The New York Times
They spent 24 years behind bars. Then the case fell apart.
NEW YORK – The weekend before Christmas in 1996, a store owner opened his check bar in Queens, along with a police officer who was working at the security, when the two were shot dead by a group of men in a trap. . The case turned into a wild chase and within days, three men were arrested. They were convicted in separate trials and sentenced to between 50 years and life in prison for murder. But more than two decades later, the case collapsed. Sign up for The New York Times’ New Morning Newsletter On Friday, a Queens state judge threw out the convictions of all three men and reprimanded prosecutors for concealing evidence that would cast doubt on their guilt. Prosecutors never provided police reports showing investigators linked the killings to other men, members of a local robbery ring. And five testimony reports – never seen by defense attorneys – contradict the confessions of the men, who were wrong in the details of the crime and who, according to lawyers, were forced. The Three Men – Gary Johnson (46); George Bell (44); and Rohan Bolt, 59, stepped outside the prison walls Friday afternoon, each with tears over their faces as they embraced their families. “We finally got it right,” Bolt shouted, squeezing the hands of two of his young grandchildren for the first time. “The district attorney’s office deliberately withheld the defense’s credible information of third-party guilt, ‘” Judge Joseph A. Zayas told the men, who virtually appeared in court. He said the prosecutor had “completely failed” in his “truthful role in these cases” and suggested it could be because prosecutors knew the evidence would jeopardize the chances of the men being convicted. Queens County District Attorney Melinda R. Katz, supported the conviction because of the new evidence, but she stopped saying the men were innocent. Her office plans to review the case for 90 days before deciding if they want to try again. “I can does not stand behind these beliefs, “Katz said in a statement Friday.” However, there is currently insufficient evidence of actual innocence, and therefore we take this opportunity to re-evaluate and investigate the evidence. ” A review unit created by Katz to investigate possible wrongful convictions found no intentional misconduct by the district attorney’s office, Zayas disagrees, calling the office’s position “confusing” and saying prosecutors have hidden evidence and facts. Attorneys also said it took Katz’s office months to agree to release the men, even after the evidence was reviewed. In their court case, they argued that Katz’s position gave the men ‘full justice’. “denies it, because many of the initial evidence against them fell apart.” It had to be done a year ago. What did they do to get their feet wet? “said Mitchell Dinnerstein, one of Bell’s trial attorneys. added that he was of the opinion that the office had taken his position because he was trying to protect the prosecutors concerned, one of whom is still working there. ‘I can not give any other explanation I do not, ‘he said. At the time of their arrest, Bell and Johnson were 19 and 22 years old, while Bolt, 35, was a restaurant owner and married father of four. The mayor of the city, Rudy Giuliani, put intense pressure on detectives to solve the case; one of the victims was the sixth officer killed that year, and Christmas Day was three days away. Recently uncovered documents – police reports, records and notes – shed new light on the case. Police report that members of a gang known as Speedstick were linked to the killings. Two of the gang members told detectives that another member along with Speedstick’s leaders suggested he was involved. Witnesses to another shooting months later – involving one of the gang’s leaders – described several striking similarities to the December crime. And investigators on the two cases also met to discuss it. However, prosecutors have repeatedly claimed that there are no reports linking the crimes, and attempts to link them during the trial have put them off. Lawyers allege that the evidence was suppressed. “In the history of New York State, this is one of the most outrageous violations of an individual’s constitutional rights I can ever imagine,” said Marc Wolinsky, a lawyer for Bell. The case is the first test of Katz’s handling of criminal misconduct claims. Some defense attorneys and former prosecutors believe that misconduct was perpetrated for 27 years by District Attorney Richard A. Brown, who died in 2019. Leaders in the office defended him, saying the problems were prioritized when they arose. After Katz started at the beginning of last year, he set up a unit to review possible wrongful convictions, something her predecessor had long refused to do. The investigation’s investigation has led to two men being released from jail in separate murder cases last year after witnesses withdrew or new DNA tests questioned the guilt of one man. The unit took the case of the three men convicted in the 1996 shooting incident in 1996, at the request of the men’s lawyers, and spent months on new documents. It was found that the evidence of exclusive information had not been conveyed, and advocates for the three men said talks had begun on the liberation of the men before Thanksgiving. They accused Katz of moving slowly, even after the problems in the case became clear. Chris Policano, a spokesman for the office, said in a statement that Katz “shows no fear when it comes to investigating the prosecution cases” and that he is introducing measures to strengthen communication and exchange information on the whole office. “In this case, our unit for conviction’s integrity concluded that there was no misconduct by the prosecutor,” he added. “It is said that a great deal of institutional soul-searching has taken place, and we have taken steps to ensure that this kind of Brady error does not recur.” The Brady rule requires prosecutors to hand over apologetic evidence to the defense. The issues in the case are a clear example of the behavior that, according to some attorneys in the district attorney’s office, has long been overlooked. Judges have ruled that prosecutors misbehaved in at least 117 cases between 1985 and 2017; a lawyer who reviewed the office’s convictions found that the prosecutors were rarely disciplined. One of several prosecutors in all three cases, Brad A. Leventhal, was among them. Court records show that an appeals panel of three judges overturned the conviction in one of Leventhal’s attempted murders, and ordered a new trial in 2006 on the basis of ‘repeated cases of misconduct during the cross-examination of a witness and closing arguments. Leventhal, now the head of the murder trial office, commented to Jennifer Naiburg, an executive assistant district attorney in the office. Naiburg said Leventhal handled about 85 cases as a defender and prosecutor, and except in 2006, he was not charged with misconduct, and none of his convictions were overturned. The office does not intend to review convictions of individual prosecutors in the past, as the review unit determined that no intentional misconduct occurred. However, some of the unknown police reports were used in other prosecutions. And notes written by Charles Testagrossa, a former prosecutor in the Queens law firm, suggest he was aware that a member of Speedstick may have been driving a van used in the murders. Testagrossa, who now works at the Nassau County District Attorney’s Office, said in a statement Thursday that he had disclosed “all exclusive material” he knew about the case and during his career. “I have always believed that all parties in a trial – the victims and their families, and the accused and their families – deserve justice and fairness,” he said. At each trial, prosecutors relied on various pieces of evidence, including two of the men’s initial confessions, an eyewitness identification, a report from a jailer and the testimony of a fourth man who was also charged in the murders. However, according to court documents, there is no physical evidence linking the men to the crime. Johnson and Bell confessed to the killings several days after it took place at Christmas. Johnson, however, could not even name the color of the used getaway wagon. Bell also offered several descriptions that were apparently given to him by officials – and detectives used tactics while questioning him which is known to lead to false confessions, lawyers argue. According to records, he also told a lawyer at the time that he had been repeatedly beaten and beaten by a detective. Questions were also raised about the reports of key witnesses. One man, who has since died, could not have seen the shooting from where he said he was standing, experts later found. The report of a prison informant who testified against Bell and Johnson was also cast in serious doubt. ‘When this unfortunate journey began, I was only 19 years old. “I was just a child with no clear understanding of the law or even my own rights,” Bell said during the trial on Friday. “Thank you for giving me a second chance in my life.” This article originally appeared in The New York Times. © 2021 The New York Times Company