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Friday, May 31, 2013

Brooklyn DA 'arrested' people and held them until they testified in 'private jail system'


Brooklyn DA 'arrested' people and held them until they testified in 'private jail system'

  • Charles Hynes's office is said to have held witnesses in locked hotel rooms
  • Witnesses were stripped to their underwear, says one former employee
  • Claims made by Joel Rudin, lawyer for man wrongfully convicted of murder
By Helen Lawson
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Brooklyn's District Attorney Charles Hynes has been accused of using hotel rooms as 'private jails'
Brooklyn's District Attorney Charles Hynes has been accused of using hotel rooms as 'private jails' in a lawsuit
Brooklyn's District Attorney has been accused of using locked hotel rooms as 'private jails' to interrogate witnesses and pressure them into giving false testimony in court.
The office of Charles Hynes is said to have routinely held trial witnesses against their will, according to new court papers filed by a lawyer representing a man suing for $150million for a wrongful murder conviction.
In court papers, Joel Rudin said: 'Hynes's office was running a private jail system where witnesses were illegally interrogated and forcibly detained indefinitely.'
The papers were filed in connection with a lawsuit by Rudin's client Jabbar Collins, who spent 15 years in jail for the murder of a Brooklyn rabbi.
His conviction was overturned when it emerged that key prosecution witnesses had been coerced into giving false testimony by prosecutors and police.
During a deposition, former DA's office employee Christopher Salsarulo described how witnesses were treated during their detention.
He said: 'Once they're handcuffed, they're in their underwear and you speak to them a little bit more, "Are you going to fight us? You like pants?"'

'You know, if that's the case, if they’re compliant, we dress them and give them water, whatever they need so they would be comfortable.'
Rudin also highlighted evidence from paralegal Liz Fitzgerald, who said that prosecutors' signatures on arrest warrants were forged by paralegals on their behalf, which is illegal.
He wants Hynes and prosecutor Michael Vecchione to face a deposition over the allegations, reports the New York Times.
The judge who overturned Collins' conviction for the 1995 murder of Abraham Pollack said Vecchione had threatened a heroin addict with physical harm and prosecution if he did not testify for the prosecution.
The hotel room interrogations are said to have taken place during the 1990s, reports the New York Daily News.

Witnesses were arrested, held under armed guard and not allowed to make phone calls or receive visitors.
They were also taken to the DA's office instead of a court in some cases, according to three former employees who have testified against the city.
The lawsuit claims that prosecutors 'would gain the involuntary custody of witnesses from which he would coerce false statements and testimony'.
Jerry Schmetterer, a spokesman for the Brooklyn DA's Office, told the New York Post: 'It is not - nor was it ever - the practice of this office to hold people in hotel rooms against their will without judicial intervention.'
In a statement, the city’s law department said: 'Mr Rudin’s hyperbolic characterizations of various alleged practices in the Brooklyn DA's office are irresponsible and absurd. Our court papers fully address the legal issues.'

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