Jeffrey Koonce, father of Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce, will have his 1983 conviction for robbing a Mount Vernon social club overturned due to prosecutorial misconduct.
The 67-year-old father of an NFL lineman will have his 1983 conviction for robbing a Mount Vernon social club overturned when he appears in court on Friday. Jeffrey Koonce spent nearly eight years in prison and has always maintained his innocence. Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah is now backing his request after her office uncovered trouble with the case.
Rocah's Conviction Review Unit found evidence that Mount Vernon police pressured the lone victim-witness to implicate Koonce, made Koonce's picture larger than others in a photo array and failed to interview alibi witnesses who corroborated his claim that he was elsewhere. A Mount Vernon detective later lied about the composition of the photo arrays when he testified at pretrial hearings and Koonce's trial, and a court subsequently ordered the department to change its unduly suggestive photo identification practices, Rocah said. One of the detectives involved in Koonce's case later went to prison following a federal corruption sting. The detective's lies and 'highly suggestive' photo identification techniques were part of a pattern of misconduct by detectives that deprived Koonce of a fair trial. 'From the highly suggestive photo array and identification procedures, to the totality of CRU's findings on the MVPD detectives' methods and credibility, we agree with defense counsel that Jeffrey Koonce's 1983 conviction was obtained in violation of his constitutional rights to due process and therefore can no longer stand by the integrity of this conviction,' Rocah said in a statement. After being released, Koonce ran a successful extermination business and raised six children, including Malcolm Koonce, a defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders and another son Dejuan Koonce, a retired New York State Trooper who was assigned to protective details for Gov. Kathy Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo
Wrongful Conviction Criminal Justice Police Misconduct Photo Identification Fair Trial
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