EXCLUSIVE: Identity of NYPD Officer Who Lied Under Oath to Convict Innocent Occupy Protester Has Been All But Un-Reported . . . Until Now.

Welcome to DL. It's great to be here, starting this project just as I've started many other projects, with a blank screen and virtually no audience. But the audience comes with time, and with good content, right? We've got practically an unlimited supply of both, so here we go.


Nick Pinto of Village Voice reported last week that Occupy Wall Street protester Michael Premo was acquitted of all charges against him in the trial following his December 2011 arrest near Duarte Square in New York City. He was testified against by a Sgt. Richard Jones (transcripts will be posted when available), whose recounting of the events was severely disproved by Jon Greberg's eyewitness video of the incident, showing Premo being knocked to the ground, then tackled by officers as he tried to stand. Sgt. Jones claimed under oath that Premo "charged" at an officer, which is clearly repudiated by the video.

When I first saw this story break, I saw several comments on it stating things like "Guaranteed the NYPD administers no punishments for this officer's blatant perjury," and I thought, shit, that just isn't right. I hate when people take things lying down. I immediately searched the internet for news reports containing the officer's identity, for purposes of following up on this case in the future. But as I scoured, I found nothing. Nobody was reporting, at least not yet.

But Nick Pinto at Village Voice managed to tweet me back with the officer's name:

I am also awaiting response to a request I made to some case insiders regarding Sgt. Jones's perjury and the consequences he is potentially facing because of them. Perhaps if the U.S. legal system doesn't bring justice to him, we can cross our fingers that Anonymous does.