NYPD cops have been caught “testilying” on more than two dozen occasions since January 2015 — with some giving inaccurate accounts about witness identifications and others falsely claiming under oath that they watched drug deals and other crimes happen, according to a report.
The false testimony cases were uncovered during an investigation by the New York Times through interviews with lawyers, police officers and local judges.
At least 25 instances were found where judges or prosecutors reportedly determined that a cop’s testimony was likely untrue or embellished.
In many cases, officers gave false statements about guns or drugs being out in the open — in plain sight — in an attempt to hide illegal search and seizures, the Times reports.
In others, cops allegedly lied about finding or spotting weapons in a suspect’s hand or waistband, when in actuality, they were hidden out of view.
“Behind closed doors, we call it testilying,” explained NYPD Officer Pedro Serrano.
“You take the truth and stretch it out a little bit.”
Most of the cases identified by the Times are sealed, but some have managed to make headlines.
Earlier this month, two veteran NYPD detectives were indicted on charges of official misconduct and filing false paperwork for lying about a drug deal that went down in Queens.
A Brooklyn detective was arrested a few weeks before that and slapped with federal perjury charges after prosecutors determined that he fabricated evidence in a carjacking case.
“There’s no fear of being caught,” said one Brooklyn officer who spoke to the Times.
“You’re not going to go to trial and nobody is going to be cross-examined.”
In two recent cases, the Times found that officers were caught giving false information under oath about witness identification — including where they ID’d suspects and how.
A 2016 mugging case in Brooklyn reportedly was dropped by prosecutors after the arresting officer, Chedanan Naurang, kept changing his story about where the alleged thief was identified.
First he claimed that the identification had gone down inside a police station — with the victim passing by the holding cells and pointing out the suspect from a group of four men, according to the Times.
Then he told prosecutors that the alleged perp was actually ID’d on the street, not long after the mugging.
“We have 36,000 officers with law enforcement power, and there are a small handful of these cases every year,” said NYPD spokesman J. Peter Donald. “That doesn’t make any of these cases any less troubling.”
While it still happens today, “testilying” is largely seen as a product of a bygone era.
The emergence of cellphone cameras and bodycams over the past two decades has not only made it far more difficult, it’s given witnesses and citizens the power to report what really happens at the scene of a crime — in real time.
“Basically it’s harder for a cop to lie today,” the NYPD’s top legal official, Lawrence Byrne, explained at a New York City Bar Association event last year, according to the Times.
“There is virtually no enforcement encounter where there isn’t immediate video of what the officers are doing,” he said.
Even though the issue remains prevalent, the percentage of false testimony cases that go to trial or reach cross-examination is reportedly very small.
The Times found that most end in plea deals before the lying officer is required to testify — and when they do take the stand, the judge almost always dismisses the case and then later seals it.
“Our goal is always, always zero,” Byrne said of the “testilying” instances.
“One is too many, but we have taken significant steps to combat this issue.”