Queens judge vacates 60 convictions obtained by crooked cops
By NOAH GOLDBERG
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS | NOV 08, 2021 AT 1:57 PMTaron Parkinson was just 18 years old and the father of a newborn baby in 2014 when he says a pair of cops with a grudge planted a gun in his car and arrested him.
For years, no one believed him: not his lawyer, who told him to plead guilty in order to get a lighter sentence, not even some members of his own family.
But on Monday, Parkinson was among 60 people who had their convictions thrown out by a Queens judge who ruled — with the support of the Queens district attorney — that any convictions based on the testimony of three crooked cops could not stand.
Now 25, Parkinson was still on parole until the Monday hearing, which wiped the gun charge off his record.
“To be honest, I feel good that there’s some type of awareness that’s been brought to it and I’m able to not be in parole anymore,” the emotional Queens native told the Daily News. “But it’s still a little thing in the back of my mind. They really have to pay for what they did, though.”
The two cops involved in Parkinson’s case were Kevin Desormeau and Sasha Cordoba, who were convicted of falsifying information in a separate 2014 gun arrest they made in Manhattan.
The Queens DA said Desormeau is responsible for 34 convictions that should be thrown out, while Cordoba is responsible for 20 others.
Desormeau and Cordoba were also convicted in Queens of lying about a drug sale they claimed to witness. Video evidence showed the sale never occurred. Cordoba’s conviction in that case was ultimately thrown out by Queens Judge Michael Aloise, who ruled that prosecutors were “cherry-picking” evidence.
Both cops were fired following their convictions.
The third cop involved in the 60 cases was Oscar Sandino, who pleaded guilty in Brooklyn Federal Court to forcing a woman he arrested to perform sexual acts on him in 2006. Sandino threatened the woman she would lose custody of her child if she refused.
Three years later, while he was under investigation in that case, Sandino struck again, fondling himself in front of another arrested woman, who he also forced to expose herself.
The woman, who was a court officer, sued the city and received a $125,000 settlement.
Sandino was the key NYPD witness in six cases in Queens County. The judge tossed them all.
District Attorney Melinda Katz said that the “serious misconduct” of the three former officers compromised the five dozen cases in which they were essential witnesses, Judge Michelle Johnson granted Katz’s request to vacate the convictions.
“We cannot stand behind a criminal conviction where the essential law enforcement witness has been convicted of crimes which irreparably impair their credibility,” Katz said in a statement. “Vacating and dismissing these cases is both constitutionally required and necessary to ensure public confidence in our justice system.”
Katz was joined in the legal effort by lawyers with the Legal Aid Society, who represented the 60 people.
One of the women whose case was dismissed died before the hearing, said Elizabeth Felber, who runs the Wrongful Conviction Unit at Legal Aid.
“To the 60 people whose cases are being dismissed today, the system failed you,” Felber said during the hearing. “While [vacating the convictions] may not undo the harm done to you, it will be a measure of justice.”
The office said its review of cops’ credibility is ongoing. Seven other cops convicted of crimes are also being reexamined by the DA.
― but also fuck you (unperson), Friday, 21 January 2022 15:09 (four years ago)