Dubious Brooklyn DA to be cross-examined

Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has been ordered to give a sworn deposition in the $150 million lawsuit brought by man wrongfully convicted of murder.

Brooklyn Federal Court Magistrate Judge Robert Levy ordered Hynes on Wednesday to submit to the deposition in the wrongful-conviction case of Jabbar Collins over the objections of city lawyers. “I think it is inevitable that his deposition is going to have to be taken,” Levy said in Brooklyn Federal Court.

Collins, 37, who served more than 15 years in prison for the 1994 murder of Brooklyn Rabbi Abraham Pollack, said he was looking forward to his attorney grilling Hynes under oath.

“I think it’s finally vindication to confront him and have him answer questions under oath why he permitted the horrendous misconduct in my case to occur and why he failed to do anything about it,” Collins said after the hearing.

Levy also ordered that Hynes’ top aide, Michael Vecchione, who prosecuted Collins, be deposed on June 21. Hynes’ deposition is set for August 19.

The 78-year-old Brooklyn prosecutor, who is seeking reelection, told the Daily News Wednesday that he has nothing to hide.

“I’m one of two DAs in New York City that has a special Conviction Integrity Unit and the only one investigating my own cases looking for wrongfully convicted inmates,” Hynes said.

“We set David Ranta loose recently after we reinvestigated,” he said referring to a Brooklyn man who served 22 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.

The Collins case was gutted by accusations that prosecutors coerced witnesses to testify at the trial and failed to turn over evidence to the defense.

A key witness insisted last month that Vecchione, now chief of the DA’s rackets bureau, threatened to bash him over the head with a table and jail him if he didn’t testify against Collins.

“Mike Vecchione has been pilloried in ways I’ve never seen before and he has no recourse because he’s a public official,” Hynes said.

Federal Judge Dora Irizarry tossed Collins’ conviction, noting with regret that she did not have the authority to complete the hearing into prosecutorial misconduct.

City lawyers objected to Levy’s order that Hynes be deposed, contending it was too early in the discovery process.

“We are disappointed in today’s ruling, but we feel that DA Hynes will confirm that the city acted in good faith in this case,” said Arthur Larkin, senior counsel of city Law Department’s Special Federal Litigation Division.

Original report here




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