Peekskill Man's Drug Conviction Vacated as Arresting Officer Pleads Guilty to Perjury

Jamar Smythe of Peekskill, who served two years of a 15-year sentence for drug possession, was released April 22 and his conviction was vacated.

His case had been re-examined because Yonkers Police Detectives Christian Koch and Dennis Molina had arrested him back in 2011.

Koch pleaded guilty yesterday to perjury in an unrelated case—falsifying the need for a search warrant—and the Yonkers Police Department is looking into a list of cases in which he, Molina and/or former police Officer Neil Vera were involved.

According to Jonathan Bandler of The Journal News, “Smythe’s friends and relatives erupted in applause just before noon as Westchester County Judge Barbara Zambelli, who had sentenced Smythe to 15 years in prison two years ago, agreed with the defense and prosecution that the conviction should not stand. Koch and Molina had lied about the circumstances of a traffic stop leading to Smythe’s arrest, prosecutors determined.”

The Journal News said prosecutors have dropped charges against 20 defendants in other pending cases now considered tainted.

However, Smythe is not home free yet.

According to Lucian Chalfen, spokesman for Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, there’s a conference scheduled May 12 to discuss how the case will move forward. The case has been restored to post-indictment status—so Smythe is out on his own recognizance—but it has not been dismissed.

Yesterday the District Attorney’s Office issued a statement about Koch and Vera:

Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore announced that Yonkers Police Detective Christian Koch pled guilty to:

• one count of Perjury in the Second Degree, a class “E” Felony.

Also, former Yonkers Police Officer Neil Vera pled guilty to

• one count of Perjury in the Second Degree, a class “E” Felony
• two counts of Official Misconduct, class “A” Misdemeanors.

In a statement after the defendants pled guilty, District Attorney Janet DiFiore said: “There is nothing more important than members of law enforcement acting with honesty and integrity. We place enormous trust in the work of police and when that trust is violated we will not hesitate to hold the individuals accountable, as we have in this case.”

On March 21, 2014, Police Officer Vera, a former Yonkers Police Department Housing Unit police officer, working with Detective Koch, a Yonkers Police Narcotics Detective swore falsely, and the false statement was made in an application for a search warrant for “141 School Street, apt#3, Yonkers, New York”. The false statement was made with intent to mislead a Yonkers City Court Judge in the performance of his official functions signing the warrant.

Additionally, on May 20th, 2014, Police Officer Vera asked a person identified to the Grand Jury to lie to investigators and provide a false written statement to police officers of the Internal Affairs Division of the City of Yonkers Police Department.

He asked that individual to make a false statement to the Yonkers Police Internal Affairs investigators identifying himself/herself as an individual who had performed controlled narcotics buys at 141 School Street in support of the search warrant, when in fact this was completely false.

The defendants surrendered to the Yonkers Police Department Internal Affairs Division.

Sentencing for Vera will be on May 28th, 2015. Sentencing for Koch will be on September 10th, 2015. They face a maximum of four years in prison.

Assistant District Attorney Berit Huseby and Assistant District Attorney Brian Fitzgerald of the Public Integrity Bureau are prosecuting the case.

PHOTO: Koch and Vera/Westchester County District Attorney’s Office