Queens judge rips ‘railroading’ claim in Jamaica man’s murder case
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Prakash Churaman, seated, with his former attorneys Ron Kuby, standing, and Rhiya Trivedi, during his 2018 murder trial. Eagle file photo by Christina Carrega
By David Brand
A Queens judge on Wednesday blasted a news report that accused him of “railroading” a defendant whose 2018 murder conviction was reversed by an appellate court last year.
Justice Kenneth Holder defended his decision that led a higher court to order a new trial for Prakash Churaman, a 21-year-old Jamaica man charged in the 2014 killing of a close family friend. Churaman spent his teenage years on Rikers Island before being convicted of second-degree murder by a Queens jury in 2018.
An appellate court ordered that Churaman be retried after determining that Holder should have allowed an expert witness to testify about coerced confessions during that trial. The detective who extracted the confession berated Churaman and drafted his mother to encourage him to confess, his defense attorneys said.
After Churaman’s conviction was overturned, Queens prosecutors made him an offer that would allow him to avoid a lengthy prison sentence. But Churaman turned it down, instead choosing to go back to trial and prove his innocence.
During a hearing Wednesday, Holder quoted from an article published in the Indypendent that said Churaman, “is risking everything on a second trial before the same Queens prosecutor-turned-judge who railroaded him before.”
Holder criticized that characterization and read from the decision issued by the higher court.
“We’re clear there’s absolutely nothing in the appellate court’s decision in this case that even suggests misconduct by this court,” Holder said. “There’s no finding by the appellate division that this court ‘railroaded’ this defendant.
“I made a decision that is considered to be in judicial discretion and that the appellate division happened to disagree with,” he added.
Holder cautioned defense attorney Jose Nieves about being quoted in an inflammatory article.
“The strength of your comments in an article lends support to that accusation,” Holder said. “I hope the record is clear now because there is something called defamation.”
Nieves acknowledged Holder’s concerns.
“I didn’t preview that article, I did not approve that article at any time, nor would I expect to, that’s freedom of the press,” Nieves said. “However, I have made records that this case has been overturned and my client has been waiting for a fair trial for over six years and we do expect to fight these charges at trial.”
“One-hundred percent,” Holder responded. “You get no argument from me there.”
Churaman is out of jail with an ankle monitor and walked into the courthouse without handcuffs for the first time in six years Wednesday.
Outside the building, his supporters held a rally urging Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz to drop the charges.
