Two NYPD officers have been charged with allegedly raping a Brooklyn teenager in a police van after they had handcuffed her and placed her under arrest, the Kings County District Attorney’s office announced Monday.
Detectives Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 33, who were both assigned to the NYPD Brooklyn South Narcotics Division, were arrested around 7 a.m. Monday in the confines of the 94th Precinct.
They were arraigned on a 50-count indictment, which included charges of first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, second-degree kidnapping, official misconduct, coercion, sex abuse and more.
According to the investigation, Martins and Hall were working on a team of plainclothes detectives with the narcotics division on Sept. 15, 2017, when they left their post and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, Brooklyn.
There, at around 8 p.m., the two stopped a car driven by an 18-year-old woman who was with two male passengers. The officers found marijuana in the front-seat cup holder and asked the woman if she had any drugs on her, to which she replied that she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills.
The detectives handcuffed her and told her she was under arrest, according to the investigation. The male passengers were allowed to leave and were told to pick her up from the precinct in three hours.
After leaving the park, Martins allegedly told the young woman that he and his partner were “freaks” and asked her “what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest,” according to the DA’s office. Martins allegedly then forced the handcuffed teen to perform a sex act on him while he was in the back of the van while Hall drove, reportedly watching through the rear view mirror. Martins then allegedly raped the teen.
After that, Martins and Hall stopped the van in Bay Ridge and switched places, prosecutors said. Martins was then behind the wheel and Hall in the back seat, where he allegedly forced the woman to perform a sex act on him.
The detectives drove back toward the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and told the teen to call her friends to say she was being let go. “They allegedly gave her back the Klonopin pills, told her to keep her mouth shut and released her,” prosecutors said.
The woman told her friends what had happened and later that evening had a sexual assault evidence kit prepared at Maimonides Hospital. DNA recovered from her for that kit was a match to both of the defendants.
When the investigation into the incident began, Martins and Hall reportedly said the sex was consensual, the New York Daily News reported last September.
On Monday, both Martins and Hall pleaded not guilty.
Martins was ordered held on $250,000 bail and Hall was ordered held on $150,000 bail. Both were ordered to return to court on January 18, 2018, and if convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison, according to the DA’s office.
“It is incomprehensible that two veteran NYPD detectives would allegedly commit such an outrageous act,” acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement. “They took an oath to protect and serve, but allegedly violated that oath by raping a young woman who was in their custody. We will now seek to hold them accountable for this flagrant betrayal of public trust.”
