Brian Brockington 36, three-time accused rapist who once faced up to 75 years in jail. |
Brian Brockington — who skated on the violent rape charges after Bronx prosecutors bungled the case — has filed a notice of claim, the first step toward a lawsuit, against the city and its Department of Correction.
Brockington plans to file a wrongful-imprisonment lawsuit, sources told The Post.
The 36-year-old became the poster boy for ineptitude at Bronx District Attorney Robert Johnson’s office after he walked out of Rikers Island a free man in May, even though authorities said he was linked by DNA to violent sex attacks in 1993, 1997 and 2003.
After Brockington’s arrest, prosecutors learned that the rape kit from the 1993 crime wasn’t tested until 2002 because of a lab backup. On Dec. 4, 2003 — one day before the 10-year statute of limitations ran out — Bronx prosecutors got an indictment of the then-“John Doe” rapist. But prosecutors didn’t file charges until Dec. 6, 2003, one day too late. It wasn’t until February 2010 that the Bronx DA’s Office realized the mistake and was forced to drop those charges. The 1997 case also wound up being dropped because of “evidentiary problems” that the DA declined to disclose.
That left prosecutors with only the 2003 case against Brockington — who cut a plea deal that reduced the charge to attempted assault and carried a 1 1/2- to 4-year sentence. By the time he was sprung from Rikers in May, Brockington had served longer than that. “Corrections did not take into consideration the five years he spent in jail. They just ignored it,” a source said. “There’s no question they dropped the ball. They just sat on it; he should have been released.”
Brockington had ridiculed prosecutors from behind bars at Rikers, calling their probe “a joke.”
He protested his innocence, labeled one of his accusers a “crackhead,” and said of the 1993 rape charges: “I don’t need to rape nobody. I’ll buy the [sex].” Brockington declined comment yesterday through his mom, Sheila.
“There’s a lot of people suing the city for wrongful imprisonment — there’s a lot of people going to jail who are innocent,” she told The Post at the family’s Bronx apartment. “No one ever tried to get his side of the story. No one bothered to look at his record; he’s never had any history of violence against any female, anywhere,” she said. “His baby mama’s punched him in the mouth and knocked his teeth out — he wouldn’t even hit her,” the mom said. “My son does not fight women. I raised my boys very well.”
Brockington’s lawyers, Sandra Marte and John Sandleitner, both declined comment.
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