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In an announcement on Friday, Dec. 27, the Westchester County DA's Office said a judge overturned the conviction of 67-year-old Jeffrey Koonce, who was found guilty of robbery and weapons possession in 1983 in connection with a 1981 armed robbery at a Mount Vernon social club.
District Attorney Miriam Rocah said her office’s Conviction Review Unit (CRU) uncovered evidence that Koonce’s constitutional rights were violated during the investigation and trial, including improper identification procedures and false testimony from Mount Vernon Police Department (MVPD) detectives.
"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," Rocah said.
Koonce, who has always maintained his innocence, served eight years in prison following his conviction and was released on parole in 1992.
According to the DA's Office, the CRU’s investigation revealed numerous alleged issues with the original case, including:
- MVPD detectives used a photo array that was improperly suggestive, enlarging Koonce’s photo and including unrelated individuals;
- A witness, who was a ninth grader at the time of the crime, testified he felt pressured to identify Koonce after being presented with an impermissibly suggestive hospital “show-up” identification;
- Witnesses stated that the social club was too dark during the robbery to identify faces clearly;
- Detectives failed to interview all of Koonce’s alibi witnesses, including a retired NYPD detective who testified that Koonce was with him in New York City at the time of the crime;
- MVPD detectives involved in the case, including James Garcia and Robert Astorino, were later convicted on federal corruption charges in 1994 for unrelated misconduct.
Koonce and his attorney, Karen Newirth, appeared before New York State Supreme Court Justice James McCarty on Friday morning to request that the conviction be vacated and the indictment dismissed, which were granted.
Koonce’s brother, Paul, who was indicted in the same case, was acquitted during their 1983 trial.
Koonce is the father of Las Vegas Raiders defensive end Malcolm Koonce as well as retired New York State Trooper Dejuan Koonce, who once served in protective details for Gov. Kathy Hochul as well as former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, according to a report by ABC 7.
In the years after his prison sentence, he also ran a pest exterminator business, according to his LinkedIn page.
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