BX. BUST after cop admits tampering
should be allowed to withdraw their guilty pleas because the Bronx district attorney’s office wrongly failed to tell them about Habib’s disciplinary record.
In May 2019, Supreme Court Justice Ralph Fabrizio agreed, saying in a written decision that the Bronx district attorney’s office was “decidedly wrong” for withholding Habib’s disciplinary records from defense lawyers.
“While they were in possession of this information, they purposely withheld it,” the judge wrote.
After Richard Valentin and Darryl Chisolm withdrew their pleas, the lawyers said prosecutors told them they would go to trial without using Habib to prove their case against the two suspects. But earlier this month the DA changed course and offered both men a deal they accepted — plead to misdemeanor gun possession and get a conditional discharge.
Richard Valentin’s lawyer, John O’Connell, said had Angel Valentin not gone to trial the DA would have succeeded in shielding from public view Habib’s disciplinary record.
“If it wasn’t for that trial we wouldn’t have known anything,” O’Connell said.
Ray Gazer, who represented both Angel Valentin and Darryl Chisolm, said had the DA’s office not offered Chisolm a deal he would have called Habib to the stand if Chisolm’s case had gone to trial.
“And then everything [Habib] testified to previously would have come out,” Gazer said.
A police source said Habib’s testimony did not prompt an internal investigation. The Bronx DA’s office did not reply to a request for comment.