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Posted on 12/07/2007 5:23:59 AM PST by SubGeniusX
A veteran New York City police detective was arraigned on perjury charges in the Bronx yesterday after a suspect in an attempted murder case secretly recorded his interrogation with an MP3 player.
Detective Christopher Perino is accused of lying 12 times during his sworn testimony in the April trial of the suspect, Erik Crespo, by saying that he did not conduct an interrogation of Mr. Crespo.
At yesterday’s hearing in State Supreme Court in the Bronx, Detective Perino, 42, a member of the department for 19 years, pleaded not guilty to 12 counts of first-degree perjury. He made no further comment during his court appearance. He has been suspended and has surrendered his badge and gun, the police said. He was released on $15,000 bail.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
some bosses might go down on this one as well. my biggest surprise is that this kid was allowed to have anything on his person during the questioning. bad search on the part of the cops.
i'm happy they got the right guy for the shooting, but for what?
What is the normal limit?
The most unlucky people who get arrested in Kaleefornia would be those who are are arrested for a felony at about 5 PM on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. They would be in jail the rest of Wednesday, all day Thursday and Friday since the courts are closed, and all day Saturday and Sunday. Their time starts counting on Monday and they could be in until 5 PM Tuesday unless the paperwork gets filed. That's six days in custody because of bad timing.
In a normal arrest situation, a person arrested will have about 2 days before mandatory release unless the case is filed.
To bad that because of this Officers actions they are only able to send him up for 7 years.
Now, I can agree that a "good" search would have avoided this situation from coming up in court... but the officer still would have been lying on the stand....
Sucks to be the officer, losing it all after 19 years, but he did it to himself (I actually feel for his family, for him not so much), and his actions will let a dangerous criminal out on the street much sooner than necessary...
Also, the fact that this guy is 19 years in, you would think he would have known better, unless of course his actions on the stand were just S.O.P. .... (but this was his first time committing perjury, right?)
Most likely this could also very well call into question, many other arrests and cases that this guy, has testified in. That could also get convictions overturned or at the least cost the Courts and Taxpayers lots of time and money...
Bottom, line... if he had followed the law and let the kid have a lawyer this would have never happened, if he had told the truth on the stand it never would have happened ...
The worst part is the suspicion is that this was standard procedure, and that if he did it, a lot of others did it.
A little RTFA has the suspect stating that he shot the guy.
Sure, but he states self defense... Good arrest? Who knows.
That might be fun for some interrogations, depending how hot the suspect is, but I doubt that it is going to happen any time soon. Some interrogations are voluntary. The person shows up at the station and talks with the detective and is not under arrest, and may not ever be arrested. It would be a tough sell to get people who aren't under arrest to strip before being questioned. Unless it's San Francisco.
So why can’t Hunter get any respect or real coverage? It’s extremely frustrating.
Not only is this case shot, every case this guy ever testified in is at risk. If the convicted people have the money, their lawyers can most likely get them a new trial or an outright release.
The really sad thing is that since the suspect was not under arrest, the cop could have, and should have, simply recorded the conversation. He would have had the suspect’s statement that it was self defense, but he would also have had the information that the suspect had a gun. At that point, he still could have made his arrest, and the tape would have been admissible. It is then up to the D.A. to decide to file on the charge, reduce it, or dismiss it. And the cop could have been working some other case instead of facing perjury charges.
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From the Article:
He interviewed Mr. Crespo at the precinct station house following Mr. Crespo’s arrest six days after the shooting.
he was already under arrest...
but yes it should have been recorded... it may very well could have been, but the tape was not turned over, due to the suspect requesting a lawyer and the interrogation continuing w/o one present... (pure spculation, as there is no evedence in the article to support that a recording was made by the police)
“Mr. Johnson added that he did not believe that the problem of officers’ giving perjured testimony was widespread.”
Where does that fall on the turnip truck scale?
I’ve had the cops lie about me under oath three times in my life. They pull this crap all of the time. Don’t trust anybody with a badge.
"He interviewed Mr. Crespo at the precinct station house following Mr. Crespo’s arrest six days after the shooting."
There seems to be a contradiction in what is being reported. I am going to guess that he had been arrested and released, and that he came back to the station house for an interview. I don't how to interpret it any other way. If he was in custody they would not have let him take personal possessions with him like an MP3 player. His possessions would still be in his property bag at the jail.
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>>Not only is this case shot, every case this guy ever testified in is at risk.
I expect that there is huge business right now in Raleigh, doing appeals of Nifong’s prior convictions, in the wake of the Duke LAX case unraveling.
I think you’re right. The limiting factor is how many of the convicted have the money to go back to court.
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