New York judge tosses 46 convictions tied to detective who admitted to lying

A New York City judge has thrown out 46 convictions tied to James Donovan, a former New York Police Department detective who later pleaded guilty to false testimony.

“The fundamental fairness and reliability of each of these convictions has been called into question,” Bryce Benjet, director of Queens District Attorney’s Office Conviction Integrity Unit said in court on Thursday, according to Gothamist .

The convictions, which included drug possession, trespassing, and other misdemeanors, will be cleared from the records of those who were arrested, and whose sentences have all been completed.

“We cannot stand behind a conviction where the essential witness was a law enforcement officer convicted of a crime that irreparably impaired his credibility,” Queens DA Melinda Katz said in a statement heading into the hearing.

Former NYPD Warrant Squad Detective James Donovan pleaded guilty in 2023 to perjury in the third degree. He retired that year.

The charge stemmed from a 2020 investigation, in which Donovan testified before a Queens grand jury the following year that he personally arrested a man sleeping in the backseat of a car and saw a gun hiding beneath where the man had been lying.

“In fact, Donovan did not actually make the arrest or observe the firearm in the car,” according to the Queens DA’s Office. “He later admitted his testimony about the arrest was false when interviewed by a prosecutor preparing the case for a hearing.”

Elizabeth Felber, supervising attorney of the Wrongful Conviction Unit at The Legal Aid Society, celebrated the decision to toss the cases.

“While we hope that this moment delivers some justice and closure to the New Yorkers impacted by these tactics, the sad reality is that many were forced to suffer incarceration, hefty legal fees, loss of employment, housing instability, severed access to critical benefits and other collateral consequences resulting from criminal convictions,” she said in a statement to The Independent.

All told, the borough’s conviction integrity unit has dismissed 148 convictions since its founding in 2020, 132 based on the work of detectives whose credibility was later undermined, according to Gothamist.