Brooklyn, N.Y. - Murder-Case Witness Says Prosecutor Threatened Him

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Brooklyn, N.Y. - A witness in a 1995 murder case accused a Brooklyn prosecutor yesterday of threatening to bash him in the head or have him locked up if he didn't testify.

Angel Santos did testify against Jabbar Collins, who is seeking to get his murder conviction tossed after the Brooklyn District Attorney's Office admitted to not having turned over information that could have helped his case.

Collins is serving a 34-year-to-life sentence for the murder of Rabbi Abraham Pollack, who was killed during an armed robbery in Williamsburg.

In a hearing yesterday in Brooklyn federal court, Santos said he had been threatened during a meeting with then-prosecutor Michael Vecchione.

"He told me he was going to hit me over the head with a coffee table or lock me up for a couple of years for perjury," Santos said.

"I didn't want to testify. I didn't want people to see me . . . He put the pressure on me."

Santos did not say whether his testimony at the 1995 trial -- in which he recalled seeing Collins run by after hearing gunshots -- was truthful.

He is the second witness in the case to say he was coerced.

The other witness, Edwin Oliva, said he had heard Collins planning to rob the rabbi, but Oliva recanted the claim. He testified with his original story after getting a deal in an unrelated criminal case.

The DA's office said it only recently learned of the recantation from a retired detective.

In an affidavit, Vecchione, now head of the office's rackets bureau, denied coercing or threatening anybody.

NY Post

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