Prosecutors have asked a New York judge to throw out scores of convictions relating to drug dealing that are linked to a detective charged with perjury.
Joseph Franco, 48, served in Brooklyn and Manhattan over two decades, making thousands of arrests on suspicion of drug-related offences and offering testimony that helped secure convictions.
In 2019 he was charged with perjury and misconduct after video contradicted some of his testimony. He was said to have “falsely claimed to observe individuals engaging in narcotics transactions”. Franco was fired by the police service last year. He has pleaded not guilty.
The charges against him prompted a review of 90 cases in Brooklyn between 2004 and 2011 in which the officer was involved. All but one involved a suspect pleading guilty, often because it was the officer’s word against that of the accused. Most of those convicted received six months to a year in prison with one defendant jailed for three years.
Eric Gonzales, the Brooklyn district attorney, said the cases often hinged on Franco’s evidence. He said: “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.”
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Tina Luongo, the attorney in charge of the Legal Aid Society’s criminal defence practice, urged prosecutors in other boroughs to begin similar reviews. The detective “touched thousands of cases throughout New York City,” Luongo said in a statement. “We may never know the full extent of the damage he caused and the lives he upended.”