Teenager, Erik Crespo, used his MP3 player to secretly recorded an abusive interrogation by a New York Detective, Christopher Perino, that may not land the detective in jail for perjury.

In an extraordinary Petty Mason moment, Perino was on the stand testifying in April that he never interrogated the teenage suspect about a Bronx shooting until a defense attorney confronted him with the transcript taken from the MP3. Perino never knew that he was recorded in an hour long interrogation using abusive language. After the prosecutor asked for a delay, Perino was taken from the stand and advised to get a lawyer. He now stands accused of perjury.

Defense attorneys have long complained that officers will often show more loyalty to their colleagues than to the truth on the stand. While the vast majority of officers testify truthfully, there remains a disturbing incidence of false testimony told to protect the “thin blue line. Without this recording, there would be no way that Perino would have been held accountable. Prosecutors, as here, routinely take the word of the officers without independent inquiry.

He faces 12 counts of first-degree perjury and faces as many as seven years on each count, prosecutors said.

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