Brooklyn Police Corruption Scandal Cast Shadow On Arrests

If you can't trust the messenger, you can't trust the message. That is exactly what is happening with this ongoing Brooklyn police corruption scandal that will allow criminals to go free:

The Brooklyn district attorney’s office has dismissed charges or vacated convictions in 183 cases because one or more of the four officers had played a significant role in them. In addition, the city’s special prosecutor has thrown out five pending indictments against eight defendants.

The scandal emerged in September when an officer in the squad, Detective Sean Johnstone, was heard on a departmental tape recording saying that he and his partner, Officer Julio Alvarez, had recovered 28 bags of cocaine from a suspect but turned in only 17. The officers were charged in December with misconduct and falsifying records. An investigation by the Internal Affairs Bureau led to the arrests in January of two other officers, Sgt. Michael Arenella and Officer Jerry Bowens.

Court papers said they took drugs and cash they had recovered and gave them to an informant in exchange for information. While the officers who were charged are not suspected of making any illegal profit, the corruption investigation has forced prosecutors and defense lawyers to review cases that involved any of the four officers.

Defense attorneys are checking whether clients were wrongly charged or convicted. Steven Banks, the attorney in chief of the Legal Aid Society, said they expected to review several hundred cases. The cases dismissed so far represent 129 misdemeanors and 54 felonies, according to the office of the Brooklyn district attorney, Charles J. Hynes.

This means that in some cases, convicted dealers are back on the streets with their records wiped clean and sealed. Addicts who were sentenced to treatment instead of jail could now be ineligible for the programs. And charges, whether for possession of small amounts of marijuana or dozens of grams of cocaine, are being dropped.

This will cost the city a lot of money as well as erode people's confidence in the Brooklyn police department.