A group of Manhattan lawmakers want District Attorney Cy Vance to stop shielding lying cops.
Upper East Side Assemblyman Dan Quart and other uptown pols are demanding the prosecutor release his secret list of officers with credibility problems that make them liabilities on the witness stand.
The list is a the center of an ongoing lawsuit filed by ex-prosecutor turned defense lawyer Andrew Stengel who found out about the list during his stint as an assistant district attorney and later from comments Vance’s deputy chief Jeffery Levinson made in court, according to the suit.
“When there’s a question of whether taxpayer-funded NYPD officers are being untruthful witnesses in court, the public has a right to know,” Quart said.
The assemblyman pointed out that Vance had called for the police department to be more transparent about bad cops, but is hiding the information himself.
“If Cy Vance has the audacity to call out the NYPD for refusing to provide his office with disciplinary records of police officers, he should lead by example and release the list,” Quart said. “Police testimony plays a crucial role in many criminal trials and early disclosure of unreliable witnesses would give criminal defense attorneys the tools they need to defend their clients and prevent wrongful convictions – it’s about leveling the playing field.”
The Manhattan DA maintains in a court filing that the office doesn’t keep a list of fibbing officers and that when a cop gets an “adverse credibility finding” it’s exempt from disclosure because it’s prepared “in anticipation of litigation”
Release of the list will likely encounter resistance not only from Vance, but from the NYPD, which has interpreted all police personnel records as confidential, including disciplinary cases.
The elected officials also plans to launch an online petition to get the information out.
