Brooklyn DA To Probe Allegations Of NYPD Cops Planting Guns

Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced the investigation Thursday after he had dropped a weapons case involving Jeffrey Herring, who was accused of having a gun outside his East Flatbush apartment.

The Brooklyn dis­trict attor­ney will inves­ti­gate dis­turb­ing alle­ga­tions that NYPD cops have been plant­i­ng guns on inno­cent peo­ple. District Attorney Kenneth Thompson announced the probe Thursday after drop­ping a weapons case that raised ques­tions about offi­cers’ con­duct. The charges against Jeffrey Herring, accused of hav­ing a gun out­side his East Flatbush apart­ment in June 2013, were dis­missed the day pros­e­cu­tors were giv­en a last chance to bring forth the infor­mant who pur­port­ed­ly led to the col­lar — and couldn’t pro­duce him. That sug­gest­ed the alleged snitch was either unre­li­able or non-exis­tent. “I dreamed of this day,” said a relieved Herring, 53, who was fac­ing up to 15 years in prison. “I knew I didn’t do any­thing.” His pub­lic defend­er Debora Silberman has come up with five oth­er past cas­es that end­ed with dis­missals, acquit­tals and a plea to time served. In all of them, the same group of detec­tives from the 67^th Precinct made sim­i­lar alle­ga­tions using an infor­mant who was nev­er iden­ti­fied or tes­ti­fied and a gun that was found in a plas­tic bag or ban­dana with­out any fin­ger­prints on it. Judges slammed their accounts as “incred­i­ble” and one said she believes the cops per­jured them­selves, records show. “There could be dozens more,” Silberman said in Brooklyn Supreme Court. “Anyone who was arrest­ed by this team — their arrests should be inves­ti­gat­ed.” Thompson vowed to do so.

“We will inves­ti­gate the arrest of Mr. Herring and oth­er arrests by these offi­cers because of the seri­ous ques­tions raised by this case,” he said in a state­ment. The Internal Affairs Bureau was already look­ing into the cops’ con­duct, police have said. Prosecutors were ordered numer­ous times since last October to pro­duce the infor­mant who police said led them to Herring. They claimed a month ago that he was found, but still didn’t bring him to court. On Thursday, exec­u­tive assis­tant dis­trict attor­ney Paul Burns announced that fol­low­ing the pros­e­cu­tors’ and the defense lawyers’ inves­ti­ga­tion, “We do not believe at this time that we can prove beyond a rea­son­able doubt the charges against Mr. Herring so we move to dis­miss the indict­ment.” Justice Dineen Riviezzo ordered the case sealed and added: “I’m glad to hear there is an ongo­ing inves­ti­ga­tion into the alle­ga­tions.” Herring, who’s been out on $3,500 bail dur­ing the ordeal, gave a big hug to his lawyer and was all smiles, say­ing he was look­ing for­ward to being wor­ry free when he walks his dog, a Collie mix named Snowy. “I was fight­ing for my life,” he said. “I didn’t want to go to prison. I love my freedom.”NYdailynews.com.