Two NYPD Officers, Arraigned For Raping Teenager, Resign From Force

Two New York Police Department (NYPD) officers accused of raping a handcuffed 18-year-old woman earlier this year inside a police van in Coney Island, Brooklyn, have stepped down from their post.

Eddie Martins, 37, and Richard Hall, 32, had been suspended without pay from their assignments at NYPD Brooklyn South Narcotics and left the department after being arrested last week.

According to the CNN, the rape allegedly took place on Sept. 15 when plainclothes detectives Martins and Hall drove to Calvert Vaux Park in Brooklyn. The duo stopped a car being driven by an 18-year-old woman with two male passengers. Michael David, an attorney representing the 18-year-old informed that the two officers made her remove her clothes and expose herself so that it could be proved that she wasn’t hiding anything.

The woman was handcuffed and arrested on a charge of drug and some anti-anxiety pills possession while the male passengers were asked to leave and pick up the young woman later.

According to various reports, Martins allegedly raped the handcuffed woman in the back seat as Hall drove and watched in the rear-view mirror. Later, they stopped the van in Bay Ridge about four miles from the park and then Hall forced the woman to perform a sex act on him.

According to the New York Daily News, the officers drove to Coney Island, gave her back the marijuana and two prescription anti-anxiety pills that she possessed at the time of arrest. The duo also asked her to keep her mouth shut.

The CNN reported that the woman underwent a sexual assault exam at the Maimonides Medical Center. The DNA found on the woman matched both the officers, according to prosecutors.

David said the CNN that his client was of the opinion that the officers should have been fired immediately after the alleged incident, instead delaying it for almost two months. He said, “She wants their conviction. She wants them then in jail. She’s not going to feel safe until they are behind bars.”

Martins and Hall have been accused on a total of 50 charges, including first-degree rape, first-degree criminal sexual act, and second-degree kidnapping. They were out on bail after being charged $250,000 and $100,000 respectively after their court appearances, according to the NBC New York reports.

According to a report in News Day, NYPD Commissioner James O'Neill said, “When a member of the NYPD is indicted on serious charges like these, it tarnishes all of the admirable things accomplished by other, good officers every day in neighborhoods across New York City. It also stains the legacies of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice in service to New Yorkers.”

“Today, two men at the center of these allegations quit their jobs as police officers. Had these charges been upheld in an upcoming departmental trial, I would have fired them immediately. And I would have done so on behalf of every NYPD cop, because we owe the communities we serve — as well as the honest, hardworking men and women of this department — nothing less,” he added.