Jabbar Collins, the man who spent 15 years in prison before his 1995 murder conviction was overturned earlier this year, is suing the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office and one of its top prosecutors in a $150 million lawsuit, charging that the agency deliberately withheld evidence and was consistently engaged in misconduct during the trial.
Collins, who was accused of murdering Rabbi Abraham Pollack in Williamsburg during an armed robbery, had his sentence overturned after evidence came to light that the Brooklyn DA's office never turned over crucial information to the defense, and allegedly threatened one of the main witnesses in the case into testifying. That witness testified that the main prosecutor in the case, Michael Vecchione, had threatened to bash him over the head with a coffee table and toss him in jail. "Vecchione engaged in a series of fraudulent, deceptive and literally criminal acts, all caused by and consistent with his office's unlawful policies, in order to convict Jabbar Collins and make the conviction last," lawyer Joel Rudin argues in the suit.
Though he is not a defendant in the suit, Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes is roundly criticized for a "history of indifference" to "pervasive misconduct" by overzealous prosecutors, and allegedly condoning Vecchione's behavior by "his unwillingness to even investigate, let alone discipline" the prosecutor. Vecchione, who is now the chief of the Brooklyn district attorney's rackets bureau, has denied coercing or threatening anybody in an affidavit.
