Schenectady

Officer Mark Weekes, the Schenectady patrolman who was driving a police car when a dying prisoner's pleas for help allegedly went unanswered, has turned in his badge and gun and is on unpaid leave, officials familiar with the case said.

Weekes has been on leave without a salary since mid-July, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the case is ongoing and they are not authorized to discuss personnel matters.

The unpaid leave status took effect shortly before the revelation that the Schenectady County attorney general's office would empanel a grand jury to investigate if the conduct of police contributed to the May 11, 2017, death of Andrew Kearse.

While it's unclear if the other cops who responded to the Kearse call were ever disciplined, Weekes' disciplinary case was halted pending the outcome of the AG's probe, according to officials.

Weekes' Linkedin page indicates he has been on the police force since July 2008 and is CEO of a Schenectady-based transportation company called Fare, LLC.

A 2002 graduate of Schenectady high school, Weekes' online profile also shows that he served as a sensor operator in the U.S Air Force.

The 33-year-old Weekes, who is scheduled to get married later this month, declined comment Thursday, referring questions to his attorney, Andy Sanfranko.

Sanfranko also refused to discuss the matter.

Mayor Gary McCarthy also declined Thursday morning to talk about the the case or the decision to put Weekes on unpaid leave.

The attorney general's decision to present evidence in the case to a grand jury follows a year-long investigation by the agency into the death of Kearse, who had complained that he was dizzy and having difficulty breathing after a brief foot chase that preceded his arrest.

City police officials, who turned the investigation over to the State Police, said officers did not use Tasers to subdue Kearse. They said he drove his vehicle into a driveway and ran behind a house after an officer tried to pull him over for driving erratically.

Kearse was in the back seat of a police car following his arrest when he told officers he was having trouble breathing. Authorities have not listed a cause of death; Kearse's relatives said he had a heart condition.

He was unresponsive when paramedics were called to treat him at the police station. He was taken to Ellis Hospital, where he was pronounced dead about an hour after the incident began.

Kearse's widow, Angelique Negroni-Kearse, had earlier obtained audio from the 45-minute video of her husband's police encounter and made portions of it public. The audio revealed Kearse had repeatedly pleaded with police for medical help.

Negroni-Kearse filed a lawsuit earlier this month accusing the police of false arrest and "wanton disregard" for her husband's health.

Weekes is the Schenectady officer who was beaten badly by a former mixed martial arts fighter he found singing into a traffic cone in downtown Schenectady. James Hilton unleashed a furious attack on Weekes, part of which was recorded on the officer's microphone.

Hilton, 33, had argued he was not guilty of the Aug. 1, 2015, attack on Weekes, but the jury convicted him of felony assault on an officer just three hours after they began deliberations. A judge sentenced Hilton to 13 years in prison.

More than a year later, Weekes was the keynote speaker at criminal justice career fair held by Schenectady County Community College.

During that February 2017 presentation, Weekes told students that while the assault left him with short-term memory loss, migraines and deeper inhibitions about approaching civilians, his resolve to remain a cop had not wavered.