NYPD commissioner apologizes over mishandled 1994 Prospect Park rape case
New York Police Department Commissioner James O’Neill on Sunday apologized to a woman who came forward with a rape allegation in 1994 but was discredited by police, saying the department let her down “in almost every possible way.”
In a letter, O’Neill offered the woman his “heartfelt apology for all aspersions cast upon your credibility by NYPD personnel those many years ago.”
The woman, who is African-American, had told police in April 1994 that she had been in Prospect Park in Brooklyn when she was dragged into the bushes and raped.