BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — After the State Supreme Court vacated a previous ruling that upheld her firing, former Buffalo police officer Cariol Horne will now receive her full pension.
Judge Dennis Ward issued the ruling Tuesday, writing “While the Eric Garners and the George Floyds of the world never had a chance for a ‘do-over,’ at least here the correction can be done.”
Horne was fired from the department in 2006 after trying to stop her partner from choking a suspect. It caused her to lose both her job and her pension.
Back in June, Horne received national attention and appeared on CBS This Morning and CNN where she defended her actions.
“I don’t want any officer to go through what I have gone through,” Horne said. “I had five children and I lost everything but [the suspect] did not lose his life. So, if I have nothing else to live for in life, at least I can know that I did the right thing and that Neil Mack still breathes.”
That same month, the Buffalo Common Council asked the State Attorney General to take a closer look at Horne’s case.
“We now have a totally different attorney general, we have a total different climate and atmosphere and lens right now, across this world, as it deals with policing in the United States,” said common council president Darius Pridgen. “So I think it’s an opportune time to look back at this case and to see were there civil rights violations can she be made whole.”