On February 25, 2015, Robert Hooper was walking down Eighth Avenue in upper Manhattan, when Officer John Mejia with the New York Police Department ordered him to stop.
Hooper, who was 51 years old, said he had just greeted a friend from the neighborhood. Hooper would later say that after Mejia repeatedly kneed him on the side of the leg, he broke free and ran to get to an area where there were more people.
Mejia and his colleagues arrested Hooper a few blocks away, at the intersection of 125 th Street and Morningside Avenue. They searched Hooper and found $91 in cash. The officers also said that they found 31 bags of heroin in a sewer that Hooper had passed while running from Mejia.
Hooper was placed in a prisoner transport van. He would later say that inside the vehicle he saw a ripped up $100 bill at his feet. Officer Christopher Vanweddinger told another officer that he saw Hooper tear up the bill.
Hooper’s arrest report said that officers had seen him sell his friend a bag of heroin. The report also said that Hooper had punched Mejia in the face, thrown away the heroin while running from police, and tore up the money in the police van.
On April 20, 2015, Hooper was indicted for third-degree sale and third-degree possession of a controlled substance, tampering with physical evidence, and resisting arrest.
Hooper’s trial in New York County Supreme Court began on January 26, 2016. Prior to trial, the prosecutor had given Hooper’s attorney information about seven civil-rights lawsuits filed against the expected police witnesses. He had also disclosed that Vanweddinger had been disciplined in 2011 for asking another officer to help a friend on a traffic ticket.
At the trial, the officers testified about the arrest and what they said they had observed in the moments before they stopped Hooper. During cross-examination, Hooper’s attorney did not ask the officers about the lawsuits or other issues related to their honesty and credibility.
On February 2, 2016, the jury convicted Hooper on all counts, and he later received a sentence of six years in prison.
In March 2022, Hooper’s attorney with the Center for Appellate Litigation filed a motion for a new trial. The motion said the state had failed to disclose seven additional civil-rights lawsuits filed against the officers and 14 additional substantiated findings of misconduct by the officers who arrested Hooper.
Hooper was paroled on August 8, 2022.
Initially, the state had opposed Hooper’s motion but on November 22, 2022, recommended that the convictions be vacated and the case dismissed.
A judge granted the motion on December 6, 2022.
On August 27, 2024, Hooper filed a federal civil-rights lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York against the police department and several officers involved in his wrongful conviction. The lawsuit said that the state’s failure to disclose the impeachment evidence against the officers influenced the strategy of Hooper’s trial attorney.
“Knowing of only the handful of civil lawsuits that had been disclosed, [Hooper’s] criminal defense counsel decided not to cross-examine the officers about their alleged involvement in misconduct relating to their honesty and credibility,” the complaint said.
Hooper settled the lawsuit for $2.1 million in 2025.
– Ken Otterbourg
Posting Date: 04-06-2026
