NEW YORK CITY, NY - A Queens man who has been incarcerated since 1980 for throwing a grenade at police is now set to go before a state parole board after a judge ruled that the suspect knew the projectile did not have any actual explosives and therefore never intended to kill the officers.
Supreme Court Judge Gia Morris ruled last week that 68-year-old Michael Bossett, who was found guilty of five counts of attempted murder of a police officer in the early 1980s never intended to kill the officers, as prosecutors argued, the New York Post reported.
"Even though it has taken almost 45 years for justice to prevail, Mr. Bossett never lost hope that his wrongful conviction would be overturned," his lawyer, Rob Kuby, said in a statement.
"The case is a remnant of the bad old days of policing, where cops and prosecutors would base cases on a 'If he didn't do this, he did something else' philosophy that ruined the lives of so many innocent people," he added.
The judge's ruling, however, does not mean Bossett will be completely free. The accused man still reportedly faces a murder conviction on Long Island.
He is incarcerated for the murder, but now that the grenade charge has been tossed, he is facing a combined sentence of 37 and a half years to life instead of 50 years to life, and he has served nearly 45 years already.
Bossett has allegedly been linked to the shooting death of another New Yorker just hours before the 1980 grenade incident.
Bossett's brother, 69-year-old Darrell Bossett, is serving a life sentence for the 1980 fatal shooting of New York Police Department (NYPD) veteran Gabriel Vitale, 42, who died nine days after being hit while investigating a burglary in Queens.
Although Michael Bossett, who was with his brother at the time of the shooting, was not convicted of the case, Vitale's family still holds him equally accountable and calls the decision to throw out the attempted-murder grenade charges a fiasco.
"It's even worse that this criminal will now be unjustly eligible for parole," said Cyndy Vitale, the murdered cop's daughter.
"I grew up with many line-of-duty families, bonding over our shared experience of losing a hero father," she added.
"Now so many of those killers are being set free to spend time with their families, while we were robbed of time with our fathers."
"It's appalling how the courts and parole system prioritize the rights of criminals over justice for victims. It's complete moral failure, she said.
"The NYPD Police Benevolent Association is also furious that Bossett's key witness at the grenade hearing was a childhood friend, and an ex-officer.
"It is absolutely shameful that the court would credit the far-fetched, self-serving tales being spun on the witness stand and ignore the simple fact that this drug-dealing murderer tried to kill New York City police officers," PBA president Patrick Hendry said in a statement.
"The fight isn't over," he said. "We're going to continue to stand with P.O. Vitale's family to ensure that both of the individuals connected with his murder stay behind bars for life."
Michael Bossett, the then-alleged gang member, had his Queens apartment raided by police on December 15, 1980.
According to court records, Bossett, who was 24 at the time, jumped out with a gun and hurled the hand grenade at officers, who opened fire and wounded him.
Bossett still has drug and weapon-possession charges against him in the grenade incident and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for a separate fatal shooting in Suffolk County.
Kuby maintains that his client has served his time. "He has paid for that crime and would have been paroled 20 years ago, but for the wrongful conviction," he said.
Supreme Court Judge Gia Morris ruled last week that 68-year-old Michael Bossett, who was found guilty of five counts of attempted murder of a police officer in the early 1980s never intended to kill the officers, as prosecutors argued, the New York Post reported.
"Even though it has taken almost 45 years for justice to prevail, Mr. Bossett never lost hope that his wrongful conviction would be overturned," his lawyer, Rob Kuby, said in a statement.
"The case is a remnant of the bad old days of policing, where cops and prosecutors would base cases on a 'If he didn't do this, he did something else' philosophy that ruined the lives of so many innocent people," he added.
The judge's ruling, however, does not mean Bossett will be completely free. The accused man still reportedly faces a murder conviction on Long Island.
He is incarcerated for the murder, but now that the grenade charge has been tossed, he is facing a combined sentence of 37 and a half years to life instead of 50 years to life, and he has served nearly 45 years already.
Bossett has allegedly been linked to the shooting death of another New Yorker just hours before the 1980 grenade incident.
Bossett's brother, 69-year-old Darrell Bossett, is serving a life sentence for the 1980 fatal shooting of New York Police Department (NYPD) veteran Gabriel Vitale, 42, who died nine days after being hit while investigating a burglary in Queens.
Although Michael Bossett, who was with his brother at the time of the shooting, was not convicted of the case, Vitale's family still holds him equally accountable and calls the decision to throw out the attempted-murder grenade charges a fiasco.
"It's even worse that this criminal will now be unjustly eligible for parole," said Cyndy Vitale, the murdered cop's daughter.
"I grew up with many line-of-duty families, bonding over our shared experience of losing a hero father," she added.
"Now so many of those killers are being set free to spend time with their families, while we were robbed of time with our fathers."
"It's appalling how the courts and parole system prioritize the rights of criminals over justice for victims. It's complete moral failure, she said.
"The NYPD Police Benevolent Association is also furious that Bossett's key witness at the grenade hearing was a childhood friend, and an ex-officer.
"It is absolutely shameful that the court would credit the far-fetched, self-serving tales being spun on the witness stand and ignore the simple fact that this drug-dealing murderer tried to kill New York City police officers," PBA president Patrick Hendry said in a statement.
"The fight isn't over," he said. "We're going to continue to stand with P.O. Vitale's family to ensure that both of the individuals connected with his murder stay behind bars for life."
Michael Bossett, the then-alleged gang member, had his Queens apartment raided by police on December 15, 1980.
According to court records, Bossett, who was 24 at the time, jumped out with a gun and hurled the hand grenade at officers, who opened fire and wounded him.
Bossett still has drug and weapon-possession charges against him in the grenade incident and is serving a sentence of 25 years to life for a separate fatal shooting in Suffolk County.
Kuby maintains that his client has served his time. "He has paid for that crime and would have been paroled 20 years ago, but for the wrongful conviction," he said.
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Comments
2025-07-20T20:48-0400 | Comment by: Franklin
If he had nothing to do with it, he should be released from prison. You can not believe most of what the cops say happened, if any.