Two former cops were sentenced Thursday to five-years of probation after having sex in a police van with an 18-year-old woman they had arrested and detained.
Ex-NYPD officers Eddie Martins and Richard Hall pleaded guilty in August, and avoided incarceration despite requests from prosecutors. The pair faced charges of official misconduct and bribe receiving in connection to the case, which made headlines in September 2017. The woman has said the sexual encounter happened against her will.
Hall reportedly lashed out at his accuser, saying in court, “I did not rape or perform any forcible sex act. You’re a liar. You created this circus so you could sue for $50 million…you should’ve been arrested for perjury… you’re a disgrace to the #MeToo movement.”
According to ABC, District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “This incident led to a change in New York law, closing a loophole that allowed officers to claim that sex with a detainee was consensual. Unfortunately, we could not apply that new law retroactively. While my office recommended prison time, we accept the court’s sentence.”
Outlets reported that Martins, 39, and Hall, 34, were formerly assigned to the NYPD’s Brooklyn South Narcotics unit.
The investigation states on September 15, 2017, at 7: 30 p.m., the former officers were on duty in a Dodge Caravan, in plainclothes working on a buy-and-bust operation. They left their post without the authorization and drove to a park called Calvert Vaux Park, which is located in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
Right after 8 p.m., the former officers told three occupants to exit a vehicle and asked if they had drugs on them. The young woman who told them that she had marijuana and Klonopin pills on her.
She was arrested and the other two people were let go, according to the report.
It was reported that in the van, Martins, and Hall performed a “sex act” on her. After this incident they took the woman into the Coney Island area and released her, giving her back the pills. The former officers did not report this to their supervisor or anyone. They also had no authority to release the detainee, according to the indictment.
DNA recovered from the woman matched the officers.
The charges of rape were dropped in March because a judge ruled the woman’s story too inconsistent.
Hall and Martins pled guilty to nine counts of official misconduct and two accounts of third-degree bribes.
