Detective's lies sent three people to prison, prosecutors charge

Two were sent to state prison and were behind bars when investigators from the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office discovered that the detective’s accounts — filed in arrest reports, and repeated to other officers, prosecutors and grand juries — were fabricated.

On Wednesday, Franco, who works in southern Manhattan, was charged with 16 criminal counts, including perjury and official misconduct.

Prosecutors said Franco fabricated tales of drug buys by innocent people. His lies unraveled when investigators found video evidence contradicting the detective’s accounts and after interviewing other arresting officers, prosecutors said in court papers filed with the case.

Franco, 46, pleaded not guilty to the charges in state Supreme Court in Manhattan on Wednesday afternoon. Justice Mark Dwyer released him without bail until his next court date on June 28.

Franco and his lawyer, Howard Tanner, declined to comment as they left the courthouse.

The convictions against the three people Franco said had sold drugs — Julio Irizarry, Tameeka Baker and Turrell Irving — have been thrown out, and none of the three is in state custody anymore, said Justin Henry, a spokesman for the Manhattan district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr.

At a bail hearing Wednesday, an assistant district attorney, Stephanie Minogue, said the office was investigating at least two other cases involving Franco and more indictments may be filed against him. She asked for $50,000 cash bail, a request Dwyer denied.

Franco has now been suspended without pay, the Police Department said.

“Our NYPD officers swear an oath to uphold the law, and meet the highest ethical standards,” the police commissioner, James P. O’Neil, said in a statement. “Should an officer fail to meet those critical expectations, they must be held accountable.”

Prosecutors said Irizarry was the first to be accused of making a drug sale that Franco, working as a plainclothes detective, claimed he had witnessed.

Irizarry was arrested in February 2017 after the detective said he saw him selling drugs inside the lobby of a building on Delancey Street, prosecutors said in a court document.

But video from a security camera inside the building showed that no such transaction took place. Additionally, video from a security camera outside the building showed Franco never entered the building, leaving him unable to see anything in the lobby, the document said.

This pattern was repeated on two other occasions. Baker was arrested in June 2017 on Madison Street after Franco said that he saw Baker selling drugs in a building’s vestibule, the document said.

Yet investigators found security video showing that Baker went into the building without stopping in the vestibule, and that Franco was not close enough to her to actually see what she was doing, the document said.

In April 2018, Irving was arrested on Franco’s word that he had seen him giving cocaine to a woman, Karen Miano, who subsequently sold the drug to an undercover officer, the document said.

“Once more, the video from this incident directly contradicted the defendant’s version of events,” according to the document. “There was no drug transaction between Mr. Irving and Ms. Miano. Instead, Ms. Miano simply held the door open for Mr. Irving as he entered the building and she exited on her way to meet the undercover officer.”

“In each of the cases, the defendant compounded his misconduct by repeating these lies over and over again,” Minogue, the prosecutor, said in court.

As far back as last year, investigators from the district attorney’s Conviction Integrity Program were reviewing cases involving Franco — including those of Baker and Irving — and referring them to the Public Corruption Unit, officials said.

Baker’s and Irving’s convictions were vacated last summer, according to court documents. It remained unclear Wednesday when Irizarry’s conviction was vacated.

Baker and Irizarry were both serving state prison sentences when the evidence came to light showing the detective’s testimony in their cases was false, the court documents said.

In a statement, the District Attorney’s Office said the case against Franco is part of a continuing effort to root out and prosecute police corruption and misconduct.

“My office will continue to bring the full weight of the law against uniformed officers who lie and undermine the public trust in law enforcement on which we rely to keep New York safe,” Vance said in the statement.

This article originally appeared in The New York Times.