Petros Bedi is doing a 42 1/2 year prison sentence. Twelve years ago, he was convicted of shooting a man in a nightclub.
The primary prosecution witness was a man named Seraphim Koumpouras, who agreed to testify after he was arrested on drug charges.
During Mr. Bedi’s trial, a defense lawyer blasted away at the credibility of this witness and tried to prove he had incentive to lie. Didn’t the Queens district attorney foot the hotel bill to put up you and your girlfriend for eight months? Weren’t you paid handsomely for your testimony?
No, the witness insisted. I paid my own bill. Nobody paid me anything.
This was a lie, and the prosecution knew it, because they were the ones who paid Mr. Koumpouras: they gave him $3,000 in cash, and paid $16,640 in hotel bills.
Noted:
…in 70 known cases of prosecutorial mistakes and misbehavior in Queens over about a decade, the district attorney, Richard A. Brown, has disciplined just one lawyer.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 14th, 2012 at 7:32 am and is filed under Clippings, Law. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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