Police lying persists, even amid an explosion of video evidence that has allowed the public to test officers’ credibility.
By Joseph Goldstein
Officer
Nector Martinez took the witness stand in a Bronx courtroom on Oct. 10,
2017, and swore to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the
truth, so help him God.
There
had been a shooting, Officer Martinez testified, and he wanted to
search a nearby apartment for evidence. A woman stood in the doorway,
carrying a laundry bag. Officer Martinez said she set the bag down “in
the middle of the doorway” — directly in his path. “I picked it up to
move it out of the way so we could get in.”
The laundry bag felt heavy. When he put it down, he said, he heard a “clunk, a thud.”
What might be inside?
Officer
Martinez tapped the bag with his foot and felt something hard, he
testified. He opened the bag, leading to the discovery of a Ruger
9-millimeter handgun and the arrest of the woman.
But
a hallway surveillance camera captured the true story: There’s no
laundry bag or gun in sight as Officer Martinez and other investigators
question the woman in the doorway and then stride into the apartment.
Inside, they did find a gun, but little to link it to the woman,
Kimberly Thomas. Still, had the camera not captured the hallway scene,
Officer Martinez’s testimony might well have sent her to prison.
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Source: The New York Times
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