City pays $1.5 million settlement to man jailed on 'phony' NYPD identification
The New York Daily News by DORIAN BLOCK - May 6, 2009
A 34-year-old cabbie who spent nine months in jail for a crime he didn't commit based on a cop's "phony" identification Tuesday got a $1.5 million settlement from the city. "This is the end of a very ugly part of my life," Jesus Diaz Delossantos said after the settlement in Bronx Supreme Civil Court. "There was a mistake, but thank God there is an end." Delossantos, a Dominican immigrant and the father of two children, was arrested in 2002 after an undercover cop identified him as the man who sold him 100 Ecstasy tablets two weeks earlier. Delossantos' lawyer, Roy Hiller, later proved the officer was not at work the day he claimed to identify Delossantos - and that Delossantos did not fit the description of the man who sold the drugs. "These cops were bad guys. They were untruthful," Hiller said. "The undercover didn't work that day ... It was phony." The city's lawyer, Gia DiCola, declined to comment. Court records show an NYPD undercover cop bought Ecstasy on April 15, 2002, from a man identified as "J.D. Braids" because of his long, braided hair. Two weeks later, the undercover officer supplied the false identification to his supervisor. Delossantos later was arrested based on the undercover cop's identification. Charges against Delossantos were dropped in 2004. Neither cop has been disciplined and both remain on full duty, Hiller and a police source said. With Alison Gendar, dblock@nydailynews.com
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