Tapes Not Enough To Charge Police Officers: Westchester DA

MOUNT VERNON, NY — The Westchester County District Attorney is defending his office against accusations that he and his staff have mishandled allegations against several Mount Vernon police officers brought by a whistleblower and his attorney. SEE: Mount Vernon Police Accusations Become DA Campaign Issue.

Officer Murashea 'Mike' Bovell and his attorney gave the DA's office hours of recordings of police officers discussing misconduct, from framing people to beating local residents to collaborating with drug dealers. News of the recordings broke yesterday in a exclusive WNYC/Gothamist report.

Yesterday, Mimi Rocah, a former federal prosecutor running against DA Anthony A. Scarpino, Jr in the Democratic primary June 23, urged NY State Attorney General Tish James to take over the investigation of the allegations and the DA’s role.

"As we are seeing across the country, there are grave consequences for failing to hold police officers accountable for their misconduct, in addition to eroding trust in our law enforcement," Rocah said. "By virtue of his own actions and inaction, DA Scarpino has lost all credibility in regard to his ability to handle even the most egregious and obvious allegations of police misconduct."

Scarpino disagreed. "Right now there is no case.," he said. "Just because someone comes forward with recordings, doesn’t make it a criminal case. You cannot prosecute someone on hearsay."

Scarpino said he and his staff reviewed the audio tapes and followed through with an investigation. But no witnesses came forward.

"At this time, there is nothing but hearsay and uncorroborated information," he said. "We do not consider the investigation closed because we would certainly speak with a witness who might come forward. But as of now, there is no case against individual officers based on Bovell’s recordings.

"These tapes, in themselves, are not admissible as evidence before a grand jury or in a court of law. The FBI also looked into the case and told our investigators they did not find anything to prosecute."

He said he has spent his career upholding the law.

"I abhor police brutality, like the killing of George Floyd, and any other corruption by public servants. Under my leadership, this office has been very aggressive about prosecuting police corruption. We have successfully prosecuted many police officers who have crossed the line and have a number of cases against police officers pending. We have zero tolerance for any police misconduct," he said. "We are here to protect our communities – to do what is fair and just."

Rocah pointed out that the officers mentioned in the article in the Gothamist are still active and potentially continuing to lie on the job.

"We need the DA’s office to actively prosecute any officers who don’t represent our community," Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard said. "I won’t stand for it and neither will Mount Vernon‬."