Ex-NYPD cops plead guilty to on-duty sex with teen in Brooklyn, get probation
DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN, New York (WABC) -- Two former NYPD officers pleaded guilty Thursday to bribe receiving and official misconduct for having sex inside a police van with a young woman they had arrested before releasing her without authorization and without reporting the arrest.
While prosecutors requested incarceration, Eddie Martins and Richard Hall were promised five years of probation in exchange for their guilty pleas.
"These defendants engaged in a shocking abuse of power which they finally acknowledged," District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said. "While I would have preferred to see them serve prison time, they are no longer members of our police department and with today's plea are convicted felons."
The 39-year-old Martins and 34-year-old Hall were formerly assigned to the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics, and according to the investigation, on September 15, 2017, at approximately 7:30 p.m., the defendants, who were on-duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan working as part of a team of plainclothes detectives conducting a buy-and-bust operation, left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Just after 8 p.m., the officers conducted a car stop of an Infinity Coupe driven by an 18-year-old woman with two male passengers and found a quantity of marijuana in the front seat cup holder.
The officers instructed the three occupants to step out of the car and asked if they had any drugs on them, according to the investigation. The young woman responded she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills. The detectives handcuffed the woman, told her she was under arrest and would be getting a desk appearance ticket.
They let her companions go, the evidence showed.
After leaving the park, while inside the police van, the woman had sexual intercourse with Martins and performed a sex act on Hall, according to the evidence.
The defendants then drove back to the vicinity of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and released the woman, giving her back the Klonopin pills. They did not report the incident to their supervisor or to anyone else and had no authority to rescind the arrest or to release the detainee, according to the indictment.
DNA recovered from the woman was a match to both of the defendants. Video surveillance shows the woman exiting the police van at approximately 8:42 p.m., the investigation found.
Previous charges of rape were dropped against the officers in March after a judge ruled her story was too inconsistent, but her attorney stands by her claims.
"This is outrageous that they can rape my client and not serve any jail time," attorney Michael David said. "It was cut and dry. There was absolutely no evidence, credible evidence, against her as to the rape. None. All the evidence shows to the rape. We have DNA evidence. They pled guilty to bribery, which means that they engaged in sexual activity."
Martins and Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree bribe receiving and nine counts of official misconduct before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun, who indicated he will sentence each defendant on October 10, 2019, to five years' probation, over prosecutors' objections.
"There was no handcuffs, there was no coercion, it was consensual, just for her not to be charged with possessing drugs," defense attorney Peter Guadagnino said. "And that's what it was."
David says he hopes to file federal civil rights violations against the former officers.
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