Washington Blade - August 1, 2003
Steve Weinstein

Othneil Askew fired repeatedly at Davis until he himself was shot by a police officer. He died instantly, leaving behind unanswered questions about how a man's life could become so unraveled that he would kill someone so violently and publicly.

One paragraph in a story in the next day's New York Times began a wave of speculation about the man who pulled the trigger and his relationship with his adversary.

Askew had apparently filed a harassment case against Davis the morning of the murder in which he claimed that the council member had offered him a bribe to withdraw from the upcoming Democratic Party primary. Askew also told the FBI that Davis had threatened to out him as a gay man.

Investigators found two letters in Askew's possession after he was killed that may have been written by Davis or may have been forged. One purported to be a recommendation letter by Davis for Askew, and the other was a draft contract for Davis to hire Askew. Neither was signed by Davis.

Police also found a written will in Askew's home, which reportedly indicated that he knew he was likely to die that day.

What adds to the mystery is the nature of Askew's relationship with Davis. The two men had met up at a barbershop earlier in the day, and Davis brought Askew into City Hall with him. In fact, it was Davis who allowed Askew to bypass the metal detector. Immediately after the deaths, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced that everyone, including himself, would have to pass through the metal detectors to gain entrance.

In the ensuing days after these revelations, facts and speculation began to spread. Friends and acquaintances of the murdered Brooklyn politician and the challenger tried to piece together a narrative that would explain how two men's rivalry could end so gruesomely.

Davis represented a multi-ethnic, polyglot district of Brooklyn that encompassed African Americans, including a burgeoning enclave of gay blacks; Eastern European, African and Haitian immigrants; trend-setting white homesteaders; working-class Hispanics; and Hasidic Jews.

It was this district - where immigrants, yuppies and people from large tracts of city housing co-exist, sometimes peacefully, sometimes not - that Davis represented. Although Davis was popular, he was a neophyte, a 41-year-old retired police officer who was swept into office after the advent of term limits. In that district, winning the Democratic primary assures victory in the general election.

Fodder for N.Y. media For the New York Post, the fact that HIV medication was found in Askew's home indicated a state of derangement related to his status as an HIV-positive man. The Post also cited gay porn as pointing to a criminal mind.

For the Daily News, Askew's 1996 felony assault charge for attacking his lover at the time, a waiter named Mario Romero, with a hammer, indicated a violent nature. The charge was subsequently reduced in a plea bargain to a misdemeanor, effectively wiping away any taint of a criminal record. Askew may have feared that Davis would expose the incident, as well as his sexual orientation.

For the august New York Times, Askew was a hapless wannabe in the hardscrabble world of Brooklyn's street-fighting politics. The paper pointed out that Davis had a reputation as a street fighter who was not above intimidating those who opposed him.

The Village Voice's Richard Goldstein argued that Askew was horribly conflicted about his homosexuality. For Goldstein, Askew was a victim of life on the "down low" - living as an openly gay man in New York City who frequented clubs like Sound Factory and the Roxy, but who remained in the closet to his family.

When Davis reportedly threatened to out Askew to his constituents and to the wider world - whether the threat was real or not - something finally snapped, in Goldstein's opinion. The strain of living two lives became too much for the 31-year-old.

A case of deception

Further examination of Askew's life reveals another side of Othneil Askew as a man who practiced deception. Like the anti-hero of John Guare's play "Six Degrees of Separation" (whose real-life prototype only recently died in the AIDS ward of a Manhattan hospital), Askew apparently lied consistently about what he did for a living, his education, his origins, his military service and his connections.

Stan Fedinick has owned the Island Gym in Fire Island Pines since 1985. In all of that time Fedinick had never been involved in any legal tussles. That changed in 1998, on the day before the Morning Party.

The weekend was the biggest of the summer for the tiny community of just 700 homes and apartments. The all-day dance sponsored by Gay Men's Health Crisis had grown into a full-fledged circuit party. Drug use pervaded the party, and, in fact, two fatal overdoses that weekend spelled the end of the annual event for good.

Fedinick had had one previous run-in with Askew when he had come to the gym and worked out for only a few minutes.

"He decided it wasn't quite as posh as he thought it would be," Fedinick said. "He wanted his money back and I gave it to him. I thought, æWell, that's the last time I'll ever see that guy again.'"

The day before the Morning Party, when Askew and a friend showed up, Fedinick asked them if they had signed the standard waiver absolving the gym of responsibility in case of injury. They said they had and proceeded to the bench press station.

"They just started benching," Fedinick said. "Then his friend who was supposed to be spotting him stepped away from him, according to a witness, and started talking to somebody - right when this guy needed assistance the most. So he couldn't rack the weight."

The weight came down on Askew's chest. Fedinick said he rushed over and asked if he was all right. According to Fedinick's account, Askew, embarrassed and angry, yelled at Fedinick, but eventually agreed to see the local doctor, who pronounced him fine and gave him an ibuprofen pill.

Fedinick said that Askey told him that he would sign an impromptu legal release only in exchange for a free membership the next year to the gym. Fedinick said he and others saw Askew the rest of the weekend at parties, where he seemed fine - which made it all the more disturbing when, six months later, Fedinick received a notice that he was being sued.

Pamela Goldsmith, the lawyer assigned to the case by Fedinick's insurance company, recalled that Askew had claimed he hadn't been able to work and suffered mental anguish because of the accident, which he blamed on the weight station not being properly secured to the underlying deck. But, he kept changing his version of events as the case proceeded, she said.

He also acted strangely in other ways. "Initially, he was very obstructive," Goldsmith said. "His initial address was a post office box. He refused to provide his residential address because he said he feared for his life. He said he was receiving threatening phone calls."

Goldsmith also found him rambling, with his mood switching from despondent to combative. He told her he was on medication; anti-depressants were found in Askew's home after the killing.

At several points during Askew's deposition, Goldsmith said to Askew's lawyer, David Neveloff, "Look, we're going to take a little break here. Stan and I are going to go out. Would you take care of your client and calm him down?"

Neveloff himself eventually stepped aside, according to Goldsmith, after he found Askew "too deceptive to represent." When Askew was forced either to represent himself or hire another lawyer, he dropped the lawsuit.

Fedinick said that Askew had worked as an actor, among other things, and that he was practiced at playing roles in different situations.

"That's how this guy made his living: He sued people and settled. I'd never dealt with a person like that before," Fedinick said. "I'd never dealt with someone so conniving. I had to anticipate what he'd do next."

After the shooting, when Fedinick saw the pictures in the paper, he told Goldsmith, "He could have been armed. That could have been us."

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