DA ‘hid’ ’98 slay info
PROSECUTORS allegedly withheld a crucial police report from a man who says he was wrongly convicted of murder nearly 20 years ago — and his supporters hope it’s the key to his freedom.
Robert Gottlieb, attorney for 41-yearold Jon-Adrian Velazquez, said Tuesday that the Manhattan district attorney’s office deliberately kept an interview with a witness a secret.
Gottlieb said the 1998 police interview was with the now-deceased father of Velazquez’s alleged accomplice, Derry Daniels, who saw his son with a man matching the shooter’s description — an avenue that should have been investigated and used to defend Velazquez.
The record “provided a definite description of a third-party culprit, not Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who the father observed with his son, Derry, just hours before the murder and who matched the exact description of the shooter that had been given by eyewitnesses,” the new filing says. “Yet, the people never disclosed this (interview) and, in fact, intentionally withheld Gottlieb
Daniels, who was allowed to plead down to robbery, was sentenced to just 12 years behind bars for his role.
He and Velazquez were charged together in the Jan. 27, 1998, fatal shooting of Albert Ward, a retired police officer who ran an illegal gambling parlor in Harlem.
Velazquez was convicted of murder in March 2000 and sentenced to 25 years to life. it,” added.