All these cases were tied to a former Detective Oscar Sandino who later pled guilty to federal civil-rights violations. 

Sandino was charged in a criminal information in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York on May 18, 2010, with violating the civil rights of three women through sexual misconduct. 

In the first count, the government alleged that in February 2008, Sandino arrested a woman and her boyfriend on drug charges, and then ordered the woman to undress in front of him. Later, at the precinct, Sandino told the woman she would go to jail and lose her children if she did not have sex with him. He then followed the woman inside a restroom and forced her to perform oral sex on him. Sandino later began calling the woman at home, and she reported him to the New York Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau, which opened an investigation in March 2008. 

On the second count, Sandino was said to have coerced the cousin of an alleged drug dealer to have sex with him in 2006. If she refused, Sandino threatened, her cousin would receive a lengthy prison sentence.

On the third count, the government said that in 2009, Sandino engaged in lewd behavior with a woman who was under arrest and forced her to expose her breasts to him.  Sandino pled guilty to the first and third counts on October 7, 2010. The second count was dismissed. He was later sentenced to two years in federal prison. 

In April 2021, the district attorneys in Kings County (Brooklyn) and New York County (Manhattan) moved to vacate nearly 200 convictions after the indictment of former Detective Joseph Franco on perjury and misconduct charges.

On May 3, 2021, a coalition of innocence and defender organizations wrote New York’s five district attorneys and the city’s special narcotics prosecutor to ask these officials to use the Franco vacations as a springboard to further action. They asked the prosecutors to review cases involving 20 officers, including Sandino, who had been convicted of crimes, and to vacate convictions in cases where the officers played an “essential role” in the arrest and prosecution. 

“Criminal convictions based on the testimony of officers known to have engaged in misconduct are fundamentally unfair, erode trust in the criminal justice system, and cause ongoing harm to those who endure the collateral consequences of their convictions daily,” the letter said. “We urge you to immediately take steps to identify and remedy all convictions caused by law enforcement officers convicted of crimes relating to their duties or who are otherwise incredible or unreliable.”

The Conviction Integrity Unit of the Queens County District Attorney reviewed cases involving Sandino, asking a judge to vacate the convictions of six defendants where Sandino was considered an “essential witness” to the alleged crimes. 

All the defendants faced misdemeanor convictions for drug possession crimes said to have occurred between 2006 to 2008, the same time frame as the misconduct that formed the basis for the federal charges against Sandino. The maximum sentence any of the defendants received was six months in prison. The names of the defendants are not available; the Legal Aid Society of New York redacted their names on a document of the cases.  It remains unknown if any of the defendants have filed for compensation, either through the New York Court of Claims, or by filing a lawsuit against the City of New York or the officers.

In September 2022, the Kings County District Attorney moved to dismiss 43 convictions that involved Sandino's role as an essential witness. 

— Ken Otterbourg