13 NYPD cops were convicted of abusing their power. Now a Brooklyn prosecutor wants to throw out nearly 400 convictions that were based on their work.
Tim Drivas Photography/Getty Images
- A Brooklyn prosecutor wants to throw out nearly 400 convictions tied to crooked cops.
- The convictions relied upon work from 13 NYPD officers, who have since been convicted themselves.
- The cops were all convicted of abusing their power.
A Brooklyn prosecutor wants to toss nearly 400 criminal convictions after more than a dozen NYPD officers — whose work helped to put the people behind bars — were convicted themselves of abusing their power.
The borough's District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said on Wednesday that he'll ask Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D'Emic to vacate and dismiss 47 felony convictions and 331 misdemeanor convictions that were "directly" resulting from the work of the 13 former officers.
In the statement, the district attorney's office said Gonzalez has "lost confidence" in cases where the convicted NYPD officers served as witnesses.
"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," Gonzalez said.
He continued: "A thorough review by my Conviction Review Unit identified those cases in which their testimony was essential to proving guilt, and I will now move to dismiss those convictions as I no longer have confidence in the integrity of the evidence that underpinned them.
"Credibility and honesty are at the heart of the justice system, and we cannot improve community trust without adhering to the highest ethical standards," he added.
The district attorney's office said that the majority of the 378 convictions are misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance or other drug-related offenses.
The next largest category of convictions is vehicle and traffic law violations.
The district attorney's office also included a list identifying the NYPD officers, how many dismissed convictions there would be based on their work, and what they were personally convicted of doing.
The NYPD officers were convicted of charges including planting drugs, false testimonies, falsifying records, receiving bribes, and civil rights abuses.
NYPD did not immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Legal Aid Society — a non-profit organization which, according to the New York Times, represents 11 defendants whose convictions will be vacated — said it "commends" the decision by Gonzalez to take action.
"While we applaud this decision, the people prosecuted in these cases were forced to endure hardships that should never have happened to begin with," Elizabeth Felber, the society's directory of its wrongful conviction unit, shared in a Wednesday statement.
She continued: "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."