Another Yonkers drug case tossed, with cops still under scrutiny

JOURNAL NEWS: Westchester prosecutors dismissed charges against another defendant Monday in the wake of an investigation into an improper search that ended with the death of a suspected drug dealer.
By Jonathan Bandler, jbandler@lohud.com

Felony drug charges against Kino Smith were dismissed in Yonkers City Court, although what role two Yonkers officers who are under investigation played in Smith's case has not been revealed.

"The D.A.s are being very upstanding here," said Hugh Jasne, Smith's lawyer, following the dismissal. "It's obviously nothing they've done wrong. It's a couple of cops who decided they were above the law."

Detective Christian Koch and Officer Neil Vera were relieved of their shields and weapons last week and remain under investigation by the Yonkers police Internal Affairs Division and the Westchester County District Attorney's Office.

The investigation began more than four months ago, after the March 21 death of Dario Tena. Tena, suspected of dealing drugs, fell to his death out a third-floor window at 141 School St. after police arrived to execute a search warrant.

Koch had submitted a sworn affidavit for the search warrant, and included information he got from Vera. Authorities soon determined that the affidavit contained "material false statements," and cases Koch and Vera have been involved in have come under close scrutiny.

Smith became the seventh defendant unrelated to the Tena case to have his drug charges dismissed. Three of those defendants were arrested in the same case and had faced mandatory state prison time on a Class A felony before their charges were dropped.

One of those defendants, Joseph Yearwood, sued the department and Officer Alex Della Donna in federal court last year, alleging that the officer took $5,100 from him while fabricating claims that Yearwood possessed cocaine. Yearwood's lawsuit was dismissed this year after he did not respond to several requests from the court.

Yearwood claimed that police went to get a search warrant only after entering his apartment illegally. Neither Koch nor Vera were named in the lawsuit and it was unclear what role they played that led to the charges being dismissed.

Last month, the lawyer for Wilfredo Ruiz and Elizabeth White reached a $20,000 settlement agreement with city lawyers in a federal lawsuit that named Della Donna, Koch, a sergeant and two other officers. They claimed that they were falsely arrested in September 2011 after police illegally searched Ruiz's apartment and White's car. The charges were dropped a week later. The lawsuit does not spell out Koch's role and the lawyer could not be reached for comment.

Jasne, Smith's lawyer, said dismissing the charges was the right thing to do from a credibility standpoint.

"The bottom line is, nobody is going to believe anything these guys say," Jasne said