The Bronx DA’s office has dropped the charges against a Queens public defender arrested on Rikers Island for possession of alleged drug-soaked papers after lab tests showed there were no narcotics on the documents, the Daily News has learned.
Prosecutors said Wednesday they are declining to prosecute Bernardo Caceres, 30, a lawyer with Queens Defenders, who was very publicly arrested June 13 at the Otis Bantum Correctional Center.
“I had no doubt the results were going to come back as they did,” Caceres told The News. “I am no ‘drug peddling attorney’ as I was described.”
According to their previous account, officials with the Correction Department and the Correction Officers Benevolent Association said a canine alerted about the papers in Caceres’ possession as he entered the jail with another lawyer to meet with a client, Luis DeJesus. A field test later indicated there was THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, on the papers.
The arrest was widely publicized by the union and confirmed by the department. “130 pages of THC-laced paper during scheduled attorney visit,” a COBA press release trumpeted. The union also put out a photo of Caceres in handcuffs — questionable since DOC policy bars photos in the jails, especially of people in custody.
COBA President Benny Boscio declared, “The fact that this attorney would brazenly attempt to smuggle in a large quantity of THC is further proof paper documents should be scanned.”
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