Queens DA releases list of cops with credibility issues
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The Queens Criminal Courthouse. Eagle photo by David Brand
By David Brand
The Queens District Attorney’s Office on Wednesday released an internal list of dozens of police officers with potential credibility issues, including cops who judges have found dishonest in court. The DA’s Office said it maintains the database — which also includes undisclosed officers who have been the subject of substantiated misconduct allegations — so that it can more efficiently turn over information on potential police witnesses to defense counsel under discovery law. But witness credibility issues could also jeopardize a prosecutor’s case.
The Queens DA’s office shared the list of 65 officers with adverse credibility findings with the Eagle and various other reporters and attorneys in response to Freedom of Information Law requests. Gothamist/WNYC was the first publication to learn that the list existed in April. DAs in the Bronx and Brooklyn have previously shared their lists of officers with adverse credibility findings in response to Gothamist/WNYC FOIL requests and advocacy.
Assistant district attorney Anastasia Spanakos, the Queens DA’s Office records access officer, said that the DA’s Office began maintaining the list in March 2018.
“To ensure that this Office meets its discovery obligations with the highest Ethical standards, the Office has compiled a ‘database’ of information, which, subject to a hearing or trial court’s analysis and discretion, may or may not be deemed to bear upon a police officer’s credibility, under the circumstances of a particular case,” Spanakos wrote in her response to the FOIL request.
“The information contained in the database includes substantiated misconduct allegations, criminal matters, adverse credibility findings and civil lawsuits that this Office is aware of,” she continued, adding that the list is “centrally maintained and is available to Assistant District Attorneys to meet all statutory and constitutional disclosure requirements.”
Prosecutors are legally required to turn over to defense attorneys any information or materials — known as discovery — that could challenge the credibility of a witness.
Spanakos said the database maintained by the DA’s Office is not an “exhaustive list” of every adverse credibility finding issued in Queens. The office adds information to the database “as it becomes relevant to an officer who may testify in a Queens County criminal matter,” she said.
The DA’s office will release another list of officers who are named in civil lawsuits in about a week, Spanakos said.
The list of 65 officers includes four who the DA’s Office identified as working in Queens police precincts, but it is not clear what specific information led to their inclusion in the database.
Reinaldo Alvarez is an officer in the 103rd Precinct, Wayne Kaifler is a detective in the 105th Precinct, Kimberly Washington is an officer in the 114th Precinct and Shane Wynn is an officer in the 100th precinct, according to the list.
CAPstat, a database of federal lawsuits against the NYPD compiled by The Legal Aid Society, indicates that Alvarez has been named in at least two lawsuits alleging misconduct. In each case the plaintiff did not have an attorney representing them and there was no disposition available. None of the others were named in lawsuits included in CAPstat.
The CAPstat database identifies various other Queens cops named in the DA’s list, including Anthony Arlistico, an officer with the 103rd precinct. Arlistico has been sued at least once according to CAPstat.
In a 2017 federal civil rights complaint, a Brooklyn man alleged that Arlistico and another officer approached him while he was seated in a stationary car, arrested him and injured him to the extent that he was unable to stand at arraignment without the help of court officers.
Javier Velez, identified as a Queens gang unit detective by CAPstat, was named along with other officers in a 2009 lawsuit alleging that the officers fabricated a story claiming that a man was in possession of drugs and a gun. The story formed the basis for a federal indictment against the man. Velez and other officers provided false testimony at pretrial hearings and at trial, according to the complaint, but the man was ultimately acquitted of all charges. The city settled the lawsuit for $560,000, according to CAPstat.
Bronx Narcotics Det. Armengol Deida, another officer included in the DA’s database, has been named in at least 10 lawsuits, including six that resulted in settlements or jury verdicts and two that are still pending, according to CAPStat.
Deida was one of several officers alleged to have conducted an unlawful search of a shed where cops recovered guns and drugs used as evidence against a man in the Bronx in 2011. Deida and his colleagues allegedly lied about the location where they recovered the evidence and the case was dismissed, according to a 2013 civil complaint. The city settled with the plaintiff for more than $180,000, according to CAPstat.
Queens Executive Assistant District Attorney Robert Masters first confirmed the existence of the Queens DA’s database in April and said the list includes “substantiated misconduct allegations, criminal matters, adverse credibility findings and civil lawsuits.” The DA’s Office declined to share the list at the time.
Tim Rountree, attorney-in-charge of the The Legal Aid Society’s Queens Trial Office praised the DA’s Office for releasing the database Wednesday.
“New Yorkers should be able to rely on police officers to tell the truth, but too often, that is not the case, and officers are caught telling lies on the witness stand and in their official reports,” Rountree said. “We welcome this list from the Queens County District Attorney’s Office, however, this is just a small step towards the transparency required to root out problems of police misconduct.”
Rountree and other advocates have called on the state to overturn a section of civil rights law known as 50a, which shields officers’ disciplinary records from public view.
“We hope New York’s DAs and others seeking transparency in police misconduct will join us in calling for the legislature to repeal 50a this session so that we can have more transparent and accountable policing in New York,” he said.
The Eagle will update this story with more information on officers included in the Queens DA’s database.
