2 Yonkers cops who lied facing jail time

A former Yonkers police officer and detective face jail time after pleading guilty Thursday to perjury for lying to get a search warrant for a raid in which a School Street tenant died when he fell out a window.

Neil Vera, who was fired late last year, also pleaded guilty to official misconduct. He will serve weekends in jail for six months.

Detective Christian Koch will serve eight weekends in jail. He had been under suspension since the officers were indicted in October and resigned Thursday.

Both acknowledged misleading a Yonkers judge in a sworn affidavit on March 21, 2014, seeking a search warrant for the third-floor apartment at 141 School St. Once the warrant was issued, police raided the apartment and the tenant, Dario Tena, fell nearly 40 feet to his death.

Yonkers police Commissioner Charles Gardner said the guilty pleas "demonstrate that our officers will be held accountable for misconduct."

An investigation by internal affairs and the District Attorney's Office determined that the officers had never spoken to a confidential informant who they claimed gave them information because the informant was in a prison out of state during the months leading up to the raid.

Following Tena's death, Vera tried to cover up his actions by getting another informant to lie to investigators that he had conducted controlled buys of cocaine at Tena's apartment as the officers claimed in the search warrant affidavit.

Andrew Rubin, Koch's lawyer, said his client did not know that information he got from Vera was false.

"He attributed actions to himself (in the affidavit) that should have been attributed only to Vera," Rubin said.

Bruce Bendish, Vera's lawyer, said the officer was trying to combat the scourge of drugs in the School Street corridor but went about it the wrong way.

"He pled guilty, he apologizes for the issues he's caused the Yonkers Police Department and he acknowledges his mistakes," Bendish said of Vera. "In retrospect, the end doesn't justify the means."

Even before Koch and Vera were indicted, the District Attorney's Office began reviewing pending cases in which either officer or both were involved. Prosecutors have dropped charges against 20 defendants, including some who were facing serious drug felonies.

They also asked a judge to vacate the conviction of Jamar Smythe who was serving a 15-year sentence for a 2012 drug conviction. Prosecutors found that Koch and his partner, Detective Dennis Molina, testified falsely at Smythe's trial. Smythe's conviction was thrown out on Tuesday and he was released from prison.

Molina, a 13-year veteran of the department, has not been charged but was placed on modified duty this month pending the ongoing investigation.

No charges were brought in connection with Tena's death and police maintain that he had been selling drugs from the apartment, as cocaine and drug paraphernalia was found in the apartment. But his family has raised questions about what happened in light of the bad warrant.

Police did not have Tena's name when they raided the apartment, claiming that the target was a Richie Polanco, even though Polanco had not lived there in several years.

As a member of the housing unit, it wasn't Vera's job to conduct controlled drug buys. But he conducted his own investigation during February 2014, giving money to a relative of his wife's to have another person buy cocaine from the apartment. He claimed the drugs were then given to him, but Vera had no direct knowledge about the buys that could lead to an arrest.

He gave information to Koch to prepare the search warrant affidavit. Koch included that information and even added that Molina had been part of the instigation, which he wasn't.

Koch and Vera pleaded guilty to the top charge, second-degree perjury, a felony for which they could have faced up to four years in prison.

They remain free without bail. Westchester County Judge Barry Warhit scheduled sentencing for Vera on May 28 and for Koch on Sept. 10.

Vera, 35, was a trustee in the Yonkers Police Benevolent Association. He was hired in 2007 and dismissed during his probationary period, but rehired the following year.

Koch, 39, joined the department in 2001 and was a narcotics detective for the past several years. He has two brothers who are also Yonkers police officers.

Detective Keith Olson, president of the Yonkers PBA, declined to comment.

The union was challenging the city's firing of Vera arguing that he should have remained under suspension with pay until the criminal case was resolved. The guilty plea ends the need for arbitration on the firing itself but it was unclear whether the union would pursue the issue of back pay for Vera from the day he was fired through Thursday.

Twitter: @jonbandler