Yonkers Cop Forced To Retire After Falsely Testifying In Bronx Drug Case
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- A veteran Yonkers cop was forced to retire after testifying falsely in a drug case.
The perjury helped keep a wrongly accused man in jail for almost five months.
Sean Fogarty, 43, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor perjury Friday.
"For 22 years, he helped keep the streets of Yonkers safe, the streets of New York City safe. In this case, he made a mistake and he's paying dearly for it," said Det. Keith Olson, Yonkers PBA president.
Yonkers Police assigned Fogarty to a federal drug task force five years ago.
In April 2018, he supervised a raid at a home in Olinville, the Bronx. The warrant allowed cops to search only the first and second floors.
Seventeen kilos of cocaine were found in a closet in a private apartment on the third floor. Fogarty falsely told a grand jury the drugs were discovered on the second floor in order to justify the prosecution of homeowner Calvin Powell.
Powell served several years for a 2002 federal drug case. He was on probation and working as a tax preparer when his home was raided in 2018.
He told CBS2's Tony Aiello off-camera he struggles to convey how terrible this experience has been. He spent five months locked up at Rikers before the charges were tossed out.
Powell's father died during that time. He was not allowed out of Rikers to attend his father's funeral.
Given Fogarty's admission to perjury, the Westchester County District Attorney will review every conviction involving him.
"They're obliged to do that. They should do that. They should be smart and fair about it, though. We have no reason to believe that this happened in any other cases," Olson said.
Fogarty will be allowed to collect his pension.
The wrongly accused homeowner hopes to collect, as well. He's filed a federal lawsuit.