The attorney for the woman accusing two NYPD detectives of raping her is demanding a special prosecutor to handle the case because of the close working relationship between the Brooklyn DA's office and the NYPD's narcotics unit.
Attorney Michael David told Gothamist he and his unnamed client want a special prosecutor to handle the rape investigation because "there's an inherent conflict of interest on the part of the [Brooklyn] DA's office because this is a special narcotics unit that works very closely with them."
David also said the case, which has gone three weeks without an arrest, "has dragged on too long."
"They're hesitating in arresting these guys, and that's the bottom line," David said.
Last week, the public learned the NYPD was investigating an accusation by David's client that two undercover narcotics officers raped her while she was handcuffed in police custody on September 15th. The unnamed 18-year-old woman said she was pulled over in Coney Island's Calvert Vaux Park by an unmarked police van, and two NYPD officers arrested her after finding prescription medication on a passenger in her car.
After letting the woman's friends in the car leave, she says the officers drove her around in the unmarked van and eventually gave her the choice between getting booked at a local precinct or having sex with them. The two officers involved reportedly said the sex between them and the woman was consensual.
A law enforcement source told the NY Post the two detectives accused of the rape, Detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins, were served with warrants demanding DNA samples on Wednesday night. David said he had also been told that.
David said his client remains "hysterical every day. It's becoming her worst nightmare, when she knows what they did to her and there's still no arrests."
"[The officers] were on-duty, they arrested her, she was in their custody. There's no consent," David said regarding the detectives' reported claim that sex happened but was consensual. "You can't have consent when you're under arrest, so I don't really know what the delay is."
"Prosecutors from our office today once again met with the complainant and her lawyer and assured them that we will continue to conduct a thorough and impartial investigation into these serious allegations," a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA’s Office told Gothamist.
