Former Brooklyn cops accused of rape return to court facing lesser charges

May 8, 2019 Noah Goldberg

Richard Hall (front) and Eddie Martins (back) leave Brooklyn Supreme Court Wednesday after Justice Danny Chun set a Sep. 9 court date for their trial. Eagle photo by Noah Goldberg.

Richard Hall (front) and Eddie Martins (back) leave Brooklyn Supreme Court in May. Eagle file photo by Noah Goldberg

Share this:

The two Brooklyn police officers accused of raping a woman in the back of their police van while on duty appeared in Brooklyn Supreme Court on Wednesday for the first time since prosecutors threw out the rape charges against them.

Eddie Martins and Richard Hall appeared before Justice Danny Chun facing reduced charges of receiving sexual favors as a bribe and official misconduct. The victim — who uses the pseudonym Anna Chambers — accused both the men of raping her in the back of their vehicle on September 15, 2017, after they arrested her for having a small amount of marijuana. Hall and Martins both claimed the sex was consensual, but resigned from the NYPD in late 2017.

“This was not bribery. This was rape. This was pure rape, and they should be prosecuted for that,” said Michael David, who is representing Chambers in her federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, which he said is going to trial in a few months.

Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez threw out the original 40-count indictment — including the rape charges — in March, after prosecutors found that Chambers had made false statements under oath.

“We are fully committed to holding these defendants accountable by vigorously pursuing the charges in this case that can be proven with independent and reliable evidence,” said Oren Yaniv, a spokesperson for the Brooklyn DA’s office. Prosecutors had to drop the rape charges due to “serious” credibility issues, Yaniv said.

At the time of the incident, there was no law that prohibited cops from having sex with people who are in their custody. In 2018, New York passed a that law determined that people in custody cannot give consent.

Defense attorneys for Hall and Martins moved to get the new indictment dismissed as well, but Chun said Wednesday that he found the new indictment to be “legally sufficient.”

He set the ex-officers’ trial for Sept. 9.