Two Brooklyn men are suing ex-Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes and his former sex trafficking unit chief for charging them with raping an Orthodox Jewish woman despite knowing that she had recanted her story.
Jawara Brockett and Jamali Brockett claim in their $25 million Brooklyn federal court lawsuit filed Wednesday, that Hynes and former prosecutor Lauren Hersh flagrantly ignored the woman’s story reversal and knowingly pressed forth with a bogus case.
The Crown Heights accuser told cops on March 31, 2010 that the Brockett brothers and two other men – Darrell Dula and Damien Crooks – forced her to have sex with strangers for cash beginning when she was 13 years old.
But the then-20-year-old reversed herself just a day later, telling authorities that the activity was consensual and that she made the accusations because one of the men hit her and refused to use a condom.
Despite her backtracking, the Brocketts were arrested a year later , on June 28, 2011, and charged with raping and pimping the woman, according to the suit.
Hynes and Hersh “were aware of and had knowledge that the alleged rape victim had recanted her rape allegations against the plaintiffs’ prior to their arrest and arraignment…” the suit states.
“Defendant Hersh intentionally withheld exculpatory evidence from plaintiffs’ defense attorneys, the court and the grand jury…,” the suit states.
“The documents disclosed that the alleged victim had made false allegations in order to obtain birth control,” according to the suit.
The DA’s office finally turned over documents that revealed the woman’s reversal in April 2012 and all charges were later dropped against the four men.
The lawsuit is seeking $25 million in damages from Hynes, Hersh, the city, and the Brooklyn DA.
In recordings obtained by The Post before the case was dropped, the young woman could be heard expressing remorse over accusing the men. “I wish I could just like, I dunno, say, ‘Forget it, just work it out with Crooks,’ ” the woman said of Crooks in a 2011 phone call she’d recorded. “Tell them like, ‘You know what, just work it out. All this bulls–t, you know.’”
In another call she’s heard admitting she had feelings for Crooks.
“I care for him, and I have feelings for him and everything,” she said. “You know I feel close to him more than anybody out there.”
But when a judge dismissed the charges against the men in 2012, the father of the young woman ripped into Hynes and his prosecutors.
“Despite my daughter’s total cooperation, the Brooklyn district attorney has surrendered against our will and without our consent,” the father said in a statement read aloud by a supporter outside Hynes’ office. “I am saddened as a father and as a human being that this decision to drop charges was made .”
Hynes said at the time that he had “no ethical choice” but to seek a dismissal after it was revealed that prosecutors had failed to give the defense the recantation from the accu ser.
Last year, Hynes lost the seat he’d held for 24 years when he lost a primary adn general election to current Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson.
Hersh resigned after her handling of the case came to light.