Two former New York City Police detectives got off with five years probation after pleading guilty for having sex inside a police van with an 18-year-old woman they had arrested, Kings County District Attorney Eric Gonzalez announced today.
Eddie Martins, 39, and Richard Hall, 34, formerly assigned to the NYPD’s Brooklyn South Narcotics pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree bribe receiving and nine counts of official misconduct and Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun. Gonzalez’ office requested a term of incarceration of one to three years, but because the defendants pleaded guilty to the entire indictment, the probation agreement was offered by the Court and without prosecutors’ consent.
“These defendants engaged in a shocking abuse of power which they finally acknowledged. 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,” said Gonzalez.
The incident unfolded at about 7:30 p.m., Sept. 15, 2017, when the defendants, while on-duty riding in a Dodge Caravan were part of a plainclothes buy and bust operation in the confines of the 60th Precinct.
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. There was 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.
While the victim alleged she was raped, both defendants maintained the sex was consensual.
The incident also led for a call to change an existing state statute that prohibits sexual contact between corrections or parole officers and the individuals in their custody, but does not explicitly indicate the legality of such contact between police officers and those who they detain or take into custody.
State Sen. Diane Savino (D-Coney Island, Sunset Park, Staten Island), who has been involved in changing the statute to include police officers in the provision, said the measure has been stalled in the state legislature.
It has not been passed yet, she said.
