The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office has asked a judge to formally exonerate 378 people whose convictions centered on testimony by NYPD officers who committed misconduct in other cases.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez on Wednesday asked Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Matthew D’Emic to toss 331 misdemeanor convictions and 47 felony convictions, his office said in a press release.
Gonzalez’ effort is “the sixth largest mass dismissal of convictions in U.S. history,” the release said, citing data from the National Registry of Exonerations.
What You Need To Know
- The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office has asked a judge to formally exonerate 378 people whose convictions centered on testimony by NYPD officers who committed misconduct in other cases
- Thirteen former NYPD officers who were later found to have committed on-duty misconduct contributed work to all of the cases, according to the DA's office
- The effort is “the sixth largest mass dismissal of convictions in U.S. history," the DA's office said, citing data from the National Registry of Exonerations
Thirteen former NYPD officers who were later found to have committed on-duty misconduct contributed work to all of the cases, the release said.
“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 in a statement.
“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,” he added.
The CRU “did not uncover misconduct” in the 378 cases it reviewed, the release said.
All of the arrests that led to the convictions — most of which stemmed from drug and traffic-related offenses — took place between 1999 and 2017, the DA’s office said in its release.
While none of the 378 people are still incarcerated, they will be formally exonerated if the judge vacates their convictions, the release noted.
Four former officers who were “implicated” in a late-2010s corruption scandal within a Brooklyn narcotics unit carried out 191 of the 378 arrests, the release said.
Two narcotics officers who pleaded guilty to coercing a detainee into performing sexual acts, meanwhile, conducted 78 of the arrests, according to the release.