NEW YORK — Decades before Malcolm Koonce, a defensive end for the Las Vegas Raiders, entered the world, his father, Jeffrey Koonce, faced a prison sentence for an armed robbery conviction. Recent revelations have indicated that the conviction, dating back to 1981, was influenced by questionable police methods and a witness who later retracted their identification.
On Friday, a judge in a New York suburb vacated Jeffrey Koonce’s conviction, which had stood for over 40 years, linked to an incident at the Vernon Stars Rod and Gun Club in Mount Vernon. Koonce, now 67, consistently claimed his innocence, stating he was not present at the robbery, where cash and jewelry were stolen, and patrons were injured by gunfire.
Westchester County District Attorney Mimi Rocah supported Koonce’s petition for exoneration after her office discovered significant flaws in the original case. “I feel like a burden has been lifted off my shoulder,” Jeffrey Koonce expressed as the court cleared his name.
The Conviction Review Unit led by Rocah found evidence indicating that a police officer coerced the sole eyewitness into identifying Koonce, utilized a photo lineup that unfairly emphasized Koonce’s image, and neglected to investigate alibi witnesses who could corroborate his whereabouts during the crime. Furthermore, it was found that a detective lied during the pretrial proceedings, subsequently leading to mandated changes in the photo identification process used by the police department. Notably, one of the detectives involved in Koonce’s case later faced prison time connected to a federal corruption investigation.
Additionally, the review indicated that Koonce was adversely affected by detectives’ failure to follow up with all potential alibi witnesses. Among them was a retired New York City police detective who confirmed Koonce was with him at the time of the robbery. DA Rocah stated that the questionable investigatory techniques that plagued Koonce’s trial were no longer tenable, emphasizing the deep-rooted injustices presented in the case.
At the hearing, Judge James McCarty officially vacated Koonce’s robbery and weapons possession convictions. He cited the inadequacies in witness identification as well as other unique circumstances surrounding the case. However, the judge refrained from commenting on allegations of police misconduct, suggesting they were mostly speculative. He also noted that while the failure to interview certain alibi witnesses was acknowledged, Koonce had been given opportunities to present his own defense during the trial.
Reports suggest that Koonce fled from court during jury deliberations and was subsequently found months later at his girlfriend’s residence. He had been sentenced to serve 7.5 to 15 years for the robbery and a concurrent shorter term for bail jumping, ultimately being released on parole in August 1992. His brother was also implicated in the robbery but was found not guilty.
Since then, Malcolm Koonce was born in 1998 and drafted by the NFL’s Raiders in 2021. Another sibling, Dejuan Koonce, had a notable career as a state trooper in New York.
“It is heart-wrenching that my children had to bear the stigma of society’s views about me, which have always been unfounded,” Koonce remarked during the hearing, acknowledging the vindication being achieved was significant for his family.
The accusations against Jeffrey and Paul Koonce, who were purportedly among three men involved in the armed robbery, described a harrowing scene where patrons were forced to the ground and stripped of their valuables, with a sawed-off shotgun fired during the incident, injuring multiple individuals.
Rocah’s office determined that coercive tactics were used to compel a single victim-witness into naming Koonce as one of the assailants. This witness later claimed he had difficulty seeing any faces given the darkness in the establishment. The identification process included Koonce being singled out in an unfairly arranged photo lineup, prompting the court to later deem the identification methods as overly suggestive.
In his remark, Judge McCarty acknowledged the possibility that the eyewitness might have been truthful but reinforced that mere chance cannot equate to conclusive evidence.
