Brutal NYC domestic violence case dismissed on technicality — showing insanity of discovery laws, prosecutors say
A vicious sicko accused of beating his girlfriend and ripping off her clothes in front of his friends was able to walk on a technicality — all because of New York’s deeply flawed discovery laws.
The domestic violence and sex abuse case’s senseless dismissal last week in Manhattan court came after prosecutors turned over more than 70 forms of evidence to defense attorneys, law-enforcement sources said.
But a sole piece of evidence unrelated to the case — a past disciplinary action against one of the arresting NYPD officers, who got punished for allowing an inmate to “escape” and grab a 20-second drink of water — came late, the sources said.
The belated reveal prompted the entire case to be tossed under the laws, leaving the terrified woman without a protection order against her abusive ex and forcing her to move in the face of his continued harassment, sources said.
“Domestic violence survivors are significantly impacted by the flaws in the state’s discovery laws,” said Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, in a statement.
“This horrifying example is illustrative of a much broader problem where survivors are being denied justice and orders of protection, leaving them vulnerable to their attackers.”
The outrage by the lefty Bragg — who has been blasted as soft-on-crime — comes as he and the Big Apple’s four other district attorneys push Albany lawmakers to reform the state’s discovery laws.
The DAs and other critics maintain that the laws have led to a surge in criminal cases getting tossed, often on trivial technicalities unrelated to the actual charges.
“The system is stacked against the victims, and Albany doesn’t care,” one district attorney investigator said. “I’m surprised there isn’t more crime.”
The tossed Manhattan case — which sources outlined without giving many specifics, including the suspect’s identity, because it has now been sealed — involved an incident in which the allegedly abusive boyfriend stripped the victim naked in front of several friends without her consent, sources said.
The purported psycho also had assaulted her more than once, including by grabbing and throwing her to the ground repeatedly, the sources said.
Cops arrested the man and he was arraigned in August last year on assault, aggravated harassment and sex abuse charges, according to sources.
Prosecutors quickly turned over a voluminous amount of evidence as required by the discovery laws, ranging from body-worn cameras from cops to voicemails that five witnesses left the assistant district attorneys to Amtrak tickets, sources said.
But the prosecutors had belatedly disclosed information on a disciplinary case against one of the arresting cops.
Six months before the domestic violence case, the cop had allowed an inmate who was being treated at a hospital “escape” to grab a sip of water — a 20-second interlude, the sources said.
The law states the information must be turned over to the defense 20 days after arraignment if a suspect is in custody and 35 days if not, although there are extensions.
The punishment for the tardy disclosure of discovery evidence — even of information unrelated to the actual charges — is dismissal, the sources said.
“That is BS,” a Manhattan detective said after hearing about the dismissal.
“I would like the politicians who passed the discovery laws to look the victim in their face, and explain to her why that dirtbag is walking the streets and she has to hide.”
Former Gov. Andrew Cuomo in 2019 signed tweaks to state discovery practices, alongside a slate of other criminal-justice reforms.
The changes were designed to speed up court proceedings so that defendants — such as Kalief Browder, who killed himself after spending years in Rikers Island — wouldn’t languish behind bars waiting for trial.
But prosecutors argue the reforms had the side effect of leading to a surge in criminal-case dismissals across New York City, where the percentage of tossed case shot up from 41% before the changes to 62% in 2023, Office of Court Administration data show.
The city’s DAs have thrown their support behind modest changes to the laws proposed by Gov. Kathy Hochul.
Cuomo, who is running for mayor, offered support for the change during an interview with The Post’s editorial board on Monday, but notably did not mention his successor Hochul’s efforts.
“There’s a proposal to change it to anything relevant to the case, or to give a judge discretion to say ‘Yes, they didn’t give that piece of paper, but … it was harmless to the case,” he said. “I can say I think both of them have to be considered because the number of dismissals from discovery is is too high.”
Criminal-justice reforms advocates, however, argue that the discovery reforms aren’t to blame for New York City’s surge in dismissals, noting other Empire State counties don’t show similar surges in dropped cases.
Tina Luongo, chief attorney of the Criminal Defense Practice at The Legal Aid Society, had previously argued that domestic violence cases most often don’t lead to mountains of discovery.
She argued the recent case dismissal isn’t the norm.
“DA Bragg has provided a single, extreme, anecdotal account with likely cherry-picked facts to support a general claim, all without any supporting documentation,” Luongo said in a statement. “If the facts presented by the DA are correct, then this would be an outlier.”
Luongo blamed the NYPD’s tardiness in turning over evidence as the reason for dismissals.
“In court, prosecutors in DA Bragg’s office cite the NYPD’s failure to respond to basic requests for evidence as the reason they are unable to comply,” Luongo said. “The solution for NYC DAs lies in pending legislation that would grant prosecutors direct access to police evidence databases, a measure that prosecutors lobbied to have introduced on their behalf.”
— Additional reporting by Larry Celona
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