Bronx District Attorney Darcel D. Clark announced that she joined the request to vacate the conviction and dismiss charges against Kimberly Hanzlik in the 1999 fatal shooting of Joseph Brown, after a review of the case by the Conviction Integrity Bureau yielded new evidence that her conviction was based on an unreliable identification of Ms. Hanzlik.
Administrative Judge Alvin Yearwood granted the motion by Ms. Hanzlik’s attorney to vacate the conviction, dismiss the indictment and seal the case against Ms. Hanzlik, 59, in a hearing today in the Bronx Hall of Justice, ordering her release from state prison.
District Attorney Clark said, “Ms. Hanzlik served 13 years in prison based on trial testimony that would not meet today’s threshold of credibility given the discovery of new information, which casts doubt on the integrity of her conviction, and we cannot stand by it. I realize this causes pain and anguish for the victim’s family, but in the interest of justice, we are dismissing the indictment against Ms. Hanzlik.”
After a trial in Bronx Supreme Court, Ms. Hanzlik and her co-defendant, Joseph Meldish, were convicted by a jury on March 9, 2011, of second-degree Murder. Ms. Hanzlik was sentenced to 20 years to life in prison and Meldish to 25 years to life in prison for the March 21, 1999, fatal shooting of Joseph Brown in Frenchy’s Bar at 3392 East Tremont Avenue. Ms. Hanzlik was said to have entered the bar to look for the intended victim, Thomas Brown, and told Meldish where he was sitting. Meldish then went in and shot Joseph Brown, who looked like his brother, Thomas Brown. Meldish’s getaway driver gave several different statements about Ms. Hanzlik’s involvement, but at trial testified that she was in fact present and informed Meldish of the victim’s location. Joseph Brown’s wife testified that she saw Ms. Hanzlik in the bar before the shooting.
After a request by Ms. Hanzlik’s defense counsel in 2021, the Conviction Integrity Bureau conducted a comprehensive reinvestigation of the case. The CIB determined that Brown’s wife identified Ms. Hanzlik for the first time in 2006, seven years after the murder. The identification was secured by an NYPD Detective, who is now deceased, but was recently discovered to have coerced a false identification on a separate, unrelated case. Further, CIB found a previously undisclosed police document from 1999, that contains information by the getaway driver stating that Hanzlik was not present at the time of the homicide.
In sum, the newly discovered evidence called into question the reliability of the identification of Ms. Hanzlik and led to the vacatur.
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