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New York (CNN) - Two former New York detectives will not serve time in prison after pleading guilty to bribery and official misconduct for having sex in a police van with a young woman they arrested and released, prosecutors said Thursday .
Prosecutors requested that Eddie Martins, 39, and Richard Hall, 34, receive sentences of one to three years in prison, said Eric Gonzalez, a Brooklyn district attorney, in a statement.
But Danny Chun, judge of the state Supreme Court, said each defendant will be sentenced in October to five years probation, according to Gonzalez. The plea agreement was offered by the court, without the consent of the prosecutors, because the defendants pleaded guilty to the entire accusation, the district attorney said.
In court, the judge said he accepted probation because prosecutors had demonstrated violent charges of serious crimes against the defendants, including rape charges that were eventually dismissed, could not be proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
"The credibility of the victim, or the plaintiff, in this case was serious, seriously questionable, at best," said Chun, according to a judicial transcript obtained by CNN.
While the scientific evidence in the case was "very convincing," Chun said there was a possibility that a jury would convict only for the misdemeanor charges. The offer of probation without jail time was not “unfair” since the exagents had quit their jobs and accepted sentences for serious crimes, the judge said, according to the transcript.
The exagents were originally prosecuted for 50 charges, including first-degree violation
The exagents pleaded guilty on Thursday to two counts of bribery in the third grade and nine counts of official misconduct, the district attorney said.
Martins and Hall were originally prosecuted in November 2017 for 50 charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sex and second-degree kidnapping, prosecutors said.
"These defendants got involved in a shocking abuse of power, which they finally recognized," Gonzalez said. "While I would have preferred to see them in prison, they are no longer members of our police department and with today's statement they are convicted criminals."
The district attorney said the case resulted in New York passing a law that prohibits police officers from having sex with people in custody, closing a gap that allowed police to claim that sex was agreed upon.
“We could not apply the new law retroactively, and the serious credibility problems in this case prevented us from proceeding with additional charges; however, we remain committed to holding these defendants accountable, ”Gonzalez said.
The woman's lawyer, Michael N. David, said the sentence was unacceptable and sends a bad message to the victims about police violence.
“We are outraged. It is an absolute injustice what happened today. You can not consent when you weigh 45 kilos and both are very muscular. They had her handcuffed, ”he said.
The lawyer said he will represent the woman in a federal lawsuit against the city and ask the federal prosecutor for the Eastern District of New York to prosecute Martin and Hall.
Defense attorneys say the case could have been resolved a long time ago
Martin's lawyer, Mark Bederow, described the plea agreement as "a fair result." He said the case was "spoiled horribly" by prosecutors who followed "the political climate at that time" instead of "credible evidence."
“Let me be clear, I am not criticizing the Me Too movement. I am criticizing the district attorney's office, ”he told CNN. "They had evidence that the victim had repeatedly lied under oath over almost everything and, instead of presenting that evidence, they, given the weather, filed rape charges in the first degree."
Peter Guadagnino, Hall's lawyer, said: "We could have solved this case more than a year and a half ago with the same statement, if they had been properly accused from the beginning."
"The injustice was that the district attorney's office positioned this as a rape case," he said. “My client has been called a rapist all this time. He got a bribe and I'm not going to talk about it, but he never raped anyone. ”
The district attorney's office declined to comment beyond his previous statement.
Michael David, a lawyer representing the young woman, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Prosecutors dismissed the rape charges earlier this year, citing credibility issues. The district attorney, in a letter to the court in January, said the woman "made a series of false, misleading and inconsistent statements about the facts of this case."
Detective DNAs were recovered from the woman, says the prosecutor
Former detectives voluntarily resigned from New York police in November 2017. They subsequently pleaded not guilty to all charges, prosecutors said.
At that time, Martins was released on bail of $ 250,000 and Hall was released on bail of $ 150,000. Each faced up to 25 years in prison if convicted of the most serious charges.
Exdetectives were assigned to the South Brooklyn narcotics squad at the time they were accused of taking turns raping the 18-year-old handcuffed woman in the backseat of her police van in Coney Island in September 2017, prosecutors said .
They were on duty in a Dodge Caravan as part of a team of civilian-dressed detectives conducting a purchase and raid operation, according to the district attorney.
Prosecutors said the defendants left their post without authorization and then stopped a car driven by the 18-year-old woman, who was accompanied by two male passengers, Gonzalez said in the statement.
The detectives handcuffed and arrested the woman after she told them she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills, according to the statement. The two passengers were allowed to leave.
The district attorney said the woman had sex with Martins and had a sexual act with Hall. The defendants then released the woman and returned the pills. They did not report the incident.
Her DNA was recovered from the woman and the surveillance video showed her leaving the van about 40 minutes after they picked her up, Gonzalez said.
Laura Ly of CNN contributed to this report.
police abuse New York