Two disgraced New York City police officers quit their jobs Monday as they face rape and kidnapping charges for allegedly forcing a handcuffed teenager to perform sex acts on them in the back of a police van.
Detectives Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 33, arrived at police headquarters Monday morning to resign, according to police.
“Police Officers Eddie Martins and Richard Hall, formerly assigned to Brooklyn South Narcotics Division, appeared on their own at police headquarters today and quit their employment with the NYPD,” the police department said in a statement. “Their criminal cases involving charges of rape and other related felony offenses are still pending in Kings County Supreme Court.”
Now that the men have quit, they won’t have to face a previously scheduled departmental trial on Thursday that would have determined whether they could keep their jobs, police said. After the accusation, the officers had been suspended without pay.
“Today, the two men at the center of these allegations quit their jobs as police officers. Had these charges been upheld in an upcoming departmental trial, I would have fired them immediately,” Police Commissioner James P. O’Neill said in a statement. “And I would have done so on behalf of every NYPD cop, because we owe the communities we serve – as well as the honest, hardworking men and women of this department – nothing less.”
The men were charged on Oct. 30 after the victim, an 18-year-old woman, reported the Sept. 15 incident in which she said the two on-duty officers took turns raping her after arresting her for possessing marijuana and two Klonopin pills.
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. He 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 rearview mirror. Martins then allegedly raped the teen. After that, Martins and Hall stopped the van and switched places, investigators said.
DNA recovered from the woman matched both defendants, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
