Queens woman asks court to recuse Katz from investigation
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Valentina Veleva and her attorney Joe Murray asked the court to recuse Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz from an investigation into an alleged crime she brought to the office and police in 2017. Photo by Angela Ng
By Jacob Kaye
A Queens woman is taking legal action against Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz, alleging the DA has contributed to the fumbling of an investigation into an NYPD officer who allegedly secretly filmed the pair having sex and threatened to release the tapes to her family and friends.
Queens resident Valentina Veleva and her attorney Joe Murray, say that Katz and her predecessor, the late Richard Brown, mishandled the case, sacrificing Veleva’s complaint in an effort to nab investigating officer Sgt. Cliff Nieves, who was later arrested and accused of running a brothel.
Now, Veleva is looking to the court to force Katz to recuse herself from the case, bring in a special prosecutor to reopen it and bring charges against NYPD officer Miguel Delacruz.
On March 14, 2017, Veleva met Delacruz, who is an active member of the NYPD, at a bar, the original complaint alleges. The pair went to Delacruz’s Jackson Heights apartment and had sex as the officer allegedly secretly filmed the whole thing. The next morning, when Veleva tried to call and text Delacruz, the officer told her to leave him alone, sent her a 12-second clip of the sextape and implied he would release additional footage if she told anyone about the encounter, the complaint alleges.
Not long after, Veleva reported the incident to the police and the Queens DA’s office, alleging that Delacruz had broken the law by secretly recording her naked and by threatening to release the footage.
The investigation into Veleva was taken on by Nieves, who himself was under investigation by the Queens DA’s office for his role in a brothel and gambling ring that was allegedly protected by a group of vice squad officers.
Veleva later discovered that the investigation into Delacruz was closed about a day after it was opened, her attorney said. Brown later declined to bring charges against the officer.
Veleva, who recorded conversations with members of the DA’s office, was given a handful of reasons as to why the case she brought couldn’t be prosecuted – she wasn’t credible and no laws were broken, prosecutors said at different times.
At one point, Investigations Bureau Chief Gerard Brave said Veleva was becoming a less credible witness in the case, adding that “you haven’t helped by continuing to call,” Brave said in a recorded call.
In September 2018, when Nieves was arrested, Veleva was given a new excuse.
According to the petition, Assistant District Attorney James Liander told Veleva that she wasn’t given a clear answer on the case because the ongoing investigation into Nieves could have been thwarted.
"We couldn’t tell you…you have to understand that," Liander allegedly told Veleva. "It was the same unit that was going after Nieves that was handling your complaint."
In the petition filed earlier this week, Murray, who ran for Queens District Attorney in 2019, says that Katz and the DA’s office hasn’t recognized their conflict of interest.
“Justice cannot be served when a district attorney is put in a position where they are aware of a conflict of interest, in an otherwise meritorious criminal case, and the conflict is not ethically resolved,” the petition says.
The petition asks the court to appoint a special district attorney to investigate Delacruz’s alleged crime. It also asks the court for a declaratory judgement stating that the mishandling of the case has created a risk of abuse of public confidence.
In an order filed Tuesday, Queens Supreme Court Justice Bernice Siegal ordered Katz to respond to the petition by Jan. 12.
In a statement to the Eagle, a Queens DA spokesperson said the DA’s office “will respond to this in the appropriate form, in court.”
