Releases by month April 2021
In compliance with the Rules of Professional Conduct, Rule 3.6, you are advised that a charge is merely an accusation and that a defendant is presumed innocent until and unless proven guilty.
DA Rocah Calls on U.S. Dept. of Justice to Investigate Mount Vernon Police Department
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April 30, 2021 -- Westchester District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah today publicly called on the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to investigate the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) for pervasive and persistent alleged civil rights violations including unlawful strip searches, excessive use of force, and other misconduct.
“The Westchester District Attorney’s Office is engaged in ongoing criminal investigations of certain individual MVPD police officers,” DA Rocah said. “In the course of those investigations, based largely on publicly available information, we have found disturbing allegations of patterns of inappropriate and potentially unlawful conduct by several former and current members of the MVPD. We have provided information that we gathered in this respect to DOJ.”
“While our criminal investigations of individual officers continue, we are requesting that DOJ scrutinize the MVPD’s operations, training and policies to determine whether the MVPD is systematically violating peoples’ civil rights and, if so, to take action to address these matters,” DA Rocah added.
“Since taking office in January, 2020 my mandate has been transformation and accountability across city agencies including the police department. We are working hard to dismantle systemic issues and reform policing to ensure that our community is a safe place for all,” said Mount Vernon Mayor Shawyn Patterson-Howard. “Our administration referred multiple cases to the District Attorney for review and welcome DA Rocah’s request that DOJ add its resources to identify and address these issues for the benefit of our community.”
DA Rocah said that a DOJ investigation would focus on broader issues of civil rather than criminal law, which do not typically fall under the purview of the DA’s Office. She emphasized that the DA’s Office continues to work with the MVPD to investigate and prosecute crimes in Mount Vernon, and said this ongoing collaboration would continue without disruption during a DOJ investigation.
In March, DA Rocah wrote to MVPD Commissioner of Public Safety Glenn Scott regarding what appeared to be a routine practice of strip searches and body cavity searches of suspects. “My concern arises not from a single, isolated complaint, but from a number of them from 2012-20, making similar allegations of certain police officers illegally or inappropriately conducting these highly invasive searches without the high legal and/or factual predicate thresholds having been satisfied,” DA Rocah stated in the letter.
Since taking office in January, DA Rocah has greatly increased the focus of the Westchester DA’s Office on all forms of public corruption, including police misconduct. “All Westchester residents need to have confidence that they will be treated fairly and equitably. Public trust in our criminal justice system is critical to public safety and we must strengthen that confidence through any tools available to us.”
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Jess Vecchiarelli, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3586
jvecchiarelli@westchesterda.net
Jury Finds Mount Vernon Man Guilty in Stabbing Murder
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April 29, 2021 – A Mount Vernon man was convicted of murder on April 21 in the first jury trial to take place in Westchester County Court since last fall, when jury trials were suspended for a second time due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Savion Kirton, 27, was convicted of Murder in the Second Degree, for the June, 2019 stabbing of Jermial Rose in the neck, resulting in his death. The jury deliberated for 90 minutes before rendering a verdict.
“This was a brutal and senseless crime,” said Westchester District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah. “Thanks to the diligent work of our prosecutorial team, Savion Kirton has been held accountable for his actions, and our thoughts are with the victim’s loved ones.”
A short time before the murder, Kirton’s girlfriend was in a local store in Mount Vernon when Rose brushed up against her. She returned to her apartment and told Kirton what happened. Kirton, armed with a folding knife, immediately went to the store and confronted Rose on the sidewalk outside the establishment.
Security camera video captured Kirton at the scene, where he stabbed Rose in the left side of the neck with enough force that the knife crossed his throat and severed his right carotid artery. The knife, with Rose’s DNA present, was later located in Kirton’s girlfriend’s apartment.
Kirton faces a minimum sentence of 15 years to life in prison when he is sentenced on May 24.
The case was before Judge George Fufidio.
Assistant District Attorney Jonathan Strongin, Deputy Bureau Chief of the Major Case Bureau, prosecuted the case.
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Media contact:
Dan Weiller, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3586
dweiller@westchesterda.net
Statement from DA Miriam E. Rocah Regarding the Investigation into the March 9 Assault of a Korean-American Woman in White Plains
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April 27, 2021 -- Westchester DA Miriam E. Rocah issued the following statement today regarding the ongoing investigation into the March 9 assault of a Korean-American woman in White Plains:
The Westchester District Attorney’s Office is committed to prosecuting anyone who commits hate crimes to the fullest extent of the law. We are also firmly committed to maintaining the integrity of all of our arrests and prosecutions.
In early March, an elderly Korean-American woman was assaulted on a sidewalk in White Plains and a suspect was identified in the case. In the course of our investigation, however, the Assistant District Attorneys handling the case found issues with aspects of the identification that rendered it inadmissible and unusable in court.
We have now determined that available evidence beyond the inadmissible identification is not sufficient to establish beyond a reasonable doubt that the suspect originally arrested committed the assault as charged. As justice requires, we are dismissing all charges against this individual.
The incident remains under investigation by the Westchester DA’s Office. Anyone who has information about this crime is encouraged to call the DA’s Office hotline at (914) 995-TIPS and choose the option for hate crimes in any of the available languages.
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Media contact:
Dan Weiller, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3586
dweiller@westchesterda.net
Yonkers Man Sentenced to 10 Years in 2019-2020 Holiday Season Burglaries, will also Pay Thousands in Restitution
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April 29, 2021 – A man who committed a string of holiday season burglaries around Westchester in 2019 and 2020 – injuring one victim and threatening another with a knife – was sentenced earlier this month to 10 years in prison and five years of post-release supervision. He will also be required to pay nearly $30,000 in restitution to victims.
German Martinez, 43, of Yonkers pled guilty in Nov. to two counts of Burglary in the First Degree, one count of Robbery in the First Degree, and six counts of Burglary in the Second Degree. Martinez used unwitting taxi drivers to take him to homes where he stole cash, jewelry, computers and other items.
“To be confronted by a burglar in one’s own home is a truly frightening experience, and I hope that all of Martinez’s victims can take some comfort from this sentence,” said Westchester District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah. “I want to thank all of the local police departments that worked together to solve these crimes and to help make our communities safer and more secure.”
The case was before Judge Barry Warhit in Westchester County Court on April 15.
The investigation into this series of burglaries was a collaboration of local police departments including Dobbs Ferry, Rye, Sleepy Hollow, Tarrytown, White Plains, Yonkers and the Westchester County Police, along with DA’s Office criminal investigators.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorneys Steven Vandervelden and Stefanie DeNise.
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Media contact:
Dan Weiller, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3586
dweiller@westchesterda.net
Several Million Dollars’ Worth of Narcotics Including Fentanyl Seized in Mount Vernon
- Details
April 26, 2021 -- Several million dollars’ worth of opiates and other narcotics, including what is alleged to be fentanyl, was seized last week in Mount Vernon following a joint investigation by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) New York Drug Enforcement Task Force (NYDETF), New Jersey State Police and the Westchester District Attorney’s Office, DA Miriam E. Rocah said today.
Approximately 25,000 pills alleged to be fentanyl, many marked “M30,” and an estimated 38 kilograms of alleged narcotics including heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl were found packaged and ready for sale in an apartment in Mount Vernon. In a contemporaneous search warrant executed at a residence in Yonkers, an estimated $35,000 in cash was seized. The substances have been sent to the DEA’s Northeast Regional Laboratory for analysis.
An individual was arrested in New Jersey by New Jersey State Police in connection with the seized narcotics, and was charged in Mount Vernon with two counts of Criminal Possession of a Controlled Substance in the First Degree, pending extradition to Westchester.
DA Rocah said: “Drug overdoses and overdose deaths are plaguing Westchester and our region. We are committed to doing everything we can to get drugs off of our streets and out of our communities and to help fight opiate addiction. We are grateful for the hard work of the New York Drug Enforcement Task Force – including the DEA, NYPD and New York State Police – and the New Jersey State Police for helping us in this effort.”
DEA Special Agent in Charge Ray Donovan said: “Two milligrams of fentanyl can cause death, and taking this large amount of fentanyl out of distribution has saved lives. This seizure is indicative of how traffickers are making street drugs highly potent and highly addictive by adding fentanyl. This is a warning that local traffickers vary methods of distribution, some selling only fentanyl and some selling mixtures of fentanyl and other drugs. Therefore, drug users beware, what you may think is one drug, is really laced with something more powerful and deadly.”
New York State Police Acting Superintendent Kevin P. Bruen said: “The relentless work and collaborative efforts of law enforcement at all levels has resulted in the seizure of millions of dollars in deadly drugs and the removal of a dangerous criminal who threatened the safety and security of our neighborhoods. We have zero tolerance for those who sell these deadly, illegal drugs. Together, we will continue to aggressively target and eliminate these operations and work to stop the distribution of these deadly substances and the drug-related violence on our streets.”
New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Patrick J. Callahan said: “The amount of lethal narcotics seized in this investigation is staggering. There is no doubt that this investigation saved lives, prevented
addiction, and made our communities safer. Large-scale operations of this magnitude are a testament to the effectiveness of multiagency collaborations, which require complex coordination of personnel and a willingness to share information and intelligence at every level. We remain committed to working alongside our law enforcement partners to disrupt the flow of these deadly narcotics into our communities.”
The NYDETF comprises personnel from the DEA, New York City Police Department (NYPD) and New York State Police (NYSP). The search warrants for the Mount Vernon and Yonkers locations were executed by the NYSP and NYPD with assistance from the DEA. NYSP K-9 Liam also assisted.
The charges are merely accusations and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
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| Westchester County Police K-9 and seized drugs and cash |
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Media contact:
Dan Weiller, Director of Communications
(914) 995-3586
dweiller@westchesterda.net
