So one single narcotics detective has finally been caught testilying, and now hundreds of cases are in question. I want to tell you about my personal experience with this fool, and about how the scale of impact here is much, much bigger than it seems. nytimes.com/2021/04/06/nyr…
I tried a case with this guy involved. My client had to go to trial because he was completely innocent, had no drugs on his person or in his home (where he was arrested, in front of his kids), no money, no scales, no nothing. But charges were still pressed...
They were still pressed because this one undercover--the guy in the NYT story above--insisted he bought drugs from the guy with no drugs. It was the Bronx, and NYT has effectively no speedy trial rule, so this case lingered for OVER A YEAR.
So we took it to trial, and my innocent client was found not guilty. Good. But let's unpack what this tells you about what this cop did.
He cost an innocent man over a year of his life--of having an open felony, of having to explain this to employers, of having to take time to come to court every month, of having to explain this to his kids, of having been arrested in front of his family, of being jailed.
That man is not in the 90 cases being counted in Brooklyn or the 150 on which the @BronxDAClark sure as hell better do something. Those are *convictions.* Presumably, those are the cases in which either his lies worked or he got lucky. BUT--
When the narcotics team goes out to do a night of buy & busts, they don't do just one. They bring a van to fill with people and as far as I can tell they don't go back to the station until the van is full. There are nights where they hit eight locations or more.
The goal at every location is to put someone in that van. If you have an undercover like this, it's possible he could snag 10+ people... who could be falsely arrested on every shift he does. Think about how many shifts he might work/week. Think of years of this.
Patrol cops are supposed to cruise around looking for crime or responding to calls. But undercovers are uniquely empowered to manufacture crime, because they're sent out to trick people into breaking the law and may be doing so with no eyes on them. Their word as their bond.
All of which is to say--they may have figured out that this dude's lies convicted hundreds of people. Which cannot be made right--you can't give people years of their lives back. But at least those case are under review.
The people who will truly never recover here are the people who were wrongly arrested but not convicted--technically, for them, the system "got it right" even though they were put in cuffs, put in a cage, possibly injured, separated from their families.
Even if they spent months or years living their lives under the terror of a felony charge. Even if they lost their job or their apartment. Even if it fractured their most intimate relationships.
The harm a cop like this does is impossible to truly calculate. It's under-estimated here and the people he hurt will never have a real opportunity to recover. Think of how that disempowerment feels, and let that feeling flow into how you view our criminal legal system.
Oh and one last thing--we were able to go to trial &win in spite of these lies bcI was with @BronxDefenders and we were strong, trained, and had the resources to deliver phenomenal defense. Everyone, when facing the legal system, should have a team like that. #FundPublicDefense.
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