Wrist slap for ‘rape’ cops
Disgraced detectives given fi ve years probation for sex scheme
BY ROSE ADAMS
Two disgraced former narcotics
detectives were slapped
with fi ve years’ probation after
trading freedom for sex
with an 18-year-old suspect in
Gravesend.
Brooklyn Supreme Court
Justice Danny Chun sentenced
the defendants, Eddie
Martins, 39, and Richard Hall,
34, on Friday, following their
guilty plea in August to two
counts of third-degree bribe
receiving and nine counts of
offi cial misconduct, according
to District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
Martins and Hall were
members of the Police Department’s
Brooklyn South
Narcotics team when they
cuffed the teenage victim in
Gravesend in September 2017,
claiming they spotted marijuana
and two prescription
pills in her car. The detectives
then offered to release the
woman in exchange for sexual
favors , which they accepted
in the back of their police van
parked in Calvert Vaux Park,
according to the DA’s offi ce.
COURIER L 26 IFE, OCT. 18-24, 2019
The victim — who goes by
the pseudonym Anna Chambers
— accused the detectives
of rape, but the district attorney
dropped the rape changes
the following March , citing
“serious credibility issues,”
and claiming that Chambers’
testimony contained a “series
of false, misleading, and inconsistent
statements about
the facts of the case,” said
Oren Yaniv, a spokesman for
the district attorney’s offi ce.
Investigators matched
DNA recovered from the victim’s
body to both Martins and
Hall, and nearby video surveillance
shows the woman
exiting the police van about 40
minutes after her arrest, prosecutors
claim.
Chambers’ attorney
slammed the DA for dropping
the rape charges, arguing that
the accusations against Chambers
were part of a smear campaign
against his client, and
that the hard evidence of the
case spoke for itself, Gothamist
reported .
“If you’re arrested and kidnapped
in a van with two large
offi cers with guns, there’s no
consent. They’re getting away
with rape,” said Michael David.
“It sends a horrible message
to victims of police sexual
misconduct.”
With the most serious
charge dismissed, Martins
and Hall plead guilty to all
remaining charges in the indictment,
allowing them to
accept a plea deal offered by
the court — without prosecutors’
consent, according to
Gonzalez.
Following the high-profi le
sex crime in 2017, New York
State passed a law forbidding
police offi cers from having
sex with people in their custody.
Gonzalez — who had advocated
for three years’ prison
time — lamented that the law
could not be applied retroactively,
and that, as a result, the
defendants won’t serve prison
time.
“This incident led to a
change in New York law, closing
a loophole that allowed offi
cers to claim that sex with
a detainee was consensual,”
he said on Friday. “Unfortunately,
we could not apply that
new law retroactively. While
my Offi ce recommended
prison time, we accept the
Court’s sentence.”
Two former detectives were given fi ve years’ probation for having sex
with a teenager in their custody in exchange for her release.
Photo via Shutterstock
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