Just two weeks after settling the Greg Kelly rape accusation, Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance Jr. is facing a new and potentially thornier dilemma:
Should he free a mann convicted of killing a former cop?
That’s what members of his inner circle are debating as a “Dateline” segment airs tonight that makes the case that a Bronx man serving 25 to life is innocent of charges he shot a retired NYPD officer in 1998.
Lawyers for Jon-Adrian Velazquez, who has served 14 years for the slaying of Albert Ward, an ex-cop who ran an illegal gambling parlor in Harlem, appealed to Vance’s Conviction Integrity team, submitting a petition in October asking him to look at their evidence.
They followed up with sit-down sessions in which they presented arguments and provided leads on a man they believe is the actual killer, a suspect originally sought by cops but never found.
“We’ve had two extensive meetings with Cy,” said his lawyer, Robert Gottlieb. “I have no doubt he wants to do the right thing.”
Velazquez, 36, was convicted of second-degree murder largely on the testimony of a witness in the gambling den, Augustus Brown, a drug dealer who picked him out of about 1,800 mug shots.
Velazquez had been arrested for drug possession, but never convicted of any crime.
Sources in Vance’s office say there is a sharp divide over what to do. Freeing a cop killer could make him look soft on crime, some suggested, but refusing to do so might be interpreted as covering up an injustice to avoid political heat.
“He’s taking a wait-and-see approach,” said one source.
The Post previewed the hour-long show, a product of 10 years of research by “Dateline” producer Dan Slepian, who said, “I personally think most people who are in jail are guilty and deserve to be there.
“But any objective observer would come to the same conclusion: at the very least he deserves to have his case heard, because all the facts weren’t heard before this jury.”
The show reveals that two witnesses recanted their testimony, and a third wasn’t sure he picked out the right man.
Multiple witnesses described the killer as a light-skinned black man with braided hair who went by “Mustafa” — a suspect cops never found. The description doesn’t match Velazquez, and no physical evidence linked him to the crime.
“The sketch doesn’t look at all like him,” said “Dateline” reporter Luke Russert. “And a lot of the witnesses were drug users or drug dealers.“
Velazquez’s mother, Maria, a retired union organizer, visited her son in Sing Sing on Friday and spoke with him about the future.
“He’s been waiting for this for a very long time,” she said.