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Detectives Hit with 50-Count Indictment for Raping Teen in NYPD Van: DA

By  Janon Fisher and Noah  Hurowitz | October 30, 2017 12:47pm 

 Detectives Richard Hall (at left) and Eddie Martins (standing at left in photo at right) leave court after posting bail Monday morning. The pair have been charged with rape, kidnapping, and a slew of other charges for raping a teenager in Brooklyn in September, prosecutors said.
Detectives Richard Hall (at left) and Eddie Martins (standing at left in photo at right) leave court after posting bail Monday morning. The pair have been charged with rape, kidnapping, and a slew of other charges for raping a teenager in Brooklyn in September, prosecutors said.
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DNAinfo/Noah Hurowitz

BROOKLYN SUPREME COURT — A pair of narcotics detectives were arrested on a 50-count indictment Monday morning stemming from an accusation that they raped a 18-year-old woman in a police van after stopping her on suspicion of drug possession, according to the district attorney's office.

"It is incomprehensible that two veteran NYPD detectives would allegedly commit such an outrageous act. They took a oath to protect and serve, but allegedly violated that oath by raping a young woman who was in their custody," acting-DA Eric Gonzalez said. “To think that these are grown men in a position of power, who are blaming this on an 18-year-old girl, speaks in my opinion to desperation."

Plainclothes Detectives Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 32, who were suspended from duty Friday, were charged with first-degree rape, second degree kidnapping, receiving a bribe, official misconduct, and other related charges, prosecutors said.

On the day of the incident, Sept. 15, Martins and Hall were supposed to be working in the Brooklyn South Narcotics unit doing "buy-and-bust operations," prosecutors charge.

However, they left their post in an unmarked NYPD Dodge Caravan to pull over an Infinity coupe in Gravesend with three people inside, including the 18-year-old victim, according to the DA. They handcuffed and detained the woman after she admitted to having a small amount of marijuana and two Klonopin pills, telling her friends to pick her up at the precinct in three hours.

Det. Martins told the teen that he and his partner were "freaks" and tried to negotiate sex in exchange for letting her off without a misdemeanor drug charge, prosecutors said. 

As they drove out of the park, Martin got into the back seat of the van and used his cellphone to call the teen's friends and tell them not to follow the car, according to Assistant District Attorney Frank DeGaetano.

After making the call, Martins forced the woman to perform oral sex on him as Hall drove toward Bay Ridge, before proceeding to rape her, as the teen — still handcuffed — wept and pleaded with him to stop, DeGaetano said.

After driving about four miles away from where they picked her up, Hall took Martin's place in the back seat and forced the teen to give him oral sex, prosecutors said.

Afterward, they dropped her off at the 60th Precinct stationhouse, gave her the pills back and told her to "keep her mouth shut," prosecutors said. The 18-year-old was seen on surveillance camera getting out of the van just before 9 p.m.

The young woman was taken to Maimonides Hospital by her friends, where DNA from both the detectives was found on her.

In court Monday Mark Bederow, the defense attorney for Martins, immediately attacked the credibility of the young woman, and questioned why prosecutors would charge a forcible rape alongside a quid-pro-quo bribery charge.

“The DA is not fully invested in the young woman’s credibility either,” he said. “If they were, they wouldn’t be hedging by saying ‘on the one hand this was a horrible rape but on the other hand if you don’t believe that they made an agreement where if she performed sexual acts they would let her go.’ Pick one, you can’t have both."

In a press conference following the arraignment, however, Gonzalez dismissed Bederow's claim that bribery and forcible rape precluded one another.

"They're very consistent with each other," he said. "They have a teenager in their car and within five minutes they've committed a litany of crimes. They raped this woman and they also committed the offense of bribery in doing so."

Asked if it was possible to both offer a deal and then move on to forcibly raping the woman, Gonzalez nodded.

"They did," he said.

Judge Danny Chun set bail at $250,000 for Martins and $150,000, and both posted bail within minutes, before silently leaving the court and getting into a silver SUV.