A detective investigating the fatal stabbing of Barnard College student Tessa Majors this month, has been sued multiple times alongside other officers for allegations that include withholding exculpatory evidence and making false accusations. That detective, Wilfredo Acevedo, has already come under media scrutiny for his role in the interrogation of a thirteen-year-old suspect, who had a family member but no attorney present.
Last year, Acevedo and another detective were sued by Darius Roseborough, who claimed the pair barged into his residence without a warrant and falsely arrested him for a shooting. Roseborough alleges that Acevedo falsely claimed that the shooting victim identified him as the shooter and that police found a gun or gun parts at his residence.
The suit further alleges that police withheld exculpatory evidence from prosecutors showing that no fingerprints or DNA from the recovered gun or gun parts were linked to Roseborough. It also alleges that police withheld evidence showing that the shooting victim was in an intensive care unit and could not have been interviewed by police to make an identification.
Roseborough was incarcerated for over a year, according to the lawsuit, which is still pending. In September of 2016 all charges against him were dropped.
In 2010, Acevedo was one of two named officers in a lawsuit by Tarell McIlwain, a black resident who accused Acevedo and a group of officers of falsely arresting him for drug and gun possession in Central Harlem. The filing alleges no drugs or contraband were found on McIlwain. Nonetheless, he spent three months in jail following his arrest. The next year, all charges stemming from the arrest were dropped, the filing states. The city settled the lawsuit for $50,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.
In addition to lawsuits, Acevedo has also had three substantiated disciplinary findings from the NYPD for discourteous language and paperwork issues, according to documents provided to Gothamist/WNYC by public defenders at the Legal Aid Society.
In the Majors case, defense attorneys for the teenage suspects will likely bring up Acevedo’s involvement in these arrests in an attempt to raise questions about his credibility.
Detectives in Morningside Park
At a Family Court hearing last Tuesday in the Majors case, a defense attorney criticized Acevedo for allegedly yelling and hounding a thirteen-year-old suspect. During the attorney’s questioning at the hearing, The Times reported, Acevedo conceded that the child suspect told him “about ten times” that he did not know his friends were going to rob the victim. The boy’s uncle was present for the interrogation, but no attorney was there, according to news reports.
In a statement, the Legal Aid Society, which represents the thirteen-year-old suspect, said the detective’s history is “of great concern.”
“These allegations of a pattern of serious misconduct cast further doubt on the case against our client, and given Acevedo’s long problematic history of violating New Yorkers’ constitutional rights, he simply cannot be regarded as credible,” the public defenders’ organization said. A spokesman refused to say how or when the agency would challenge Acevedo’s credibility in court.
In a statement, Police Commissioner Dermot Shea praised Acevedo, noting that he has made 237 arrests, including 93 felony arrests, and has been recognized with 24 department medals. Shea also criticized what he characterized as “calculated, personal attacks” against the detective’s reputation.
“He has never been found to have made a single false statement or falsely arrested anyone by either the Department, the CCRB, any Civil Court or District Attorney,” he said, adding that the Majors homicide investigation involves a large team of seasoned detectives. “Trying to undermine the case by singling out one investigator, and producing dated and unproven allegations and leaking those to the press, rather than in written form to the court, is the opposite of responsible,” his statement continued.
Gothamist/WNYC attempted to reach out to Detective Acevedo through his union, the Detectives Endowment Association. Given the pending nature of the case, the union said Detective Acevedo is not available for comment.
In a phone call, union president Michael Palladino praised Acevedo as an “excellent detective,” characterizing his disciplinary record as “very minor” and the lawsuits as “frivolous.”
Asked about Legal Aid’s comments on the detective’s credibility, Palladino said, “That’s the narrative police critics and the criminal justice reformists would like to generate, but active officers, like Acevedo, are going to collect complaints and lawsuits,” he said, citing the intense nature of their work on the street. “Unfortunately it’s the nature of the beast, and it’s a typical strategy employed by defense attorneys.”
Overall, lawsuits against the NYPD have trended down in recent years, and Acevedo’s number of lawsuits is far from extraordinary compared to other detectives, who have been named in dozens of lawsuits.
Joseph Giacalone, an adjunct professor at John Jay College and a former Detective Supervisor in Queens 110th precinct, said the only allegation that could concern him are from pending lawsuits that allege the withholding of exculpatory evidence. But, he added, for such a high-profile case, if the department felt Acevedo had serious red flags it probably would have picked someone else.
The Tessa Majors case has sparked national media attention and wall-to-wall coverage from tabloids. Political officials have pointed to its similarities to the 1989 Central Park Five case, which resulted inthe wrongful convictions of five teenagers for a rape and assault they did not commit. The specter of that prior investigation has raised concerns about due process and society’s treatment of young defendants of color.
In his statement, Commissioner Shea pointed to precautions the department has taken to avoid the missteps in the Tessa Majors case. “The investigation is being carried out under the close supervision of a chain of command that goes as high as Assistant Chief as well as an Assistant District Attorney,” he said. “In this investigation, the questioning of the suspect, was in the presence of his guardian and video recorded. From the outset, given the seriousness of the crime as well as the age of the suspects, the Department has preceded responsibly with careful consideration.”
Outside the Family Court in Manhattan
Acevedo was also named in a 2008 lawsuit with other officers for excessive force, which resulted in a $40,000 settlement with no admission of wrongdoing.
Currently, the detective is being sued in another case with three other officers for allegedly forcibly entering into a Harlem resident’s home without a warrant or probable cause. The plaintiff, Kenneth Taveras, alleges that police withheld exculpatory evidence and conducted an “overly suggestive lineup,” following an arrest for unspecified charges. The suit does not clarify Acevedo’s particular role in these claims beyond the alleged warrantless entry. Taveras was arrested on unspecified charges, and spent more than three months in jail as a result, the suit notes. His criminal case was dropped in September 2017.
Referencing defense attorneys’ compilations of such records and lists that prosecutors have been releasing about officers’ challenged credibility, Giacalone said he is concerned that anti-police animus could undermine the Majors case. In April, Gothamist/WNYC confirmed that all five borough prosecutors are compiling databases of officers with potential credibility problems. Since then, most district attorneys have released some of these records, following public records challenges by Gothamist/WNYC.
“You try to discredit the cop in any which you can in front of a jury because all you need to do is convince one of those twelve people that the cop was bad, so that everything he or she did was bad,” he said. “In this anti-cop atmosphere, I think they are going to do well with a jury from the community.”
The case’s next hearing will take place in Family Court on Monday. According to a Legal Aid Society spokesperson, a judge will rule on the prosecution’s request seeking to limit defense counsel’s internal use of the police interrogation video in its preparation for the case.
If you have a tip, or if you work or have worked in a prosecutor's office, a law enforcement agency or the courts, email reporter George Joseph at [email protected]. You can also text him tips via the encrypted phone app Signal, or otherwise, at 929-486-4865.
