Served 8 Years for Robbery & Weapons Charges
Jeffrey Koonce, center, at DA Rocah’s press conference announcing vacating his conviction. Photo from Westchester DA’s office
Improper photo identification methods, false testimony and adverse credibility of Mount Vernon detectives among new evidence cited in Conviction Review Unit investigation
Westchester County District Attorney Miriam E. Rocah today announced that following her Conviction Review Unit’s investigation into a 1981 armed robbery at a Mount Vernon social club and newly-discovered evidence, she has supported a defense motion to vacate the conviction of 67-year-old Jeffrey Koonce, who was incarcerated for eight years some thirty years ago and has always maintained his innocence. The District Attorney did not oppose the defense motion for vacatur based on their position that Mr. Koonce’s constitutional rights were violated due to false testimony by one of the Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) Robbery Unit’s lead detectives on the case, Daniel Salottolo, and improper photo identification methods used by Salottolo and Detective James Garcia. Garcia and another investigator on the case, Lt. Robert Astorino, were subsequently convicted of federal corruption charges in 1994. The CRU investigation also revealed inconsistencies between the testimony by the single victim-witness in the case and statements made to CRU investigators.
DA Rocah said: “From the highly suggestive photo array and identification procedures used by MVPD detectives to the totality of new evidence found by the CRU investigation, we agree with defense counsel that Jeffrey Koonce’s 1983 conviction was tainted by such questionable investigatory processes and procedures and therefore can no longer stand by the integrity of this conviction.”
Mr. Koonce and his attorney Karen Newirth appeared before New York State Supreme Court Justice James McCarty to request that the court vacate the conviction and dismiss the underlying indictment, which charged Mr. Koonce with robbery and weapons possession in connection with the June 20, 1981 shooting at Vernon Stars Rod and Gun Club, where patrons were robbed at gunpoint of jewelry, cash and other valuables.
Following a jury trial in May 1983, Mr. Koonce’s brother Paul, who was in the 10th grade at the time of the crime and also indicted, was acquitted on all charges, while Mr. Koonce was convicted on all charges and sentenced to an indeterminate term of seven-and-a-half to 15 years. He served eight years in prison and was released on parole in August 1992.
- MVPD detectives presented witnesses a highly suggestive and improper photo array that contained photos of several individuals implicated in similar crimes that did not match Jeffrey Koonce’s likeness. Mr. Koonce’s photo was the only one that was enlarged.
- A witness, who was inside the club and shot during the time of the robbery, was in ninth grade at the time, and the only one who identified Mr. Koonce as the shooter after being shown the photo array; other witnesses told investigators it was too dark inside the club to identify faces of the armed men other than that they were young black males.
- Detectives brought Mr. Koonce to appear for a “show up” identification at the hospital where the wounded witness was being treated. The witness subsequently testified at a pre-trial hearing that he was feeling pressured to quickly identify the man police brought to the hospital. The trial judge called the show up “impermissibly suggestive.”
- The witness told CRU investigators that he did not remember seeing any faces in the dark bar on the night of the incident, and that patrons immediately covered him after the shooting, which further obscured his ability to see the perpetrators.
- The photo array was never shown to the defense until the pre-trial hearing.
- Detective Salottolo provided ostensibly false and misleading testimony at pre-trial hearings and at trial about the composition of the photo arrays.
- MVPD did not interview all of the alibi witnesses provided by Mr. Koonce, including an alibi witness, who is now a retired NYPD detective, and had testified that Mr. Koonce was with him in the city the night of the crime. Mr. Koonce maintains this alibi today.
- After a 1991 trial for a different case involving Detective Garcia, the judge in his oral decision noted that Detective Garcia had lied during his testimony, and the Court “did not believe it could rely on almost anything Detective Garcia had to say.”
- During a 1993 prosecution of a bank robbery in Mount Vernon investigated by Detective Garcia, the Court ordered a new photo identification procedure after determining that the process was unduly suggestive. Case files included a note about FBI agents telling the prosecution that Detective Garcia had “helped” witnesses select photographs.
- MVPD detectives Garcia, Astorino and Frank Lauria were arrested in May 1994 for stealing $10,000 during an FBI sting operation and convicted of federal corruption charges. Garcia, a 21-year veteran of the MVPD, and Astorino, MVPD Chief of Detectives, each were sentenced to one year and a day in jail. Lauria, who was hired by MVPD while facing NYPD charges, was sentenced to nine months in jail.
Jeffrey and Paul Koonce have always maintained their innocence.
The CRU investigation was conducted by former CRU Chief Anastasia Heeger, former Senior Assistant District Attorney Alexandra Keeling, and DA’s Office criminal investigators dedicated to the CRU.
Since the District Attorney launched the unit in 2021, CRU investigations have led to the county’s first two, separate large-scale vacaturs involving a former Yonkers detective convicted of perjury and secret recordings by a whistleblower alleging misconduct inside the MVPD
In 2023, CRU’s review led to the exoneration of a man who served more than seven years in prison for a 1975 rape he did not commit. CRU investigators found the actual perpetrator who confessed to the crime. It is the longest-known wrongful conviction in U.S. history to be overturned by DNA evidence.
Jeffrey Koonce is the father of NFL defensive end Malcolm Koonce, (Las Vegas Raiders).
