Law enforcement agencies across the country have spent the last year lying about being defunded while enjoying a cooked up false narrative—with the complicity of traditional news outlets and pundits—that crime is scary out of control now that the police have not been defunded. Meanwhile law enforcement agencies have been fielding the avalanche of civil lawsuits, civil rights lawsuits, and criminal prosecutions we have come to expect from a historically unaccountable and abusive apparatus.
Another issue being faced as a result of law enforcement’s corruptions and abuses of power has fallen to our judicial system. Earlier this month, Melinda Katz, the district attorney for Queens, New York, asked a judge to throw out 60 criminal cases and their convictions. The reason? Some of the “essential witnesses” in the cases included at least one of three former New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives who have been convicted of true dirtbaggery themselves.
This new announcement from the Queens District Attorney’s office comes after another review The New York Times says “stems from a letter sent in May by the Legal Aid Society and other legal defense and civil rights organizations to the city’s five district attorneys and the special narcotics prosecutor, identifying 20 police officers who had been convicted of crimes and two others who had engaged in work-related misconduct.”
Let’s talk about the three former cops who have led to these 60 dismissals:
The first is a former NYPD Detective Kevin Desormeau, who was convicted of perjury in April 2018. Desormeau was considered a top cop in Queens for his high arrest and conviction rate. Let that sink in: This isn’t the rotten apple, it’s the golden goose. Desormeau received three years of probation and a $500 fine. The judge explained his light sentence as an attempt to not become “complicit in the district attorney’s hypocrisy,” as prosecutors seemed to be just fine with using Desormeau to get convictions for years.
Oh, by the way, this former top cop also—along with his fellow “highly regarded” partner Sasha Neve—reportedly were convicted of concocting false stories in order to carry out an illegal no-warrant search that led to the arrest of a Washington Heights man who spent 30 days in jail before charges were dropped.
Also on the list of dirtbag apples is former NYPD Detective Oscar Sandino, who was arrested in 2010 and convicted of sexually assaulting a citizen in 2008, amongst other things.
The 13-year veteran of the NYPD ended up accused of sexual misconduct with three women, following the same pattern of coercion and abuse of his position as a trusted public servant. The city paid out some money to at least one the victims while Sandino pled guilty to two misdemeanor civil rights violations. It wasn’t until after he pled guilty that the NYPD fired him in 2011. Tim Cushing over at TechDirt points out that the announcement of these new case dismissals means that “somehow, he's still involved with six convictions now being tossed out because of his role as a witness.” The potential lengths of jail time and punishments received by the individuals convicted after this guy served as an “essential” witness against them is tough to think about.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Oh, I heard about this, but I thought it was more like 90 cases that were tossed as a result of criminal behavior on the part of the NYPD.” You aren’t wrong, but that was said a few months ago about convicted liar and 20-year veteran police officer and narcotics detective Joseph Franco. Franco’s numerous accounts of drug sales as an undercover officer came under scrutiny after videos revealed that he seemed to be lying most of the time.
The cases thrown out connected to Franco include mostly men arrested between 2004 and 2011. The people erroneously arrested and convicted by this scumbag of a former cop either spent time in jail, or they were spared time in jail but came out the other side with criminal records that have followed them for more than a decade.
Another issue being faced as a result of law enforcement’s corruptions and abuses of power has fallen to our judicial system. Earlier this month, Melinda Katz, the district attorney for Queens, New York, asked a judge to throw out 60 criminal cases and their convictions. The reason? Some of the “essential witnesses” in the cases included at least one of three former New York Police Department (NYPD) detectives who have been convicted of true dirtbaggery themselves.
This new announcement from the Queens District Attorney’s office comes after another review The New York Times says “stems from a letter sent in May by the Legal Aid Society and other legal defense and civil rights organizations to the city’s five district attorneys and the special narcotics prosecutor, identifying 20 police officers who had been convicted of crimes and two others who had engaged in work-related misconduct.”
Let’s talk about the three former cops who have led to these 60 dismissals:
The first is a former NYPD Detective Kevin Desormeau, who was convicted of perjury in April 2018. Desormeau was considered a top cop in Queens for his high arrest and conviction rate. Let that sink in: This isn’t the rotten apple, it’s the golden goose. Desormeau received three years of probation and a $500 fine. The judge explained his light sentence as an attempt to not become “complicit in the district attorney’s hypocrisy,” as prosecutors seemed to be just fine with using Desormeau to get convictions for years.
Oh, by the way, this former top cop also—along with his fellow “highly regarded” partner Sasha Neve—reportedly were convicted of concocting false stories in order to carry out an illegal no-warrant search that led to the arrest of a Washington Heights man who spent 30 days in jail before charges were dropped.
Also on the list of dirtbag apples is former NYPD Detective Oscar Sandino, who was arrested in 2010 and convicted of sexually assaulting a citizen in 2008, amongst other things.
The 13-year veteran of the NYPD ended up accused of sexual misconduct with three women, following the same pattern of coercion and abuse of his position as a trusted public servant. The city paid out some money to at least one the victims while Sandino pled guilty to two misdemeanor civil rights violations. It wasn’t until after he pled guilty that the NYPD fired him in 2011. Tim Cushing over at TechDirt points out that the announcement of these new case dismissals means that “somehow, he's still involved with six convictions now being tossed out because of his role as a witness.” The potential lengths of jail time and punishments received by the individuals convicted after this guy served as an “essential” witness against them is tough to think about.
You may be thinking to yourself, “Oh, I heard about this, but I thought it was more like 90 cases that were tossed as a result of criminal behavior on the part of the NYPD.” You aren’t wrong, but that was said a few months ago about convicted liar and 20-year veteran police officer and narcotics detective Joseph Franco. Franco’s numerous accounts of drug sales as an undercover officer came under scrutiny after videos revealed that he seemed to be lying most of the time.
The cases thrown out connected to Franco include mostly men arrested between 2004 and 2011. The people erroneously arrested and convicted by this scumbag of a former cop either spent time in jail, or they were spared time in jail but came out the other side with criminal records that have followed them for more than a decade.