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Federal Judge: Wrongfully Convicted Man Can Sue Brooklyn DA, NYPD
By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 16, 2013
Modified Feb 16, 2013
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By
Jen Chung
Published Feb 16, 2013
Modified Feb 16, 2013
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In 2010, Jabbar Collins was released from prison, where he had served 15 years for a wrongful murder conviction. It was revealed that the Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes' office never turned over information to Collins' defense, like how one of three witnesses was allegedly threatened by the lead prosecutor to testify against Collins and how another witness testified after getting a deal from the DA's office in another case. Now a federal judge says that Collins can proceed with his lawsuit against both the Brooklyn DA's office and the NYPD for $150 million.
Collins had been accused—and then convicted—killing of Rabbi Abraham Pollack in Williamsburg during an armed robbery in 1994. But the witnesses who testified against Collins in 1995 admitted in 2010 that they were coerced by the DA's office, including leader prosecutor Michael Vecchione. One said, "[Vecchione] told me he was going to hit me over the head with a coffee table or lock me up for a couple of years for perjury" if he didn't testify against Collin.s
The NY Times reports, "In his opinion on Friday, Judge Frederic Block of United States District Court in Brooklyn denied the city’s request to throw out the case. His language was unusually pointed as he said the facts demonstrated significant misconduct by both the police and prosecutors. 'The court concludes that Collins’s allegations regarding Hynes’s response — or lack thereof — to misconduct by Vecchione and other assistants make plausible his theory that Hynes was so deliberately indifferent to the underhanded tactics that his subordinates employed as to effectively encourage them to do so,' Judge Block wrote in the opinion." In fact, during a hearing last fall, Block was amazed that Vecchione was never punished, asking a city lawyer, "Hynes hasn't treated it seriously, has he? What has he done? Name one thing he's done in light of Vecchione's aberrational behavior. This was horrific behavior on the part of Vecchione. We are going to have a civil proceeding and all of this is going to be uncovered, I kid you not."
While in prison, Collins picked away at the inconsistencies of his case. He contacted one witness, Edwin Oliva, who wrote back to him saying, "I always knew I was going to hear from you sooner or later. And to tell you the truth, I am glad you wrote, now once and for all I can settle the record."
Mr. Oliva wrote that he had been arrested a few weeks after the Pollack murder for a robbery he pulled in the building. He said the police asked about the rabbi's killing and he told them all he knew was that Mr. Collins had been arrested.
Detectives threatened to charge Mr. Oliva as an accessory, he wrote, and then made up a statement implicating Mr. Collins. Mr. Oliva wrote that he was so strung out and sleepy from a month-long run of "smoking & sniffin' dope" that he signed the statement, adding he "didn't even know what...I was signing."
But now, Mr. Oliva added, he wanted to help Mr. Collins, "because I know you got a rotten deal."
Collins is now a paralegal and legal analyst at his lawyer's firm.
Tagged
brooklyn da
charles hynes
federal lawsuit
jabbar collins
lawsuit
michael vecchione
nypd
wrongful conviction
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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