Charges dropped against police officers accused of raping teen under arrest

Rape charges were dropped Wednesday against two New York Police Department officers accused of raping a teen girl who had been arrested for alleged marijuana possession.

Detectives Richard Hall and Edward Martins initially faced 43 charges, including the rape and kidnapping of then-18-year-old Anna Chambers in 2017.

Chambers said at the time that the officers arrested her and her friends, but she claimed she was handcuffed and raped repeatedly in the police van by both officers.

{mosads}The Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office, citing “unforeseen and serious credibility issues,” said Wednesday that Hall and Martins will now face charges for taking bribes and official misconduct, according to BuzzFeed News.

Both officers resigned from the NYPD following the release of surveillance video showing them dropping Chambers off after the alleged rape. A rape kit also found DNA matching that of the officers.

Chambers’s case prompted New York lawmakers to pass a bill banning police officers from having sex with people in custody.

But the officers maintain that the sex with Chambers was consensual and that Chambers lied in her statements to prosecutors, according to New York’s Pix11. The officers’ attorney and the district attorney also cited the fact that sex between police and people in their custody was not against the law in 2017.

The Hill has reached out to the Brooklyn District Attorney’s Office for comment.

Chambers’s attorney, Mike David, told BuzzFeed News that he plans to pursue a federal civil rights lawsuit on behalf of the now 20-year-old.

“She spoke out about what happened to her, and they shamed her, smeared her, demeaned her,” David said. “And now they even dropped the charges.”