From today’s New York Post, “a teen shooting suspect’s quick decision to record his interrogation with a hidden MP3 device has played out as a perjury case against a veteran detective and a plea deal for himself.”
Perjury by a veteran detective? How can that be?
Detective Christopher Perino, 42, emphatically [testified] that he hadn’t questioned the then-17-year-old about a Christmas Day 2005 shooting in The Bronx before the kid’s mother and aunt showed up at the 44th Precinct station. But Crespo had secretly pressed record on his MP3 player – a small device used to download music from the Internet – hidden in his pocket and captured the bullying interrogation.
So how did this all come out? “Crespo’s lawyer, Mark DeMarco, kept the recording under wraps until he cross-examined Perino at the trial.” The transcript fails to support this, but the word in the Bronx is that the ADA rose to object, but only the words, “Oh shit,” came out of his mouth.
So that is the lesson learned? Carefully search every suspect for an MP3 recorder BEFORE questioning. Thankfully, the one and only time a detective ever lied under oath was proven because this young man had the foresight not to buy an Ipod.
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In Massachusetts, this would have indeed led to a prosecution. Only it would have been of the kid for illegally recording someone. We had a case recently where someone video recorded the police during a search warrant that showed abusive police actions – see the link for the eventual US Appeals Court decision on the police response – http://www.conte2006.com/Jean_Decision.pdf.
Unbelievable that the cops would go after her for airing a video capturing them engaged in a flagrantly illegal search. No shame about what they did, only that they were caught. Thanks for the link.
I’m pretty sure that here in Illinois it’s illegal to record a private conversation without the consent of all parties. But I doubt we have detectives in Chicago as evil as that guy, so no problem.
That’s good, so if some half-evil detective inadvertantly violates the Constitution, than lies about it under oath because he’s been overworked whacking skels upside the head with his Glock, it will you his word against the perp. At least it’s in Illinois, cause Chicago doesn’t have any police-type issues like we do.
At least that kid probably didn’t know he was breaking the law..
the police, on the other hand, by illegally searching or abusing a suspect, are knowingly violating the law and acting unethically.
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