Brooklyn District Attorney to vacate over 370 convictions relying on testimony from discredited cops
NEW YORK -- The Brooklyn District Attorney says he plans to vacate 378 convictions that riled on testimony from more than a dozen discredited NYPD officers.
In a statement, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in part, "These former police officers were found to have committed serious misconduct that directly relates to their official job duties, calling into question the integrity of every arrest they have made."
The cases include 47 felony and 331 misdemeanor convictions, mostly involving drug possession.
The Legal Aid Society released the following statement:
"The Legal Aid Society commends District Attorney Eric Gonzalez for his decisive action to dismiss these cases. While we applaud this decision, the people prosecuted in these cases were forced to endure hardships that should never have happened to begin with. Some individuals lost years of their lives serving prison sentences and many suffered collateral harm including housing instability, loss of employment, and severed access to critical services, all because of the words of these corrupt police officers.
"We urge DA Gonzalez and all of the other New York City District Attorneys to conduct these reviews on an ongoing basis and with full transparency, not just in response to public pressure, but as their duty to 'do justice.' To do otherwise erodes the public's trust in law enforcement and the criminal legal system."
The DA's office says this is the sixth largest mass dismissal of convictions in the nation's history.