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In an extremely embarrassing incident for the Brooklyn DA's office, an audio technician taped over a statement made by a cop killer while in custody. The DA's office will now have to rely on a detective's notes taken during that statement and the videotape recorded during a follow-up interview with suspect Robert Ellis.
Ellis was arrested after the fatal shooting of police officer Russel Timoshenko, who was shot in the face at point blank range during a traffic stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens, Brooklyn (Ellis and his passengers are suspected of a "murderous spree" in Brooklyn, Queens, and Nassau County). Five days after being wounded, the 23-year-old cop died at Kings County Hospital after being taken off life support. Timoshenko was granted the rank of detective posthumously; his partner, Herman Yan, was also wounded during the incident.
An assistant DA told the court an audio tech apparently taped over the lone copy of the statement with a series of 911 calls related to the shooting. Defense lawyer Ron Kuby, who is not involved in the case, told the Post, "[Prosecutors] would be well advised to put the poor schlub on the witness stand, so they can say to the jury, 'You heard this man, he explained what happened, and he feels as bad about this as anyone.'"
Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes' office has has come under fire recently for several high-profile blunders. A Daily News editorial suggests his office is in need of "adult supervision."
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You would think that they would back the recording up to some sort of harder to erase medium or do the simple remove tab to prevent accidental erasure.
And didn't Hynes get elected to the post in the 1980s?
He is no Morgenthau, but still almost twenty years in the same post is going to cause problems for the office.
i bet the info is still there somewhere... nothing is truly erased!
Wow, makes you wonder what mistakes they don't tell us about.
A Damn Shame.
Now it becomes a he-said/he-said trial? I hope they have evidence besides the "sayso" of police. I assume he did it, but to take away years of people's liberty should rest on more than the words of a public servant.