With all the complaints over the years, specifically from communities of color, about police corruption, Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg has dropped over 300 convictions.
According to The Associated Press, Bragg dismissed 308 convictions that were tied to police officers who were found guilty of crimes that they committed. This was the latest round of over 1,000 dismissals citywide connected to police officers who were either charged or convicted.
“We cannot stand by convictions that are built on cases brought by members of law enforcement who have violated the law,” Bragg stated.
Bragg is the prosecuting attorney who convinced a Manhattan grand jury to indict former President Donald Trump, making him the first former president of the United States to face criminal charges. Trump was indicted for allegedly providing hush money paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.
Some of the latest abandoned convictions, mostly misdemeanors, date back to 1996. The dismissals come after some of the former police officers involved were convicted of on-the-job offenses, including bribery, illegally selling guns, lying under oath, and planting drugs on suspects.
Elizabeth Felber of the Legal Aid Society was happy about the dismissals and made a statement about treating convicted police officers in the same vein as the people they arrest.
“The same lens used on our clients charged with criminal conduct must be applied to those in law enforcement,” Felber said in a written statement.
After obtaining an indictment of the former president, Bragg sued Republican U.S. Representative Jim Jordan because the politician started a “campaign of intimidation.” Jordan wanted Bragg to appear before Congress to explain why Trump was indicted. Bragg stated that the subpoena sent to him was an unconstitutional “incursion” into a state criminal case. He alleges that Jordan commissioned the subpoena as payback for making Trump the first former president to be indicted.