Updated 09/19/2011 11:52 PM
Another Mistrial Declared In Former Transit Officers' Road Rage Trial
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An ongoing case of two former transit police officers who allegedly beat up a man during a Bronx traffic stop reached a second mistrial on Monday after the defense claimed it was did not receive information about the accuser's past history of domestic violence. NY1's Criminal Justice reporter Dean Meminger filed the following report.A full jury had not even been selected at Bronx State Supreme Court, but already there was another mistrial in the retrial of former Police Officers Michelle Anglin and Koleen Robinson on Monday.
Their defense team members said they uncovered damaging information about Marlon Smith, who said he was beaten by the former off-duty transit officers in the Bronx in 2008.
They claimed that Smith was involved in a domestic abuse incident in 2003.
"He beat up his girlfriend, busted her lip, brandished a knife and caused her to go to the hospital. All information we did not have," said Neville Mitchell, Anglin's lawyer.
Defense lawyers argued they should have received that information about Smith during the first trial earlier this year.
Following the 2008 fight, Smith needed 25 staples to close gashes to his head. The women said they were protecting themselves from a crazed man.
The defense said prosecutors may have engaged in misconduct by telling them only that Smith harassed his girlfriend and did not beat her.
"They had an obligation to turn over the prior bad acts of the defendant, the complaining witness, to us," Mitchell said.
The Bronx district attorney's office denied any misconduct but did not argue against a mistrial, saying it wants the former police officers to have a fair shake.
Back in May, Anglin and Robinson were found guilty of official misconduct for not notifying police about the fight with Smith, but there was a mistrial on the assault part of the case.
The defense said the first trial's jurors should have known about Smith's history with his girlfriend.
"If the jurors would have had the information that goes directly to his credibility, we think that it wouldn't have been a hung jury and these ladies would have been exonerated," said Michael Mays, Robinson's attorney.
On Monday, the judge had yet to determine if there will be yet another trial or if the case will tossed all together.
After the women were convicted of official misconduct, their lawyers said they resigned from the NYPD so they would not be fired. If their court case is tossed, the defendants may ask for their jobs back.