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A prosecutor for soft-on-crime Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg is attempting to free a killer he helped send to prison a decade ago, a move that opponents say is only feasible in New York City’s progressive milieu. Bizarre Universe.
David Drucker penned a letter to Governor Hochul’s Executive Clemency Bureau requesting clemency for Trevell “G. Dep” Coleman, who is serving 15 years to life at Fishkill Correctional Facility in upstate New York for the 1993 murder of 32-year-old John Henkel.
“Many offenders exhibit regret, but it is rarely evident how sorry they are for their crime and how sorry they are for being caught,” Drucker wrote in an August 3 letter.
“There is no doubt that Mr. Coleman’s regret is as sincere as any that I or anyone I’ve spoken with have ever witnessed.”
“A choice to release Mr. Coleman at this time would be both safe and humanitarian,” Drucker wrote in the letter on company letterhead. “On behalf of the District Attorney’s Office of New York County, I urge you to do exactly that.”
John Henkel was murdered in 1993.
Robert Henkel, the victim’s brother, referred to Drucker’s clemency petition as a “farce” and demanded that Hochul deny it.
Henkel fumed, “This is such a conflict of interest.” “The one who incarcerated him is now petitioning for his release. It is acceptable to request clemency for drug offenses, but not for murder.
“Let him rot in jail! Let him serve his 15-year sentence and then he can apply for parole.”
Coleman isn’t parole eligible until 2025.
In 2012, while working for then-Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, Drucker headed a team that contributed to Coleman’s conviction on second-degree murder charges. Drucker retired in September 2021, but returned to the workplace as a $100-per-hour part-time prosecutor two months later.
Coleman stepped into the 25th Precinct station house in Harlem in 2010 and confessed to the October 19, 1993 murder of John Henkel, without which the case would have remained unsolved.
David Drucker was rehired by the Manhattan district attorney’s office two months after retiring and cashing out $186,877.
In 1999, Coleman joined with Sean “Diddy” Combs’ Bad Boy label before transferring to Famous Records. In addition, he had more than 25 narcotics, burglary, and grand theft arrests.
He informed police that he was on a bicycle when he approached Henkel at the intersection of Park Avenue and East 114th Street to declare a robbery.
Colemen claimed that he brought out a.40-caliber firearm and shot Henkel three times in the chest after the victim struggled.
Coleman stated that he had thrown the weapon into the East River.
When police examined the cold case file, they were stunned to find that Coleman’s story matched.
Coleman stated that he revealed his dark secret because it “weighed on me.”
Drucker stated at Coleman’s sentencing that the verdict was just.
Drucker stated at the time that there was a completely innocent victim. “The defendant fatally shot him three times in the torso and then rode away, abandoning the victim to die.”
Brooklyn Councilman Ari Kagan, a longtime Democrat who said he converted to the Republican Party last week in part because of left-wing politicians like Bragg’s soft-on-crime methods, deemed the DA’s “conduct” in this case “reprehensible.”
“It demonstrates a terrible lack of judgment and disregard for the interests of taxpayers,” he said.
Drucker received a lump amount of $186,877 after retiring from the DA’s office and paying out unused leave collected over four decades. In addition, he received an additional $76,690 during the fiscal year that concluded on June 30.
Councilman Robert Holden exclaimed, “Only in Bizarre World would an assistant district attorney’resign’ to collect a settlement, be rehired, and then attempt to liberate a convicted killer he helped put behind bars” (D-Queens). “The Manhattan District Attorney’s Office commits an ethical breach or demonstrates prosecutorial negligence every single day. But this is to be expected from District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who continues to ridicule the city’s legal system.”
Since assuming office on January 1, Bragg has downgraded more than half of his office’s felony cases to misdemeanors, while also losing half of the felony cases that reach court, a significant fall in performance compared to the previous years under Vance.
Hazel Crampton-Hays, Hochul’s spokesperson, stated that the governor does not comment on pending clemency applications, but is “dedicated to promoting justice, fairness, and safety in the criminal justice system, and we are examining applications in this context.”
Emily Tuttle, a spokesperson for Bragg, described Drucker as a “universally esteemed career prosecutor who has served with distinction.” She added that his current responsibilities include working on “severe homicide cases, assisting in the training and guidance of Assistant District Attorneys, and advising the executive team on our most complicated investigations.”
“When an esteemed homicide prosecutor like Mr. Drucker says a New Yorker deserves early release, we pay attention. There is no one more qualified to assess the just resolution of a case while preserving the safety of New Yorkers,” she continued.
»Murder victim’s family is enraged after a Bragg prosecutor seeks to free the murderer«