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March 15–21, 2019 including KINGS COURIER & FLATBUSH LIFE
SERVING BENSONHURST, BRIGHTON BEACH, CONEY ISLAND, GERRITSEN BEACH, KINGS HIGHWAY, MANHATTAN BEACH, MIDWOOD, & SHEEPSHEAD BAY
DA drops rape
counts against
Coney ex-cops
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
The district attorney dropped
rape and kidnapping charges
against a pair of former cops
who admitted to having sex
with an 18-year-old Coney Island
woman in their custody
in 2017, and will instead
pursue trying the
defendants on
lesser charges of
offi cial misconduct
and taking
bribes.
Prosecutors
on March 6 dismissed
the charges
against one-time Police
Department detectives
Richard Hall and
Eddie Martins due to “unforeseen
and serious credibility
issues” with the woman’s
testimony, according to the
district attorney’s spokesman
Oren Yaniv, who said the offi
ce is still committed to seeking
justice in the case.
“We are fully committed
to holding these defendants
accountable by vigorously
pursuing the charges in this
case that can be proven with
independent and reliable evidence,”
Yaniv said.
The woman allegedly provided
prosecutors with a “series
of false, misleading, and
inconsistent statements about
the facts of the case,” according
to a January letter Chief
Assistant District Attorney
Nancy Hoppock wrote to the
Supreme Court judge presiding
over the case, whom Hoppock
also requested appoint a
special prosecutor to the case
due to concerns that dropping
the charges would undermine
both the woman’s and the public’s
trust in the justice system.
“If we decide to drop certain
counts against the defendants,
the decision will surely
be perceived by the woman,
and we now fear by
the public, as evidence
that we
are, in fact, unfairly
disfavoring
the woman
and favoring
the defendants,”
Hoppock wrote.
“In the end, we
want to see justice
done on the woman’s
behalf, and we
want to maintain community
trust in the criminaljustice
system.”
But another Supreme
Court judge, Justice Matthew
D’Emic — who was assigned to
respond to Hoppock’s letter —
ultimately rejected the prosecutors’
request, claiming that
the district attorney’s offi ce
had “fulfi lled its ethical obligations”
by being forthcoming
about the woman’s alleged
lies, and that concerns about
losing the public’s trust were
“not a reasonable ground for
disqualifi cation.”
The woman’s lawyer, however,
argued the district attorney’s
offi ce was not justifi
ed in dropping the charges,
claiming that the defendants’
attorneys assailed his client’s
credibility in an effort
to pressure prosecutors,
whom he said ultimately
chose to drop certain charges
based on their frustrations
THREATENED: Police cuffed a pre-teen girl on March 7, after she allegedly took to social media and threatened
to shoot up Bay Academy middle school in Sheepshead Bay. Photo by Steve Solomonson
POL: DELAY
NOT OKAY
Councilman blasts offi cials for too slowly
notifying Bay parents of shooting threat
BY AIDAN GRAHAM
A Sheepshead Bay pol blasted
city education offi cials for
failing to immediately notify
parents after someone threatened
to open fi re inside an
Emmons Avenue school last
week.
Cops on March 7 cuffed an
11-year-old girl for threatening
to shoot up the hallways
of Bay Academy in an Instagram
post shared the day before,
police said.
“Can’t wait for tomorrow
shooting. Bay Academy kids
watch out,” read the March
6 post shared from handle
@joshk817, whose account
has since been removed from
the social platform.
Department of Education
offi cials chose not to close the
middle school between E. 14th
and 15th streets on the day
of the alleged threat after reporting
it to authorities, who
deemed it unfounded following
an investigation, accord-
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