Hundreds of convictions tied to nine dirty NYPD cops have been tossed following a review of the cases by the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office, prosecutors announced Tuesday.
The 316 convictions — all misdemeanors save for eight felonies — were related to disgraced officers who have been found guilty of crimes including taking bribes, perjury, and official misconduct, while on the job, the DA’s office said.
“These cases represent hundreds of New Yorkers who have been living with the serious costs that come with a conviction, including barriers to employment, housing, and education,” District Attorney Alvin Bragg said in a statement.
“Beyond these devastating impacts on the individuals directly impacted, our city is collectively harmed when we prevent our friends, family, and neighbors from living stable and successful lives.”
The cases, reviewed by the DA’s Post Conviction Justice Unit, happened between 1996 and 2007 and resulted in 57 incarcerations and 132 fines, Bragg said.
Eight of the ex-cops who played a material role in the cases were linked previously to nearly 200 Manhattan convictions the DA’s office moved to scrap in November 2022. That brings the group of nine’s total vacated case count to 504.
The ninth former officer, Oscar Sandino, pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a woman arrested back in 2010.
Sandino, who was sentenced to two years in prison and one year of supervised release in 2011, was connected to 19 of the 316 tossed convictions, prosecutors said.
Ex-cop Johnny Diaz — who was slapped with bribery, petit larceny, and criminal possession of controlled substance charges after he transported cocaine and took bribes from an undercover cop posing as a drug dealer — worked on 129 of the cases tossed.
He was sentenced to six years in prison in 2018.
Another former officer, William Eiseman, was linked to 56 of the vacated cases.
Eiseman was sentenced to three months in jail and five years of probation after being convicted of perjury and official misconduct for unlawful searches and providing false statements.
The Legal Aid Society praised Bragg’s move to toss the cases.
“We applaud District Attorney Alvin Bragg for taking further action to vacate convictions involving discredited NYPD officers,” said Elizabeth Felber, supervising attorney of the Wrongful Conviction Unit at The Legal Aid Society, in a statement.
“While we hope that this moment delivers some justice and closure to the New Yorkers impacted by these tactics, the sad reality is that many were forced to suffer incarceration, hefty legal fees, loss of employment, housing instability, severed access to critical benefits and other collateral consequences.”
District attorneys in the Bronx, Brooklyn, and Queens have made similar moves, tossing out more than 600 guilty verdicts in 2022.
