Former NYPD Officers Get 5 Years Probation For Having Sex With Suspect While On Duty
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Two former New York City police officers have been sentenced to five years probation for having sex with a suspect while on duty in Brooklyn.
Eddie Martins, 39, and Richard Hall, 34, were initially indicted in October 2017 on a slew of charges, including rape and kidnapping. They left the force in November 2017 and took a plea deal this August, copping to lesser charges of receiving a bribe and official misconduct.
"These defendants lost their jobs and are now convicted felons because of the appalling abuse of power to which they admitted. 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," Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said in a statement Thursday. "Unfortunately, we could not apply that new law retroactively. While my office recommended prison time, we accept the court's sentence."
The district attorney's office said Martins and Hall, who were assigned to the Brooklyn South Narcotics Division, stopped a car with two men and one woman inside on Sept. 15, 2017.
The woman, then-18 years old, admitted to having marijuana and two Klonopin pills in her possession. She was handcuffed and told she was under arrest.
Once inside the police van, she had sex with Martins and performed a sex act on Hall. She was later released and given back the pills.
Martins and Hall never reported the incident. DNA taken from the woman matched both men.
The former officers claimed the sex was consensual, but the woman's lawyer alleged she was "brutalized" and "raped."
"It's very sad that it's police officers that did this. I don't know, they're supposed to be protect and serve, right?" the woman, who was identified as "Anna," told reporters outside court in January 2018. "Just imagine if this was your child."
