He wants no part of a DA Thompson regime.
Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes’ controversial veteran rackets chief filed his retirement papers this week and plans to leave the office about three weeks before DA-elect Ken Thompson takes over – in part so he doesn’t have to be part of the transition, sources told The Post.
Michael Vecchione – who in 2010 saw a high-profile murder conviction overturned amid allegations he withheld evidence and is now at the center of a $150 million wrongful conviction lawsuit filed over the case – slated his last day for December 12, the sources said.
“He just wanted to get out of there. He doesn’t want to be part of the transition,” said a source close to ousted DA Charles Hynes.
“Vecchione’s basically said, ‘Thompson said he’s firing me, so f— him, I’m leaving before he can fire me,’” the Hynes source said.
Thompson bested Hynes twice in landslide victories and the former federal prosecutor bashed Hynes right-hand man Vecchione during his campaign.
“Michael Vecchione, a long-time ally of D.A. Hynes … has been accused of numerous instances of serious prosecutorial misconduct that have raised grave questions about wrongful convictions,” Thompson said in one press release.
Even Vecchione’s biggest detractors acknowledge him as a supremely talented trial attorney, but he has also been criticized by federal judges for his 1995 prosecution of Jabbar Collins, the man who filed the $150 million suit against the city.
Brooklyn federal judge Frederic Block said he was “puzzled” that Hynes never punished Vecchione for the Collins prosecution, referring to allegations that Vecchione threatened two witnesses in the murder probe with violence and withheld exculpatory evidence.
And Brooklyn federal judge Dora Irizarry – who released Collins – said in 2010 that, “It is indeed disappointing – in fact, it is really sad – that the DA’s office persists in standing firm that they did nothing wrong here.”
Last week Vecchione booted two veteran prosecutors from his bureau after they told him he needed to dismiss an evidence-challenged case against an Orthodox man accused in a sex abuse extortion case, the Post exclusively reported.
Vecchione earned an annual salary of $189,000 in 2010, according to SeethroughNY.net.