Two former NYPD officers who have been accused of raping an 18-year-old Brooklyn girl will face no jail time despite pleading guilty to 11 charges, CNN reports. Thirty-nine-year-old Eddie Martins and 34-year-old Richard Hall pleaded guilty to the charges, which included bribery and misconduct, and will face five years of probation. They both claimed they'd had consensual sex with the teen while she was held in their custody in 2017.
Martins and Hall were originally charged with 50 counts, including rape and kidnapping. The teen accused the police officers of arresting her on drug possession in Coney Island in 2017 and then sexually assaulting her in the back of their van as she was handcuffed. The defense team for Martins and Hall claimed, as The Incercept reports, that the teen offered sexual favors in exchange for her freedom.
Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez has said that New York has passed a law that prohibits police officers from engaging in sexual activity with people in custody. The new law will close a loophole that previously allowed the officers to say that the sex was consensual.
"We could not apply the new law retroactively, and serious credibility issues in this case precluded us from proceeding on additional charges, yet we remained committed to holding these defendants accountable," he added.
The teen's attorney, Michael N. David, has protested the relaxed sentence.
"We're outraged. It's complete injustice what happened today," David said. "You can't consent when you're 5'3, 100 pounds and they're both over 6 feet and very muscular. They had her in handcuffs. These cops got a free pass." A hospital rape kit found semen that matched Martin's and Hall's DNA inside of her body in Sept. 2017. Both officers resigned shortly after the incident.
“In this particular case…. the other party offering a bribe could also be charged and could also be guilty of offering a bribe or giving a bribe," said Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice judge Danny Chun, as the New York Post reports. "Given that there are criminal activities on both sides, however, there is one critical difference here—both the defendants before me are police officers and police officers are sworn to uphold a higher standard of ethical code, behavior or higher standard, period, than other people engaged in criminal activity."
The teen's attorney will be write to the U.S. Attorney's Office again to seek a federal civil rights violation against both of the men involved.
"With this president? They won’t go after police,” David said. “When it comes to police sexual misconduct, there is no ‘Me Too.’”
