New York Judge Finds Queens Prosecutor Lied to Convict Three Men Wrongfully Imprisoned in 1990s Death-Penalty Case

A New York City judge has released three men from prison after 24 years impris­on­ment for mur­der, find­ing that a high-rank­ing pros­e­cu­tor in the Queens County District Attorney’s office delib­er­ate­ly con­cealed excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence while pur­su­ing the death penal­ty against a teenage defendant. 

On March 5, 2021, Justice Joseph Zayas, the Administrative Judge of the Queens County Supreme Court, grant­ed a joint request by the Queens County District Attorney’s Conviction Integrity Unit and lawyers for George Bell, Rohan Bolt, and Gary Johnson (pic­tured, left to right) to vacate their con­vic­tions for the 1996 mur­ders of the own­er of a check-cash­ing store and an off-duty police offi­cer. Prosecutors had sought the death penal­ty against Bell in the case.

Justice Zayas found that pros­e­cu­tor Charles Testagrossa, the for­mer head of the Queens D.A.’s Major Crimes Division, hid hand­writ­ten notes and police reports impli­cat­ing oth­er sus­pects in the killings, state­ments from five eye­wit­ness­es that con­tra­dict­ed key details of the crime con­tained in the defen­dants’ con­fes­sions, and med­ical records show­ing that a pros­e­cu­tion wit­ness was men­tal­ly ill and psychotic.

“It astounds me and shocks my con­science that even in 1997, that con­sti­tu­tion­al vio­la­tions of this mag­ni­tude can hap­pen in any pros­e­cu­tion, much less the pros­e­cu­tion in a cap­i­tal case in which the for­mer dis­trict attor­ney was seek­ing the death penal­ty of a 19-year-old man,” Justice Zayas said.

“The District Attorney’s Office delib­er­ate­ly with­held from the defense cred­i­ble infor­ma­tion of third-par­ty guilt that is evi­dence that oth­ers may have com­mit­ted these crimes. This excul­pa­to­ry infor­ma­tion was in the pros­e­cu­tion’s pos­ses­sion, and had in fact been inves­ti­gat­ed and doc­u­ment­ed by the lead pros­e­cu­tor at Mr. Bell’s tri­al,” Zayas said.

The mur­der, three days before Christmas, was the sixth time a New York police offi­cer had been killed in 1996 and the then-may­or, Rudolph Giuliani, pres­sure police to quick­ly solve the case. No phys­i­cal evi­dence linked any of the defen­dants to the mur­ders, but Johnson and Bell quick­ly con­fessed after inter­ro­ga­tions by police that their lawyers said were coer­cive. Johnson was unable to pro­vide police basic facts such as the col­or of the get-away car. Bell’s con­fes­sion, which he said was made after police beat him, con­tained facts that news reports said appeared to have been fed to him by police. 

An inves­ti­ga­tion by the Conviction Integrity Unit, estab­lished by District Attorney Melinda Katz after she took office in 2020, found that pros­e­cu­tors had failed to dis­close police reports that linked a local gang to the mur­ders. The reports includ­ed state­ments from two of the gang mem­bers impli­cat­ing oth­er gang mem­bers in the mur­ders, as well as Testagrossa’s own hand­writ­ten notes show­ing he was aware of those state­ments. Prosecutors also with­held all evi­dence con­nect­ing the gang to the mur­der, fail­ing to dis­close that one of the gang’s lead­ers had been impli­cat­ed in anoth­er strik­ing­ly sim­i­lar rob­bery and that inves­ti­ga­tors for the two cas­es had met to dis­cuss them, and false­ly claim­ing that no records exist­ed that con­nect­ed the two crimes.

Though sup­port­ing a new tri­al for the men, the Queens D.A.’s office told the court that there was ​“no inten­tion­al mis­con­duct” by pros­e­cu­tors in the case. Justice Zayas point­ed­ly dis­agreed, find­ing that Testagrossa had lied about being unaware of the excul­pa­to­ry evi­dence. In fact, Queens pros­e­cu­tors used one of the with­held doc­u­ments to pros­e­cute one of the gang mem­bers in anoth­er case. ​“This was, in short, not a good-faith mis­state­ment,” Zayas said; ​“it was a deliberate falsehood.” 

Bell, Johnson, and Bolt were pros­e­cut­ed by Testagrossa and con­vict­ed in sep­a­rate tri­als. The doc­u­ments were not turned over to the lawyers for any of the men.

“George was put on tri­al for his life and for­tu­nate­ly, the jury did not impose that ulti­mate pun­ish­ment and as a result, George is alive to see this day,” Marc Wolinsky, one of the lawyers rep­re­sent­ing the three men said. ​“If the jury heard this evi­dence, they would have been acquitted.”

Testagrossa left the Queens D.A.’s office in 2016 and sub­se­quent­ly became chief of inves­ti­ga­tions in the Nassau County District Attorney’s office. He has denied any wrong­do­ing in the three Queen’s cas­es but resigned from the Nassau County D.A.’s office four days after Justice Zayas’ ruling.

Although the Queens DA’s office agreed that Bell, Johnson, and Bolt should be released, it has not yet decid­ed whether to drop charges or retry the men. The court’s mis­con­duct find­ing is not an anom­aly. At least 117 con­vic­tions in Queens County between 1985 and 2017 have been reversed because of prosecutorial misconduct. 

A September 2020 report by the nation­al Registry of Exonerations, Government Misconduct and Convicting the Innocent, found that mis­con­duct was present in 72% of all mur­der exon­er­a­tions and even more fre­quent­ly in cas­es involv­ing Black defen­dants. Police or pros­e­cu­tors com­mit­ted mis­con­duct In 78% of mur­der exon­er­a­tions involv­ing Black defen­dants, com­pared with 64% of cas­es with White exonerees. Bell, Johnson, and Bolt are African American.