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Detective Who Obtained Tessa Majors Confession Has A History Of Misconduct Accusations, Attorney Says
By
JB Nicholas
Published Feb 26, 2020
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JB Nicholas / Gothamist
By
JB Nicholas
Published Feb 26, 2020
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The veteran NYPD homicide detective who extracted a confession central to the prosecution of the three teens charged with killing Tessa Majors has been repeatedly accused of misconduct, according to the court-appointed lawyer for one of the teens.
The attorney, Hannah Kaplan, cross-examined Detective Wilfredo Acevedo this week in Manhattan Family Court. She said the detective has been accused of violating NYPD rules and citizens' civil rights more than a dozen times since 2006.
Among the claims against Acevedo found in lawsuits and complaints from the city’s Civilian Complaint Review Board: that he entered a home without probable cause or a warrant, that he falsely reported evidence, that he wrongly detained a citizen without a factual foundation to conclude the person had committed a crime, that he spoke obscenely or rudely to someone, that he filed false or inaccurate police reports and that he failed to properly document his police work, Kaplan said.
At least some of the complaints were substantiated by the city's Civilian Complaint Review Board, Kaplan asserted. But Acevedo only admitted one of them was. The detective either denied the rest of the complaints or claimed not to recall what he allegedly did to trigger them.
In all, Acevedo replied "I don't recall," or some variation of the phrase, at least 19 times during the hearing, which is being held before Family Court Judge Carol Goldstein. The judge will decide whether the confession was legally obtained or whether it was coerced.
Majors was stabbed to death during a robbery-gone-wrong on December 11th, prosecutors allege. Attacked on a stone staircase inside Morningside Park, the mortally wounded 18-year-old Barnard student staggered up the stairs before collapsing on Morningside Drive. Minutes later she was dead.
A 13-year-old was arrested the next day in a building near the park, armed with a knife, police said. That led Detective Acevedo to interrogate the teen regarding Majors's murder, he said on Tuesday. The teen told the detective that he and two "friends" tried to rob Majors, but she resisted, a video recording of the interrogation shows.
"So they got mad and then, then she was probably refusing to give it to them and they got mad. They probably took it from her," the 13-year-old said in the recording.
The boy is being charged as a juvenile in Family Court because New York law draws the line in most murder cases between reform-oriented juvenile "adjudication" and adult criminal punishments at 14. Because he is not being prosecuted as an adult, Gothamist is not publishing his name.
The 13-year-old's confession implicated two 14-year-olds, Luchiano Lewis and Rashaun Weaver, who were later arrested. They are being charged as adults and face murder and robbery charges. All three teens are being detained without bail.
If Judge Goldstein finds that the 13-year-old's confession was coerced, the court can bar its use as evidence to prove the teen's guilt.
That could also complicate the prosecution of Lewis and Weaver as well, because police arrested the 13-year-old first, and relied on his confession to justify the arrests of Lewis and Weaver. If the court rules the 13-year-old's confession was improperly obtained, then the arrests of Lewis and Weaver might be found to lack sufficient legal basis.
Among the most serious allegations against Acevedo was a claim that he "approached a woman inside a cell at the 32nd Precinct and attacked her," Kaplan, the 13-year-old's attorney, charged. The woman allegedly required treatment at "Bellevue Hospital for swelling to her arms and wrists," Kaplan claimed.
Acevedo, a 15-year NYPD veteran who was once given a "Detective of the Year" award, denied it ever happened: "That is incorrect, I’ve never attacked anyone.”
Detective Acevedo did admit that he misstated a fact in a police report filed in connection with the case when he falsely said the 13-year-old was a "person of interest" in the investigation before Acevedo interrogated him.
In fact, the 13-year-old only became a suspect during the interrogation, Acevedo conceded during the hearing.
"Detective Acevedo made 237 arrests including 93 felony arrests removing dangerous criminals from our streets. He has been recognized with 24 department medals. He has never been found to have made a single false statement or falsely arrested anyone by either the Department, the CCRB, any Civil Court or District Attorney," NYPD spokesperson Sergeant Jessica McRorie said in a statement.
The President of the Detectives Endowment Association, Detective Paul DiGiacomo, called Kaplan's allegations against Detective Acevedo "nonfactual and inaccurate."
The existence of the lawsuits against Acevedo—which are public records—was previously reported by Gothamist. The existence of the CCRB complaints has not been previously reported. That's because New York State law generally prohibits their public disclosure.
Gothamist asked the CCRB for copies of the complaints filed against Acevedo, as well as what action, if any, the CCRB took. But a spokesperson for the CCRB said it was precluded from releasing the documents.
"Per New York Civil Rights Law Section 50-a, the Civilian Complaint Review Board is prohibited from releasing personnel records associated with individual members of the New York City Police Department," the spokesperson said in an emailed statement.
The hearing continued on Wednesday, and Judge Goldstein is expected to rule on the confession sometime in mid-March.
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