Queens prosecutors have been accused of threatening a key witness in a wrongful conviction case, potentially jeopardizing the man’s efforts to overturn his 30-year prison sentence. Allen Porter has been incarcerated since 1991 after being convicted of a double murder, but his legal team is now alleging that prosecutors engaged in misconduct during the investigation and trial. According to court papers filed on Tuesday, Vanessa Thomas, a crucial witness in the case, claims that two prosecutors visited her home in Georgia earlier this year and threatened her with arrest if she changed her original testimony in favor of Porter. These alleged threats followed an undisclosed deal that prosecutors reportedly made with Thomas in 1993, following her own arrest in connection with the murders. Porter’s legal team believes that this improper arrangement played a role in Thomas falsely implicating Porter in the crime. The motion to overturn Porter’s conviction, which spans 51 pages, includes recantations from two other key witnesses and over 2,000 internal case documents. These documents reportedly detail instances of withheld evidence and coerced testimony by Queens prosecutors and police officers. Thomas, now 70 years old, recounted the alleged threats made by the prosecutors to her ex-boyfriend, Nathaniel Wright. According to Wright’s affidavit, filed on Tuesday, Thomas claimed that the prosecutors told her she would face perjury charges if she altered her original testimony. Wright’s affidavit is based on a text message that Thomas sent him the day after the visit from the prosecutors. In the message, Thomas expressed her fear of being prosecuted if she helped Porter, stating that the prosecutors were determined to keep him in prison. Porter’s legal team has filed the affidavit along with a 30-page request for a hearing on the matter in Supreme Court in Queens. Daniel Barli, Porter’s lawyer, emphasized that prosecutors have the right to visit witnesses, but threatening them crosses a line and becomes inappropriate. He maintains that Porter is innocent of the crime he has been imprisoned for and that the legal team is taking steps to ensure he receives a fair opportunity to clear his name. Wright’s affidavit also reveals that Thomas confirmed the text message and its contents to him. An expert on prosecutorial ethics, Bennett Gershman, retained by Barli, has expressed the importance of the hearing in determining whether the prosecutors improperly interfered in the case. Gershman believes that Porter’s motion has been tainted by the alleged threats against Thomas, pressuring her to maintain her original false testimony. Richard Brown was the District Attorney when the Porter case went to trial. A spokeswoman for the current DA, Melinda Katz, responded that the allegations of threats and the substantive arguments in the motion will be addressed in court. Porter, now 51 years old, is serving a 47 years to life sentence in Green Haven Correctional Facility in Stormville. Despite his incarceration, he remains active in mentoring teens and is pursuing his education through the Bard College Prison Initiative. The details of the case and the alleged misconduct by prosecutors and police officers paint a disturbing picture of a justice system that may have failed Porter. The upcoming hearing will be crucial in determining the truth behind these allegations and whether Porter deserves a new trial or even exoneration after spending decades behind bars for a crime he may not have committed.
Queens Prosecutors Allegedly Threaten Key Witness in Wrongful Conviction Case
