is the consul, not a diplomat, a consul, and he is the son of a consul, by all accounts, it seems the State Department is accurate in their assessment? And is it the State Department who determined, you said it, the State Department to determine. determines whether it's someone's granted immunity, not a judge, not a court? Correct.

That solely is in the purview of the United States State Department. There was a law that came into places in the Diplomatic Relations Act of 1978, which has a whole statute that governs what diplomatic community looks like in the United States. And they are the sole voice on who has immunity and who does not. And now, so now we can maybe assume that he doesn't have immunity, and he's facing a legal case like everybody else. It appears that Mr. Gill, this is not his first running with the law. I'm talking about the sun.

Apparently, he was reportedly stopped by police in Miami Shores back in December for a traffic stop. And at the time, the license plate on the motorcycle had a shortened version of the phrase, please chase. It was PLS Chase. And the officer spotted the motorcycle again in mid-January, noting the plate that said he sped away from them. seems to be consistent with what his license plate said. And in a statement last week that Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office said, quote, after receiving confirmation from the State Department Office of Foreign Missions,

that neither defendant nor his father have diplomatic immunity, we're proceeding as usual, as usual, excuse me, with our investigation, Mr. Gill remains charged and the case is still open. Those prior incidents, if he wasn't arrested for them, but they suspect that he was the perpetrator of them, how does that play into his legal case? It can from the standpoint of what we would call prior bad acts. If he has a pattern that he would get on his motorcycle and either create a chase or flee

police officers on a regular basis and how he acted in that instant case when he got arrested was consistent with prior behavior, there is an opportunity for those prior bad acts to come in to show this wasn't a mistake. This wasn't an accident. this is something he enjoys doing and he constantly does on a regular basis. So he is basically flouting the law because he believes he's immune and can, you know, ride his motorcycle however he'd like, no matter what the U.S. law says. Talking about all these cases that we do, more specifically the defendants and suspects that we do,

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you get 10% off of your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash sidebar. All right. Let's get back into the story. Walk me through these charges. What are they and how serious are they? So he has been charged with aggravated battery on a law enforcement officer. Usually aggravated battery is a second degree felony with a maximum of 15 years in prison. But because of the fact that a law enforcement officer was involved, that escalates it to a first degree felony, which causes him to face 30 years in prison, a maximum of 30 years in prison as well as a fine. He's also charged with resisting with violence, resisting an officer with violence, which is a third-degree felony, and that also carries a penalty of five years in prison. Now, depending on the judge, depending on the prosecutor, if he is found guilty of both, those two sentences could run concurrently, meaning at the same time, or they could be stacked, meaning if he gets, let's say, the maximum of 30, he can then end up serving another five years on top of that for a maximum of 35 years. You think he would get 35 years for this?

I don't think so. And that's the maximum. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so let's say if he actually took it to trial, fought the charges, what do you think he would get versus let's say he takes a deal and pleads guilty? What do you think he would get? I think if he please, it would likely be a probationary plea, meaning that he might get a term of probation, maybe some community service hours, maybe a fine, a letter of apology to the police officer. No prison time? No.

I don't necessarily think prison. Even for hitting an officer? I don't think so. I don't think so. I think the political ramifications that are involved, I feel that if they're able to resolve it short of a trial, they will find a way to give him probation and maybe sent him back home. That may be the other aspect, right?

Like, okay, you're here, finish your probation, and then after two years, three years, five years, whatever the case may be, go back home to Israel and you're not allowed to return. And if he takes it to trial, yeah. If he takes it to trial, I see more of a likelihood of him getting a prison sentence. If I had to guess, you know, based on his age, based on his recklessness, you know, and nobody was killed, thankfully. And the injury that based on the photos I saw, you know, was, it was a real injury,

but it wasn't like, and again, I know this sounds awful, but it's not like he lost a leg or, you know, more like stitches, you know, in that form. And it obviously was very traumatic for the officer. But I would see maybe two to three years in prison, followed by a period of probation, and then the same type of situation, you can't come back to the United States. And I should tell everybody that Gil's arraignment is scheduled for February 26th. Mel, before I let you go, he's got to get your quick reaction about the mugshot. You've seen a lot of mugshots. He appears to be sobbing in this one. What are your thoughts? It could be one of two things.

He either, A, could be genuinely sorry and upset. I'm not going to discount that as a possibility. But in my opinion, what it looks like is someone who has enjoyed a great deal of privilege in his life and has never been held accountable for his actions. So now for the first time in his life, he's sitting in a jail cell, you know, this really just got real. And he is, and the reality is sinking in. And that's why he started crying because now he's like, wait a minute, I'm being treated like everybody else, not like, you know, the diplomat child or the, you know, upper crust that I'm used to being treated us. I don't know.

I thought this was a fascinating legal issue. I thought it was a fascinating case, you know, I'm happy, you know, that stakes are not higher than this, you know, that no one, like you said, was seriously injured or, you know, God would have lost their life. So it's just, I think, a really interesting legal issue. and who better to break it down than Melba Pearson. I hope everybody can see why I love Melba so much and why I want her more on Sidebar, but she's so busy. She's so busy.

Melba, so good seeing you. So good to see you too, Jesse, and I'll always make time for you. Just ask. Okay, now you set it on air. So if we, you know, I'm going to hold you to it. All right, Melba, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

And that is all we have for you right now here on Sidebar, everybody. Thank you so much for joining us. Please subscribe on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jesse Weber. I'll speak to you next time.