The Associated Press
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) -- Five former Orange police officers convicted in the beating of a suspect who later died will not get a new trial, a federal judge has ruled.
The officers claimed the case against them was tainted by an FBI lab technician who admitted botching DNA tests, but U.S. District Judge John Lifland found that the technician played a small role in the investigation. He also said prosecutors did not know about her mistake.
“The DNA evidence in this case simply did not play as important a role in establishing the defendants’ guilt as the other evidence,” Lifland wrote in a 45-page opinion filed Monday in Newark.
The officers were never charged with causing the death of the suspect, Earl Faison, but were accused of violating his civil rights. A jury found them guilty of conspiracy in December 2000, but U.S. District Court Judge John C. Lifland overturned part of the verdict in May 2001.
An appeals panel reinstated the guilty verdicts in June 2002, but sentencing in the case was delayed in March 2003 after Jacqueline Blake, an FBI technician in Washington, admitted she failed to use acceptable testing standards in more than 100 cases. And the officers’ lawyers said prosecutors must be held accountable for Blake’s misconduct, even if she never testified or played any prominent role in the case.
At issue was a palm-sized concrete chip that was taken from a sidewalk two weeks after Faison was detained in April 1999. An FBI lab analysis matched his blood to the sidewalk stain, but prosecutors later admitted they could not be sure whether the blood sample came from the victim.
A 27-year-old aspiring rapper from East Orange, Faison was taken into custody during the manhunt for the gunman who killed Orange Officer Joyce Carnegie, 38. Authorities said police beat and kicked Faison and twice blasted pepper spray at him.
Faison later died of an acute asthma attack and another man, Condell Woodson, eventually pleaded guilty to killing Carnegie. The five officers -- Brian Smith, Thomas Smith, Andrew Garth, Paul Carpinteri Jr. and Tyrone Payton -- were later convicted of conspiring to deny Faison his civil rights, charges that carry up to 10 years in prison.
A new sentencing date has not been scheduled.