Recording Nets Perjury Charges for NY Detective

[Desertdog]

Lesson to LEOs, don't lie when you testify.

Recording Nets Charges for NY Detective
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20071207/D8TCC55G0.html

By TOM HAYS

NEW YORK (AP) - A teenage suspect who secretly recorded his interrogation on an MP3 player has landed a veteran detective in the middle of perjury charges, authorities said Thursday.

Unaware of the recording, Detective Christopher Perino testified in April that the suspect "wasn't questioned" about a shooting in the Bronx, a criminal complaint said. But then the defense confronted the detective with a transcript it said proved he had spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to persuade Erik Crespo to confess - at times with vulgar tactics.

Once the transcript was revealed in court, prosecutors asked for a recess, defense attorney Mark DeMarco said. The detective was pulled from the witness stand and advised to get a lawyer.

Perino, 42, was arraigned Thursday on 12 counts of first-degree perjury and faces as many as seven years on each count, prosecutors said. He was released on $15,000 bail.

His attorney did not immediately respond to a telephone message seeking comment Thursday. A New York Police Department spokesman declined to comment.

The allegations "put the safety of all law-abiding citizens at risk because they undermine the integrity and foundation of the entire criminal justice system," District Attorney Robert Johnson said in a statement.

Perino had arrested Crespo on New Year's Eve 2005 while investigating the shooting of a man in an elevator. While in an interrogation room at a station house, Crespo, then 17, stealthily pressed the record button on the MP3 player, a Christmas gift, DeMarco said.

After Crespo was charged with attempted murder, his family surprised DeMarco by playing him the recording.

"I couldn't believe my ears," said the lawyer, who decided to keep the recording under wraps until he cross-examined Perino at the trial.

Prosecutors then offered Crespo, who had faced as many as 25 years if convicted, seven years if he pleaded guilty to a weapons charge. He accepted.

[Len Budney]

Another one for the freedom. I'm starting to wonder whether the next revolution will be fought with PDRs rather than firearms.

[The Viking]

I wonder what went through his mind when he heard that recording .

[Len Budney]

I wonder what went through his mind when he heard that recording .

"I wonder if a tazer would have killed that MF-ers recorder? Note to self: taze everyone from now on."

[K Frame]

I wonder what went through his mind when he heard that recording .

Hopefully it was something along the lines of "I need to stock up on soap-on-a-rope."

[RevDisk]

Lesson to LEOs, don't lie when you testify.

The more likely lesson that will be learned is that LEO's need to search suspects for recording devices.  Sigh

If I was the kid, I'd be moving out of the area.  Fast.

[Balog]

Perino, 42, was arraigned Thursday on 12 counts of first-degree perjury and faces as many as seven years on each count, prosecutors said. He was released on $15,000 bail.

Let's hope he gets the max and serves em consecutively.

[geronimotwo]

The allegations "put the safety of all law-abiding citizens at risk because they undermine the integrity and foundation of the entire criminal justice system," District Attorney Robert Johnson said in a statement

the allegations put the safety of all law abiding citizens at risk? (this is a quote from a district attorney?)

shouldn't this read,

police officers who lie under oath put the safety of all law-abiding citizens at risk?

[DJJ]

A while back the NM legislature was considering a law that would have required all interrogations be recorded and the records properly maintained and documented. Guess who was against it, on the grounds that it "suggested that we aren't trustworthy"?

[Len Budney]

Guess who was against it, on the grounds that it "suggestedwould prove that we aren't trustworthy"?

Fixed it.

[DJJ]

By the way, did anybody else hear about that case where the perjurers claimed the defendant asked them to shut off the tape recorder, then confessed while it was off? Amazingly, no one ever asked them to produce the recording of her asking, and none of them was ever charged. Defendant was acquitted, of course.

[DustinD]

The allegations "put the safety of all law-abiding citizens at risk because they undermine the integrity and foundation of the entire criminal justice system," District Attorney Robert Johnson said in a statement.

Isn't that the same criminal justice system that destroyed mountains of evidence after learning that DNA could be extracted and prove people innocence about ten years ago? 

[cordex]

If I was the kid, I'd be moving out of the area.  Fast.

He will.  Hey, maybe he'll meet up with the dirty detective in his new place:

Prosecutors then offered Crespo, who had faced as many as 25 years if convicted, seven years if he pleaded guilty to a weapons charge. He accepted.

While it is no defense of the detective's behavior, chances seem good that this "kid" was involved in a murder.  He thought it was a good deal to take seven years in prison, even after the detective was shown to be guilty of perjury.

[ilbob]

my guess is the police response will be to try to make it illegal to record police officers.

NYC has already passed some kind of law banning video recording without a permit issued by the city.