Shuaib O'Neill - False Confession

O'Neill, Shuaib ; weapon possession/sale; drug possession/sale; NRE: false confession, perjury/false accusation, police officer misconduct, withheld exculpatory evidence, misconduct that is not withholding evidence, misconduct in interrogation of exoneree, perjury by official

Bench trial

36 N.Y.S.3d 157; 2nd Dept. 7/31/16; reversed, due to weight of evidence

"At trial, the arresting officer and his partner testified that, while on plainclothes duty and traveling in an unmarked car with a third officer, they observed [O'Neill] and another male walking down the street wearing bandanas or masks covering part of their faces. The officers pulled up next to the man, exited their vehicle, and asked them to 'hold on a minute.' The arresting officer [ Joseph Cruzado ] testified that just as he happened to be standing right next to [O'Neill] shining a flashlight on his hands, [O'Neill] threw what appeared to be a clear plastic bag containing marihuana on the ground. The arresting officer testified that he then handcuffed [O'Neill] and recovered a gun on his person. The arresting officer's partner saw the arresting officer holding the gun, but did not see where it had come from.

"The arresting officer made no mention of the arrest in his memo book, did not call in the arrest, ad did not voucher the bandanas or masks allegedly recovered from [O'Neill] and his companion...Moreover, the arresting officer's case folder, which contained the original of [O'Neill's] written statement, as well as his signed Miranda waiver, was lost. The arresting officer read [O'Neills'] statment into the record at the trial...[N]o forensic tests were conducted on the gun to prove that it had been handled by [O'Neill]."

"[O'Neill] did not deny signing a written statement, but maintained that the arresting offiver told him what to write and told him that after writing the statement, [O'Neill] would be free to go home."

"[W]e find that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence.

"In determinig whether a verdict is against the weight of the credible evidence, this Court is required to first determine whether an acquittal would not have been unreasonable...Here, an acquittal would not have been unreasonable, particularly in light of objective facts -- including the arresting officer's failure to record the arrest in his memo book, his failure to call in the arrest, his failure to voucher the bandanas or masks, and the loss of the case folder containing the original of [O'Neill's] written statement and Miranda waiver -- all of which cast doubt on the arresting officer's credibility...Notably, [O'Neill] had no prior history of arrests* ...Upon the exercise if our factual review power...we find that the rational inferences which can be drawn from the evidence presented at trial do not support the conviction beyond a reasonable doubt...Thus, the judgment must be reversed and the indictment dismissed..."

[* This was also true of Nickel. ]

NRE synopsis (by Maurice Possley):

"On November 3, 2006, 22-year-old Shuaib O'Neill and a friend, Shaun Buchanan, were walking to a convenience store in Queens...when an unmarked police car pulled up and an officer ordered them to stop.

"Both were pushed against the police car, frisked, and handcuffed. One of the officers, Joseph Cruzado, said he had seen O'Neill toss a bag of marijuana to the ground. And when he frisked O'Neill, Cruzado said he discovered a .380-caliber semi-automatic pistol. O'Neill denied tossing the marijuana or carrying the gun.

"At the polcice station, Cruzado and Sgt. Kevin Matthews asked O'Neill if he knew anything about robberies in the neighborhood or the names of anyone seling guns. O'Neill said he did not. Cruzado, who is white, told O'Neill that he and Buchanan, who are Black, were fortunate they didn't run. If they had, Cruzado said, he would have shot them."

"O'Neill went to trial in March 2010 in Queens County...He chose to have the case decided by Justice Steven Knopf without a jury."

"At the close of the prosecution's case, Justice Knopf indicated that if O'Neill admitted to 'temporary and innocent possession' of the gun, there would be no jail sentence.

"O'Neill, who had never before been arrested, declined that option. He testified that he had been working as an aide at a nursing home, earning $17 an hour. He said that the gun and the marihuana had been planted.* He denied having any bandana or mask. He wept as he recalled the arrest. Buchanan also testified and supported O'Neill's account. O'Neill's brother-in-law, a sergeant in the National Guard who had served in Afghanistan, testified that O'Neill's reputation for telling the truth was 'flawless.' An uncle employed in the New York City corrections department testified smilarly."

[* At Auburn C.F., a c.o. planted a weapon on Nickel. ]

"On March 16, 2020 Justice Knopf convicted O'Neill of both charges. A month later, O'Neill was sentenced to three and a half years in prison.

"O'Neill was released after serving three years of the sentence. Three years later, in July 2016, the [Second Department] vacated O'Neill's convictions and ordered the charges dismissed."

"The appellate court also took note of a 2014 appellate ruling that vacated the gun possession conviction of Dejuan Battle, who had been accused of throwing away a gun as Cruzado approached.

"In the Battle decision, the court said that Cruzado had admitted at Battle's trial that he did not send the gun for fingrprint or DNA testing...And, as in O'Neill's case, by the time of Battle's trial, Cruzado had lost the memo book in which he would have made notes concerning the arrest.

"At the station house, the police had photographed the gun and placed the photograph on a bulletin board in the anti-crime office. The police placed a caption on the photograph that read 'The White Lie,' which the officers explained referred to a statement [O'Neill] made at the time of his arrest, to wit, 'you didn't get that on me.'

"The court noted that during cross-examination at the trial, Cruzado acknowledged that when an [ADA] asked him if [O'Neill] made any statements upon his arrest, the officer replied 'no.'

"In Battle's trial, a defense witness testified that she had called the police about a fight involving a man who was carrying a gun. She testified that she saw that individual place a gun under the car -- the same car from which Cruzado said he recovered the gun that he claimed Battle had discarded.

"The witness said that after police responded to the scene and recovered the gun from under the car, Battle happened to be walking by and was arrested. She testified that she told the police, that's not the guy, that's the wrong guy,' and that other people were saying the same thing, but the police arrested Battle anyway."

"In 2017, O'Neill filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against Cruzado and Matthews. The lawsuit spelled out four other instances in which Cruzado had arrested people on false charges of possession of drug or firearms. The lawsuit was settled in 2020 for $1.7 million.

"Cruzado's misconduct in O'Neill's case was highlighted in a 2021 article in The New Yorker magazine written by Tom Robbins. The article noted that the City of New York had settled other lawsuits against Cruzado for $900,000, in addition to the settlement with O'Neill, and that Cruzado had never been disciplined.

"During an inerview for the article, O'Neill said, 'I never felt like I was the same person I was before I went to jail.' He added, 'I want it to be kown that just because you are a cop you can't do everything you like. They're not perfect. They do bad things, whether they're in uniform or not.'"

[All emphases added unless otherwise noted.]