Rape and kidnapping charges have been dropped against two former New York City who admitted to having sex with a teenager while she says she was handcuffed in the back of their police van.
Former NYPD narcotics detectives Eddie Martins and Richard Hall quit their jobs two months after the incident in Brooklyn on September 15, 2017.
The officers arrested Anna Chambers, then 18, for marijuana charges. Authorities said the pair told the teenager they would let her go if she had sex with them.
They later confessed to having intercourse with Chambers while on duty, but have argued the sex was consensual, according to investigators.
Prosecutors in Brooklyn, New York officially dropped rape and kidnapping charges against NYPD narcotics detectives Richard Hall (left) and Eddie Martins (right) on Wednesday
Chambers has said she was forcibly raped while in handcuffs, but declined to testify against her alleged attackers during trial, according to the New York Post.
Prosecutors originally charged both officers with felony rape and kidnapping, which carries a maximum prison sentence of 25 years.
On Wednesday, however, only felony bribery and official misconduct charges were presented in Brooklyn Supreme Court. The officers now face just two-and-a-half to seven years behind bars if convicted.
Anna Chambers (pictured), now 20, did not attend her alleged attackers hearing in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday
Chambers was 18 when she said she was raped while handcuffed in the back of a police van
The district attorney’s office argued that rape would not have been an appropriate charge and that securing a conviction would have been too challenging.
‘We believe – as a newly-created statute recognizes – that any sexual contact between police officers and a person in their custody should constitute a crime,’ a spokesperson from the Brooklyn DA’s office said Wednesday.
‘However that was not the law at the time of the incident. Because of this and because of unforeseen and serious credibility issues that arose over the past year and our ethical obligations under the rules of professional conduct, we are precluded from proceeding with the rape charges.’
The ‘credibility issues’ prosecutors referenced were raised by Martins and Hall’s defense attorneys who previously requested Chambers be charged with perjury for allegedly lying under oath about the details of her encounter.
Hall (pictured) and Martins were charged with felony bribery and official misconduct
Martins (right) and Hall now face two-and-a-half to seven years behind bars if convicted
Chambers claimed the attack took place during a long drive from where she was arrested to her home, but GPS data collected from the officers’ cell phone didn’t support her version of events, the New York Times reported.
During her previous testimony before a grand jury, Chambers also said one of the officers commanded her to expose her breast.
That claim, defense attorneys argued, didn’t match the story Chambers told during a deposition hearing when she mentioned she had hidden cocaine in her bra.
Martin’s lawyer, Mark Bederow was pleased with the DA’s decision.
‘It’s a good day for us,’ he said. ‘They dismissed the indictment because they don’t believe her. It’s not personal. Cases have to be brought with credible evidence. This wasn’t. The DA agreed.’
Chambers and her attorney Michael David were disappointed.
‘She’s fed up,’ David said of Chambers who did not attend the hearing Wednesday.
Hall (left) and Martins (right) were seen leaving Brooklyn Supreme Court after their hearing on Wedneday
‘It’s just outrageous. It was a clear-cut case. She was kidnapped. There was DNA evidence… You can’t have consent, when you have two cops on duty. These are two cops over six feet, over two hundred pounds. She is 5-foot-2, 90 pounds. They have guns, they have handcuffs. You can’t have consent under those circumstances.’
Despite the reduced charges, Hall’s attorney Peter Guadagnino said the two ex-cops aren’t happy with the way their criminal cases have progressed.
‘They were dedicated police officers,’ Guadagnino said. ‘They still feel hurt by them having to leave their position now a year and a half later.’
Chambers and her attorney Michael David, pictured in September 2018, were disappointed
Martins and Hall resigned from their positions with the NYPD three days before they were scheduled to face a disciplinary trial in November of 2017.
NYPD Commissioner James P. O’Neil said: ‘When a member of the N.Y.P.D. is indicted on serious charges like these, it tarnishes all of the admirable things accomplished by other, good officers every day in neighborhoods across New York City,’ later adding that had the charges against the officers been affirmed at the internal trial, he ‘would have fired them immediately.’