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DA Investigating Brooklyn Detectives Accused of Sex Assault on Teen: Source

By  Noah  Hurowitz and Janon Fisher | September 29, 2017 6:01pm | Updated on October 2, 2017 8:55am

 Two detectives forced an 18-year-old to perform sexual acts on them, according her lawyer.
Two detectives forced an 18-year-old to perform sexual acts on them, according her lawyer.
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DNAinfo/Katie Honan

CONEY ISLAND — Two narcotics detectives were stripped of their badges and guns and assigned to desk duty after a Brooklyn woman claimed that they raped her while she was handcuffed, according to police sources.

Detectives Richard Hall and Eddie Martins, who both have at least seven years in the department, were accused of forcing the woman into a van and raping her in a parking lot after searching her car, according to her lawyer, Michael David, plans to sue the city over the incident.

"They basically kidnapped her," he said. “Police are supposed to protect you from rapists, they’re not supposed to kidnap you and rape you.”

Additionally, Sgt. John Espey, a 22-year veteran of the NYPD, and sergeant with the Brooklyn South narcotics squad, has been stripped of his badge and gun and put on desk duty for "failure to supervise," and Internal Affairs is looking into the accusations against the detectives, according to police sources.

The Brooklyn District Attorney's office is also investigating, according to a law enforcement source.

At about 8 p.m. on Sept. 15, when the woman and two friends were in a car in Calvert Vaux Park in Coney Island, according to her lawyer. They pulled her over for driving slowly and, after a search, the detectives found prescription drugs on her friends, but let them go when they produced prescriptions.

They held the 18-year-old and sent the friends on their way, David said.

In an unmarked minivan, they they forced her to remove her top, before handcuffing her and driving her to a Chipotle parking lot, where they told her she would have to have sex with them if she wanted to avoid being booked, David said.

One of the detectives raped her and both forced her to perform oral sex on them, before dropping her off on the street, he said.

"She was totally hysterical," he said.

A friend met the young woman and brought her home, where her mother insisted on bringing her to Maimonides Hospital Center, where doctors performed a rape kit and notified police about the rape, according to police sources.

When investigators began looking into the rape, the detectives claimed the sex was was consensual, a claim that made it into news reports and shocked the girl when she found out, according to David.

"She's now been victimized twice," he said. “First she was brutally raped, and then they said it was consensual. That’s insane.”

David has filed a notice of claim with the Comptroller's office, a precursor to suing the city, and is asking for $50 million in damages he said. But for the victim, the money is not the main concern, according to David.

“Nobody really cares about the money,” he said. “Our first concern is that these cops be taken off the force and put in jail so they’ll never be able to do this again.”

A representative of the NYPD detectives union did not respond to several requests for comment Friday.