Wrongly Convicted Man Freed 30 Years After Brooklyn Rape

BEDFORD-STUYVESANT, BROOKLYN — A man found guilty of raping a Brooklyn Burger King employee and who has spent 30 years in prison was released Wednesday after the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office determined there was not enough evidence to convict him.

Mark Denny, 46, was freed in Brooklyn criminal court Wednesday morning. The Brooklyn District Attorney’s office vacated the 1989 rape and robbery conviction against him, prosecutors said.

Denny was accused of joining a group of men who broke into a Brooklyn Burger King, robbed the safe of $3,000, then raped and sodomized an 18-year-old woman employee at gunpoint on Dec. 20, 1987, prosecutors said.

But an investigation by the Brooklyn district attorney's Conviction Review Unit found the evidence against Denny relied on questionable witness accounts that were never corroborated by physical evidence.

Denny became a suspect months after the attack when he was arrested in March 1988 — for robbing a Manhattan Burger King — and hauled into Bed-Stuy’s 81st Precinct, according to prosecutors and court records.

Police put Denny in a line-up and he was pointed out by the rape victim, but an expert recently retained by the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office said it would have been difficult for the woman to make an accurate identification.

Dr. Jennifer Dysart, a professor of psychology at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, noted that the victim had been badly traumatized by the attack, which she was asked to recall months later when her memories would have faded.

Dysart also noted that the young woman had been shown Denny’s picture in an NYPD photo array two days before the line-up, which could have subconsciously influenced her when making the ID.

“The combination [of] all these factors significantly decreased the likelihood that an accurate identification could have been made by victim in this case,” said Dysart.

At the time, investigators were unable to find physical evidence — such as fingerprints — to support the woman’s belief that Denny had been one of her attackers, prosecutors said.

The only corroboration came from Eddie Veira, a suspect who named Denny as one of three men who helped him commit the rape and robbery, but later testified in a parole hearing that he had only two accomplices, said prosecutors.

Investigators did find fingerprints of two other suspects — Veira and Raphael James, who were convicted of rape and robbery — and obtained a confession from a third suspect who was later released when his case was dismissed.

Denny stood trial with James and, after both men were convicted in 1989, was sentenced up to 57 years in prison, said prosecutors.

But both Denny and James have since testified in numerous letters and parole hearings that Denny was not involved in the rape, prosecutors said.

Veira was deported after he completed his sentence and prosecutors investigating Denny’s case were unable to question him.

“After a lengthy and extensive investigation into this horrific case, I have concluded that the cause of justice requires that we vacate the conviction of Mr. Denny,” said Acting District Attorney Eric Gonzalez in a statement on Wednesday.

“The false identification was not the fault of the courageous victim or law enforcement personnel, but happened because little was known back then about memory retention and retrieval, and their effect on eyewitness identification.”

Photo courtesy of GoogleMaps/Sept. 2017