They gave up their right to remain silent — but it won’t hurt these crime suspects in a court of law.
A microphone cable went unplugged — for at least four days — in a Manhattan DA’s Office taping room, and the screw-up has rendered the confession videos of 18 defendants virtually unusable due to a total lack of sound, The Post has learned.
“It’s a f–k-up, no question,” David Krauss, the lawyer for one of the defendants, an accused Harlem crack dealer, told The Post.
For four or five days in early August, the microphone sat disconnected on a table in a video interview room at 1 Hogan Place, says DA tech honcho Michael Mannion, who had to testify recently about the snafu.
“I have no idea,” Mannion, manager of DA Cyrus Vance Jr.’s Visual Evidence Unit, told a judge when asked how the cable became disconnected.
“It was August, and we didn’t have a full staff,” he said. “I think on previous inspections, my technicians did not notice it.”
Eighteen suspects had spilled their guts into the ether before Mannion discovered the unplugged cable.
One of them was Tyron Best, 21, who cops said had been stopped in Harlem with a 9mm Luger semiautomatic, and five fully loaded clips, in his waistband.
He also allegedly had 15 bags of crack cocaine hidden in what the criminal complaint calls “his groin area.”
If the DA’s mike had been plugged in, it would have recorded Best giving two conflicting explanations for the Luger, prosecutors say.
But prosecutors took no notes during the supposed confession. And Best made no other statements.
So should the case go to trial, prosecutors want to tell jurors themselves what Best said, Krauss said.
“They want to use it to attack his credibility,” the lawyer said. “I’ve moved to preclude the statement entirely.”
Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Laura Ward is due to decide April 1 on the admissibility of testimony about Best’s alleged confession.
A DA spokeswoman said that no cases were dismissed over the snafu and that only four concerned felonies.
Precautions have since been put in place. Prior to August, techs inspected the equipment three days a week, Mannion had testified. Now, those inspections are made daily, he said.