Cop-groping susp is held on $20G bail

THE MAIN PROSECUTOR in the Upper East Side murder of 26-year-old Joseph Comunale may have to answer for conflicting sworn statements about the timing of a suspect’s arrest if she is forced to testify as a witness in the case, the Daily News has learned.

The legal tangle relates to a disparity between filings and statements made in court about when suspect Lawrence Dilione, 28, was arrested during his marathon 40-hour questioning between Nov. 15 and 17 at the 17th Precinct stationhouse.

Dilione is charged along with 26-year-old James Rackover in Comunale’s grisly Nov. 13 killing inside Rackover’s luxury apartment on E. 59th St. and Sutton Place.

The arrest timing is expected to be a major point of contention at an upcoming hearing because Dilione discussed the crime with detectives even though he had an attorney who wasn’t present and did not have his Miranda rights read until the end.

Dilione gave up major clues to investigators including the location of Comunale’s burned and mangled body — a shallow grave in Oceanport, N.J. He told cops he knocked out Comunale in Rackover’s apartment during a party, but that Rackover savagely beat, choked and repeatedly stabbed the doomed man.

Dilione’s lawyer Michael Pappa says his client’s phone was taken near the start of his questioning on Nov. 15 and that it was clear he was arrested from that point on.

Lead prosecutor Antoinette Carter has asserted repeatedly in court that Dilione wasn’t arrested until Nov. 17. She has said his phone was taken at the time of arrest.

A document produced by the DA’s office seems to corroborate the defense theory. In a Nov. 21 search warrant affidavit — part of a recent court filing — Nov. 15 is noted as the date the phone was taken from the suspect.

“It’s one of the things they’re going to have to explain,” said Pappa, who previously suggested he intends to subpoena members of the DA’s office, including Carter, and detectives over what he has called a blatant disregard for his client’s rights, potentially jeopardizing the messy prosecution.

Statements — including some that are key to the case — could be tossed if the judge believes Dilione’s rights were violated and they were taken illegally. Evidence found with help of illegal statements, including the victim’s body, could also potentially be found inadmissible.

Dilione and Rackover, the “surrogate son” of wealthy celebrity jeweler Jeffrey Rackover, are charged with murder, hindering prosecution, tampering with evidence and concealment of a human corpse.

The incriminating affidavit was part of a filing by a lawyer for a third man, Max Gemma, 29, who is charged with assisting in the cleanup effort and with lying to police about what he knew.

“Why did a prosecutor entrenched in the investigation at the time the phone was seized swear to a materially inaccurate fact regarding the timing of the seizure of the phone?” said Gemma’s attorney, Mark Bederow. “Sworn testimony is an effective way to get the answer.”

Bederow hopes to get hindering prosecution charges against his client tossed on the grounds that he could not have interfered with the probe because the suspects were already in custody.

Carter may have to recuse herself from the case if she’s forced to testify but a DA spokeswoman previously said that an assistant district attorney giving fact testimony “does not necessarily prevent him or her from trying the case.”

The spokeswoman declined to comment for this story. A SHIRTLESS MAN accused of rubbing his genitals against an off-duty cop in a Queens subway car was ordered held on $20,000 bail following his arraignment on Sunday.

Fnu Kamruzzaman (photo inset), 27, was arrested for allegedly rubbing himself against the officer’s arm on the 7 train around 10:20 a.m. Friday and fleeing, cops said. He later told police he ran because he had been wrongfully collared in the past, prosecutors said.

In 2014, Kamruzzaman was cuffed for allegedly rubbing himself against a 15-year-old girl on a train traveling through the Upper West Side.

Prosecutors had requested $50,000 bail, citing the prior rubbing incident. They also said he is serving 10 years of probation.

Kamruzzaman’s lawyer, Christine McKeithan, argued he could have inadvertently touched the cop because of rush-hour crowds on the train.

Kamruzzaman, a student at ASA College in Brooklyn, is due back in court Aug. 23.