A Brooklyn man imprisoned on a murder rap for over 25 years had his conviction overturned Wednesday because his defense attorney quit his case and switched sides to become a homicide prosecutor — going on to become ex-District Attorney Charles Hynes’ right-hand man.
As first reported by The Post in October, Antwon Dennis, 43, was represented by defense attorney Michael Vecchione when he was charged with a 1989 killing, but Vecchione stopped representing him before trial in order to take a job with the Brooklyn DA’s office in late 1991.
“There is no cause to assume that Mr. Vecchione would not have shared information concerning the defendant’s case with his office,” Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice ShawnDya Simpson wrote in her decision made public Wednesday.
“The existence of the conflict and Mr. Vecchione’s supervisory role and employment in the same office with the defendant’s prosecutor provided a circumstance for information to be shared and for Mr. Vecchione to have some influence on the defendant’s case.”
In court, Simpson noted that Vecchione had made 20 court appearances on behalf of Dennis and had interviewed witnesses as he investigated the case.
“Mr. Vecchione worked as his attorney for 1½ years. That’s a long time. That’s a relationship. Some of us haven’t even had relationships that long,” Simpson said.
Antwon Dennis, imprisoned for more than 25 years, had his conviction overturned Wednesday.Byron Smith Dennis defense attorney Scott Brettschneider questioned whether the DA’s office would be able to prosecute Dennis at a new trial because the office can’t find the Dennis case file.
“How can you proceed at this point without a file?” Brettschneider said.“Everything becomes suspect by the fact that his file is missing.”
Brettschneider also questioned how current DA Ken Thompson could continue to prosecute Dennis, given that he bashed Vecchione in his bitter 2013 campaign against Hynes.
“Thompson ran [for office bashing Vecchione], and now [for him] to somehow defend Vecchione’s actions, I think that would be a perversion of justice,” the defense attorney said outside court.
Vecchione has denied any wrongdoing in the Dennis case, calling the idea that he shared any information about the case with prosecutors “an absurd allegation.”
Dennis will be back in court April 2 for bail arguments. He was not present in court Wednesday.
Jabbar Collins, whom Vecchione prosecuted, was convicted for the murder of a rabbi during a 1994 robbery but was released from prison in 2010 after the troubling circumstances of his prosecution surfaced.
His guilty verdict was overturned after a prosecution witness claimed he testified only because Vecchione threatened to hit him with a coffee table and allegedly failed to turn over exculpatory evidence.
A federal judge called the DA’s Office’s handling of the case “shameful.” Vecchione denied any wrongdoing.
