CBS' 'Brooklyn DA' to air following Abe George's unsuccessful legal challenges

The lawyer for a man suing the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office for damages connected to a wrongful-murder conviction requested that a federal judge sanction the prosecutor's office for failing to turn over emails its officials exchanged with producers of the television show "Brooklyn DA."

Attorney Joel Rudin, filed a letter Tuesday to Brooklyn U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Levy, asking he order the district attorney's office to produce all requested emails and impose "monetary sanctions" on the prosecutor's office for "falsely denying" it possessed the requested emails.

Mr. Rudin is the attorney for Jabbar Collins, who served 16 years in prison for a conviction in the 1994 murder of a rabbi and landlord in Brooklyn. 

The conviction was overturned in 2010. In a lawsuit seeking $150 million, Mr. Collins contended the investigation led by Michael Vecchione, head of the district attorney's rackets division, included the coercion of witnesses, failure to turn over exculpatory documents and other allegations of prosecutorial misconduct. The office denied all wrongdoing.

  

The Brooklyn District Attorney referred questions to city attorneys. Arthur Larkin, senior council with the law department, said in a statement, "The e-mails do not concern, or even mention, the Jabbar Collins case in any way. In addition, the e-mails to and from Mr. Veccione are not substantive and merely relate to lunch appointments. As a result, we do not believe that sanctions are merited."

Mr. Rudin filed a motion in April seeking emails and other documents pertaining to the CBS show, which was set to debut Tuesday night, that mention Mr. Vecchione and those referencing Mr. Collins and his case.

On May 13, the district attorney's office replied saying they "are not in possession, custody or control of any document responsive" to the request.

Earlier this month, Abe George, one of two candidate running against Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes, who is seeking re-election, sought a court injunction seeking to stop the airing of the show on the grounds that it was campaign propaganda that violated the state's laws on corporate donation limits.

Over the past two weeks, at least two defense attorneys of clients whose cases were potentially going to be part of the program also requested injunctions from judges to stop the show.

A Manhattan Supreme Court judge denied Mr. George's motion Friday, but not before hearing testimony from two CBS executives who produced emails they exchanged with Mr. Vecchione and other staffers regarding the show.

The Wall Street Journal was given a copy of the show' s debut episode, and Mr. Vecchione provides the voice over to start the show and is featured prominently in it.

One email to CBS from an employee of the district attorney's press office states, "Mike and I met with the DA. Things went well. We sold him on it…"

Mr. Rudin said his letter seeks the emails to support one claim in Mr. Collins' lawsuit alleging that Mr. Hynes was "deliberately indifferent" to misconduct by his office.