No Jail Time For Ex-Cops Accused Of Raping Handcuffed Teen In Van

BROOKLYN, NY — A pair of ex-NYPD cops accused of raping a handcuffed young woman in the back of their police van pleaded guilty Thursday to accepting bribes and official misconduct and will spend no time behind bars, according to the Brooklyn District Attorney's office.

Eddie Martins, 39, and Richard Hall, 34, were sentenced to five years probation after admitting they had sex with the woman, identified by the alias Anna Chambers, an 18-year-old they arrested and handcuffed in Gravesend on Sept. 15, 2017, prosecutors said.

"I would have preferred to see them serve prison time," said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez. "These defendants engaged in a shocking abuse of power which they finally acknowledged."

Martins and Hall, formerly of the NYPD's Brooklyn South Narcotics squad, were initially charged with rape, but those charges were dropped in March rape because of a legal loophole, now closed, that allowed police officers to claim sex was consensual even with a person in their custody, Gonzalez explained.

Prosecutors also argued the teenager's story was not credible, but hoards of protesters who gathered outside the Brooklyn District Attorney's office in March argued the handcuffs and DNA evidence found in her body were proof enough that Chambers had been raped.

"It is not uncommon for victims of trauma to have inconsistencies," said protest organizer and NOW-NYC president Sonia Ossorio. "On the facts of the case, she's been very consistent."

On Thursday, the two officers admitted they stopped Chambers and two men in an Infiniti Coupe in Calvert Vaux Park about 8 p.m., prosecutors said.

The cops said they saw marijuana in the cup holder, pulled the three occupants out of the car and demanded to know if they had any other drugs, prosecutors said.

When Chambers said she had marijuana and two Klonopin pills, Martins and Hall handcuffed her, told her she was under arrest but let the two men go, said prosecutors.

Martins and Hall said they pulled the teen into their van where Chambers says they raped her but they claim they had consensual sex, according to prosecutors.

Chambers was then given back her Klonopin and let out of the van in Coney Island about 8:40 p.m., prosecutors said.

Martins and Hall pleaded guilty to two counts of bribe receiving and nine counts of official misconduct in Brooklyn Supreme Court before Justice Danny Chun, who told prosecutors he'd officially sentence the pair on Oct. 10.

Another Brooklyn woman is suing Hall for assaulting her during a similar stop in Prospect Lefferts Gardens that turned up no evidence of drugs.