Brooklyn, NY – DA: Two NYPD Detectives Indicted For Allegedly Raping Teenager In Coney Island After Placing Her Under Arrest

Brooklyn, NY – Acting Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez today announced that two New York City Police detectives have been charged in a 50-count indictment for allegedly raping a teenager in a police van in Coney Island last month after handcuffing her and placing her under arrest.

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez said, “It is incomprehensible that two veteran NYPD detectives would allegedly commit such an outrageous act. They took an oath to protect and serve, but allegedly violated that oath by raping a young woman who was in their custody. We will now seek to hold them accountable for this flagrant betrayal of public trust.”

Acting District Attorney Gonzalez identified the defendants as, Detective Eddie Martins, 37, and Detective Richard Hall, 32, who were assigned to the NYPD Brooklyn South Narcotics.

The defendants were arraigned today before Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun on a 50-count indictment in which they are charged with first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, second-degree kidnapping, official misconduct and related counts.

Martins was ordered held on $250,000 bail and Hall was ordered held on $150,000 bail. Both were ordered to return to court on January 18, 2018. If convicted, they each face up to 25 years in prison.

The Acting District Attorney said that, according to the investigation, on September 15, 2017, at approximately 7:30 p.m., the defendants, who were on-duty and riding in a Dodge Caravan, working as part of a team of plainclothes detectives assigned to Brooklyn South Narcotics and conducting a buy and bust operation in the confines of the 60th Precinct, left their post without authorization and drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Gravesend, Brooklyn.

Just after 8 p.m., the officers conducted a car stop of an Infinity Coupe driven by an 18-year-old woman with two male passengers. There was a quantity of marijuana in the front seat cup holder. The officers instructed the three occupants to step out of the car and asked if they had any drugs on them, according to the investigation.

The young woman responded she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills. The detectives handcuffed the woman, told her she was under arrest and would be getting a desk appearance ticket. They let her companions go and instructed them to retrieve their friend from the precinct in three hours, the evidence showed.

It is alleged that after leaving the park, the officers instructed the young woman to call her friends and tell them not to follow the minivan. Detective Martins allegedly told the young woman he and his partner are “freaks” and asked her what she wanted to do to get out of the arrest. It is alleged that Detective Martins forced the handcuffed teen to perform a sex act on him while seated in the back seat of the van as Detective Hall drove and watched through the rear view mirror. Detective Martins then allegedly raped the victim.

Furthermore, it is alleged that the defendants then stopped the van in Bay Ridge, about four miles from the park in the opposite direction of where their team was located, and switched places. Detective Martins got behind the wheel and Detective Hall got into the back seat of the van, where he allegedly forced the victim to perform a sex act on him. They then drove back to the vicinity of the 60th Precinct in Coney Island and had the victim call her friends again to tell them she was being let go. They allegedly gave her back the Klonopin pills, told her to keep her mouth shut and released her.

The victim told her friends what happened and, later that evening, was taken to Maimonides Hospital, where a sexual assault evidence collection kit was prepared. DNA recovered from the victim was a match to both of the defendants. Video surveillance shows the victim exiting the police van at approximately 8:42 p.m.