Trial of former NYPD detective Joseph Franco, accused of perjury and misconduct, continues
NEW YORK -- Joseph Franco, a former NYPD detective, is on trial, accused of lying about witnessing drug deals to secure convictions.
Prosecutors say the undercover narcotics detective exhibited a pattern of lying about what he saw to secure arrests, sending innocent people to jail and jeopardizing hundreds of cases.
Franco, 50, sat in court Tuesday charged with six counts of perjury, five counts of official misconduct, and 15 counts of providing false documents to a public official.
He is accused of falsely claiming he saw drug deals go down in three cases between 2017 and 2018.
READ MORE: Opening statements begin in perjury trial of former NYPD detective Joseph Franco
On the stand today, Timothy Hiel, a former assistant district attorney, testified he would never have prosecuted one defendant for selling cocaine without Franco's story that he personally witnessed the sale.
Prosecutors say in 2018, Franco perjured himself before a grand jury, repeating the lie that he witnessed a drug buy that he could not have physically seen.
Hiel said he later watched surveillance video of the alleged drug buy, which he saw no evidence of.
Franco's defense attorney says he is being prosecuted for doing his job, which is to "disappear in plain sight," adding that the surveillance video being used to prove Franco's guilt actually proves he was a good cop, and that it was not uncommon for him to be alone where no one knew where he was or what he could see.
More than 500 cases connected to Franco in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx have been dismissed over his alleged actions.
If convicted, he faces up to seven years in prison.
Franco was an NYPD detective for 20 years. He was fired in May 2020 following a departmental trial.