Danny Colon & Anthony Ortiz - Perjury / False Confession

Colon, Danny AND Ortiz, Anthony; murder; NRE: perjury/false accusation, prosecutor misconduct, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, knowingly permitting perjury, witness tampering or misconduct interrogating co-defendant, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree, prosecutor lied in court

[656:259]; 1st Dept. 4/17/97; affirmed

"[Colon and Ortiz's] guilt was established beyond a reasonable doubt and was not against the weight of the evidence..."

[890:424]; Court of Appeals 11/19/09; reversed, due to prosecutor misconduct

"Shortly after midnight on December 8, 1989, the occupants of a van opened fire on two cars at a Manhattan intersection, killing two men and wounding two others. In the fall of 1990...Danny Colon and Anthony Ortiz were arrested in connection with the shootings..."

"At their joint trial in 1993 only two witnesses linked [Colon and Ortiz] to the crime. Anibal Vara, a childhood friend and former associate of Colon in a drug-dealing operation, testified that he was with [Colon and Ortiz] the day after the shootings. According to Vara, Colon admitted that he was one of the shooters and that Ortiz participated in the crime. During his testimony, Vara acknowledged that he did not implicate [Colon and Ortiz] until he was arrested in March 1990 on misdemeanor drug charges. As a result of his entering into a cooperation agreement with the [DA's] office, he agreed to testify against Colon and Ortiz. In return, he was permitted to enter a guilty plea to disorderly conduct and avoided jail time for what would have been a probation violation. Vara claimed that this favorable deal was the 'only benefit' he received in exchange for his testimony and that the prosecutor did not 'have anything to do with the disposition' of his subsequent 1992 felony drug charges, for which he received a sentence of 2-1/2 to 5 years upon his guilty plea.

"The second witness, Daniel Cove, testified that he spoke with Colon and Ortiz while they were incarcerated together and each admitted his role in the December 1989 shootings. Cove recalled Colon describing the shootings as a drug-related ambush and that Colon had identified Wilbur Hernandez, Willie Perez and 'Moose' as the other occupants in the van. Cove explained that at the time he reported this information to the authorities, he was facing life imprisonment for the March 1990 murders of the two survivors of the December 1989 attack, as well as federal drug conspiracy charges. He agreed to execute cooperation agreements with state and federal prosecutors in the hope that, in exchange for his testimony against [Colon and Ortiz], he would obtain substantially reduced sentences on his guilty pleas. Cove also admitted that he had been a drug dealer whose operations grossed up to $140,000 a day; that he was responsible for numerous murders in connection with his drug activities; and that he had previously lied to a grand jury in an unrelated case.

"During summation, the prosecutor repeated Vara's assertion that he had not received 'any benefit' other than the favorable plea agreement resolving his 1990 misdemeanor drug case. The prosecutor also stressed that she had 'nothing to do with the plea [Vara] ultimately took with a two and a half to five year sentence' in connection with his 1992 felony narcotics arrest.

"In 2003, Colon moved...to vacate the judgment, arguing that Vara had received additional benefits in exchange for his testimony and that the prosecutor had failed to correct Vara's false testimony. Ortiz later joined in the motion and [County] Court conducted a hearing at which the prosecutor testified but Vara did not appear.

"At the hearing, [Colon and Ortiz] established that the [DA's] Office had engaged in further activity on Vara's behalf that neither Vara nor the prosecutor revealed during the trial. Specifically, the prosecutor had assisted in the relocation of Vara's grandparents by contacting the New York City Housing Authority. [Colon and Ortiz] also demonstrated that the prosecutor was involved in Vara's 1992 felony drug case on two occasions. First, the prosecutor appeared at a calendar call to tell Vara about a plea offer of 2-1/2 to 5 years that had been authorized by the Office of the Special Narcotics Prosecutor. Second, approximately one month later, the prosecutor left a message with the narcotics prosecutor regarding Vara's status as a witness in [Colon and Ortiz's] murder trial. [Colon and Ortiz] also revealed that the prosecutor was aware that a gun had been recovered from Vara's hotel room prior to the murder trial and that Vara was never arrested or prosecuted for its possession.

"Furthermore, the [DA's] Office produced two handwritten notes by the trial prosecutor...that pertained to her interviews of two women who claimed to have information about the shootings. These notes had not been disclosed to defense counsel prior to trial...[O]ne woman had identified four persons as participants in the shooting: Litte Danny, Willie Perez, Moose and Wilbert. The second note contained a slightly different list of four names obtained from the second woman -- Danny, Willie, Moose, and Wilbur.

"Following the hearing, [New York County] Court denied [Colon and Ortiz's]...motions to vacate the judgments. The Appellate Division affirmed, finding that any error was harmless...A Judge of this Court granted leave to appeal...and we now reverse.

"[T]he prosecutor failed to correct Vara's misleading testimony and, in addition, compounded these errors by repeating and emphasizing the misinformation during summation."

[As is virtually always the case, the prosecutor whose misconduct was responsible for this reversal was not actually named herein.]

[The two murder victims were Orlando Martin and Frank Morales. Pedro Mejia and Rafael Garcia were also shot, but survived.]

"Detectives suspected the shooting was drug-related because all the victims except Morales were known drug dealers. They also suspected the shooting had been ordered by Danny Core,* the boss of drug operatons on the Lower East Side of Manhattan and Spanish Harlem." [The above Court of Appeals decision spells the surname 'Cove.' It's unclear which is correct.]

"On March 12, 1990, Anibal Vera,* a drug dealer, was arrested...and charged with misdemeanor possession of cocaine. On probation for armed robbery and fearing he would be sent to prison, Vera offered information on the shooting in exchange for favorable treatment. Vera told them that Core was behind the shooting and was then released to act as informant for the detectives."

[* The above Court of Appeals decison spells this surname 'Vara.' It's unclear which is correct.]

"Vera, under pressure to produce information, told detectives, in August 1990, that 26-year-old Danny Colon and 20-year-old Anthony Ortiz had admitted to him that they took part in the shooting that killed Morales and Martin. At the time, Colon was the owner of a Brooklyn carpet business and Vera was his former neighbor. Ortiz was an associate of Colon.

"On August 12, Ortiz was arrested on federal narcotics charges and threatened with a charge of murder unless he cooperated with the investigation. Ortiz refused, and remained in federal custody until October 12, 1990, when he was charged with the murders of Martin and Morales and taken into custody by New York police. That same day, Colon was arrested and charged as well."

"At trial...the statement from the relative of [Necio] Fonseca [named by Mejia and Garcia as one of the shooters] -- in which [Johnny] Vargas admitted he had committed the murders with [three others], was never disclosed to the defense attorneys.

"On October 5, 1993, Ortiz and Colon were convicted by a jury...Each was sentenced to 50 years to life in prison. Core pleaded guilty in federal court and was sentenced to six years in prison."

[ Core/Cove had admitted to committing fourteen murders; and yet, he gets a sentence which is less than one-eighth that received by Colon and Ortiz, who were (wrongfully) convicted of committing two murders.]

"In 2003, Colon wrote a letter to Vera, asking him why he had lied. A week later, Vera contacted Colon's family and recanted. He revealed the details of his deal with prosecutors that had been kept from the defense attorneys. And he wrote to Colon to apologize."

"On June 29, 2011, the Manhattan [DA's] Office dismissed the charges.

"Ortiz and Colon filed federal wrongful conviction lawsuits against the City of New York and police detectives in the case. They reached a joint settlement for $9 million in 2014." [All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]