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Bronx judge tosses convictions that hinged on former NYPD detective accused of perjury
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 7, 2023
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Nicolas Economou/NurPhoto via Getty Images
By
Samantha Max
Published Sep 7, 2023
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A Bronx judge has dismissed 67 cases connected to a former NYPD detective accused of lying to secure drug arrests.
The dismissals follow hundreds of other convictions that have been tossed across the city because they may have been tainted by Joseph Franco, who worked as an undercover narcotics detective before the NYPD fired him in 2020 for making false statements.
In the Bronx, the courts have now thrown out a total of 324 cases, following a review by the office of the district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Bureau, which investigates potentially wrongful convictions.
“Prosecutors had relied on evidence from someone with compromised credibility, and the district attorney cannot stand behind these convictions,” Bronx DA Darcel Clark said in a press release.
Neither the NYPD nor Franco’s attorney immediately responded to requests for comment.
The latest batch of dismissed cases involves people who were charged between 2011 and 2015, when Franco was a detective in the Bronx. Of the 67 convictions, 24 were for seventh-degree criminal possession of a substance — a low-level drug possession charge — and nine were for marijuana offenses that are no longer illegal in New York, according to the DA’s office. Others were for fourth-degree criminal facilitation — when someone helps another person to commit a crime — and for using drug paraphernalia.
Clark’s office said its Conviction Integrity Unit has now completed its review of cases that hinged on Franco’s statements and does not plan to request any additional dismissals.
Franco stood trial earlier this year in Manhattan on charges of perjury and official misconduct. Prosecutors accused Franco of lying on police paperwork and in court about drug sales he said he had witnessed. The district attorney’s office said it had uncovered video evidence that showed it would have been impossible for Franco to watch the drug deals he claimed to have seen.
“His lies were a poison that tainted any fair or legitimate case,” Assistant DA Samantha Dworken said during opening statements in January.
Franco’s defense attorney, Howard Evan Tanner, denied that the former detective lied and said any contradictions in his statements were unintentional.
“I think he was trying to do his job to the best of his ability,” Tanner said in court.
The jury never reached a verdict in the case. A judge dismissed the charges against Franco partway through the weeks-long trial because prosecutors failed to turn over all the evidence they were legally required to share with the defense.
Tagged
public safety
bronx
Samantha Max
Samantha reports on whether New Yorkers feel safe and whether the institutions that are supposed to protect them are working. Before coming to WNYC/Gothamist, she spent three years covering the criminal justice system in Tennessee for Nashville Public Radio. Her reporting on Nashville's police department received multiple awards, including the Daniel Schorr Journalism Prize. Samantha was also part of the inaugural class of Report for America, a service journalism program that sends up-and-coming reporters to local newsrooms across the country. She is a Northwestern University grad, a Baltimore native and fluent in Spanish. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or Signal: samanthamaxwnyc.93.
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