We have some updates on the Abel Cedeno case.
We’ve been trying to keep you up-to-date with the case of 18-year-old New Yorker Abel Cedeno who is charged with second-degree manslaughter, assault, and weapons charges.
Cedeno was arrested after stabbing two of his bullies in a Bronx classroom. While one was wounded, the other died at the scene. Cedeno later said that he stabbed them as an act of self-defense because he feared for his life.
Now, it seems there was even more going on.
News sources are now questioning what the school, the Urban Assembly School for Wildlife Conservation, knew about Cedeno.
Last week, Attorney Sandy Rubenstein, who’s representing the mother of the boy who died from Cedeno’s stabbing, Matthew McCree, says someone had leaked to him a memo from the school.
“The Department of Education had notice of a serious problem and did nothing,” Rubenstein said, “The Department of Education has blood on its hands.”
The memo from May 28, 2014 was presented at the grand jury and written by the then-school dean Justin Keating.
It read:
“This morning I received a voicemail message from Abel Cedeno's mother informing me that she discovered a knife in Abel's backpack. She informed me that he has been bringing knives to school. The voicemail was out of concern for our students and staff safety because he has a history of pulling knives on his family. This is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately.”
This has led to Rubenstein filing a notice of claim against the Department of Education and the New York Police Department for failing to protect students.
Even Cedeno’s lawyers are using the opportunity to blame the school district’s negligence.
“(Cedeno) swore under oath that he was going to get raped and told the dean and the dean ignored it,” Lynn said. “He was told to buck it up and be a man, he was only 14-years-old.”
That said, they wanted to point out that the knife the mother was talking about was a butter knife, and they also questioned how grand jury evidence ended up “floating around.”
It seems especially convient that the story is distracting from the criminal case just when Cedeno's defense came out with new evidence.
You see, new footage was brought into evidence earlier this month showing Cedeno being attacked by his classmates before he started stabbing anyone. His defense team is hoping it will be enough evidence to support his self-defense claim.
Due to the video’s graphic nature, we haven’t included it in this post. But, you can watch it here.
Lastly, Cedeno and McCree’s school has taken a massive hit thanks to this case. Multiple students have transferred out, the principal was removed, and the school is scheduled to close down.
