A Brooklyn district attorney is looking to throw out 90 convictions connected to the work of a former detective accused of perjury.
District Attorney Eric Gonzalez revealed in a Wednesday announcement that he plans to ask a judge to vacate 27 felony and 63 misdemeanor convictions based off investigations by former New York Police Department detective Joseph Franco. In April 2019, Franco was indicted by a grand jury and charged with official misconduct and 16 counts of first-degree perjury. Several more perjury charges were added later.
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Those initial charges resulted in three unlawful arrests, prosecutors said. The cases at issue, which occurred between 2004 and 2011, were not found to have similar misconduct from Franco. Those convicted were not cleared of wrongdoing after further investigation. According to Gonzalez, that’s not enough reason to stand by the convictions.
“Knowingly and repeatedly framing innocent people obliterates the credibility of any police officer, and proving perjury in such circumstances is rare,” he said. “After a grand jury reviewed the evidence and indicted former detective Franco, I have lost confidence in his work. His cases in Brooklyn are over a decade old, which limited our ability to reinvestigate them, but I cannot in good faith stand by convictions that principally relied on his testimony. Integrity and credibility are at the heart of the justice system and prerequisites for community trust.”
A judge began vacating the convictions at the behest of defense attorneys at a virtual hearing on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported.
The Conviction Review Unit investigated all convictions in which Franco was involved.
“Cases where he was the primary undercover and his testimony was necessary for a potential hearing or trial were flagged for dismissal,” according to the DA’s office.
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The longest felony sentence handed down in the convictions was three years, according to the DA’s office. The longest misdemeanor sentence was 90 days.
Following his indictment, Franco pleaded not guilty, and his case remains pending. He was fired from the NYPD in April 2020.
