Hynes Rebuked by Federal Judge

Michael Vecchione

At a pre-trial hearing last week in a lawsuit filed by Jabbar Collins, whose murder conviction was vacated in 2010, Judge Frederic Block scolded Brooklyn District Attorney Charlie Hynes for shielding and promoting Michael Vecchione, the prosecutor who wrongly jailed Collins for 15 years for the 1995 murder of Rabbi Abraham Pollack.

Collins was freed after a judge found that Vecchione, the driving force behind the Brooklyn D.A's office, had used false testimony, coerced witnesses and suppressed evidence in Collins' case.

Collins is now suing the city and a group of Brooklyn prosecutors that includes Vecchione for $150 million.

Collins' lawyer plans to take Hynes' and Vecchione's depositions.

The trial date is April 8, 2013.

The article from the New York Times.