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Man wrongly jailed blames NYPD for killers’ murder spree

The real killers of a Bronx livery driver were free to murder at least four more victims because NYPD cops railroaded five innocent people in the notorious 1995 slaying, a stunning new lawsuit charges.

Eric Glisson, who spent nearly 18 years in prison before being exonerated, alleges in his Manhattan federal suit that Bronx homicide cops “fabricated evidence and false witness testimony” that convicted him and four co-defendants in the fatal shooting of Baithe Diop.

As a result, vicious gang members Jose “Joey Green Eyes” Rodriguez and Gilbert “Gorgeous Indian” Vega were never busted for Diop’s murder and went on to kill at least four other people before the feds busted them and they cut a deal, admitting they shot Diop from the back seat of his livery car, the court papers say.

The additional victims include two men who were gunned down in 1997 during an annual Thanksgiving Day football game between residents of two Bronx housing projects, according to court records. Rodriguez pleaded guilty in that crime.

That shooting, in which three others were wounded, was ordered by “Pistol” Pete Rollack, the imprisoned leader of Rodriguez and Vega’s gang — called Sex Money Murder, or SMM — to keep one of the slain victims from testifying against him.

Vega pleaded guilty to being the getaway driver for a 1999 robbery and murder at an auto-parts business in Hunts Point.

Baithe Diop

“I think it’s a tragedy that these other people had to lose their lives because of the negligence of the New York City Police Department,” Glisson said Sunday.

Cops also allegedly stymied a federal investigator who in 2003 tried to corroborate Rodriguez and Vega’s confessions to shooting Diop, the suit alleges.

“I guess if you’re sitting up there [in The Bronx] and you’re the cops who put five people in jail for something they didn’t do, you probably have an incentive to let sleeping dogs lie,” said Glisson’s lawyer, Peter Cross.

Glisson was freed from prison in 2012 along with co-defendant Cathy Watkins, but three others convicted in Diop’s murder are still serving time for unrelated crimes.

Glisson’s suit against the city and four NYPD cops doesn’t specify damages but came after he filed a $100 million notice of claim. The NYPD didn’t return a request for comment, while the city Law Department said only: “We will review the suit once we are served.”