An appeals court reversed the conviction of Divine C. Allah, 44, due to improper grand jury testimony about a videotape.
TRENTON -- A state appeals court has vacated the cocaine possession conviction of a Trenton man due to false information about a video presented to the grand jury that indicted him.
Divine C. Allah, 44, was convicted possessing cocaine in April 2013 following at trial in Mercer County Superior Court, relating to a October 2010 drug arrest at the corner of Calhoun and Passaic streets in Trenton.
He was later sentenced to five years in prison, with 2 1/2 years of parole ineligibility.
A state appeals court ruled Monday that testimony about video footage of a portion of Allah's arrest was improperly described to grand jurors, and Allah should have never been indicted on the charge, the decision states.
In October 2010, Trenton police detectives spotted what they suspected was a hand-to-hand drug deal between Allah and another man. When apprehended, the other man handed over a small amount of cocaine, the appeals decision says
Allah, who is also known as Jermaine Cruse, Jermaine Jones and has used two dozen other aliases, was taken to police headquarters for processing. During that processing, Trenton Detective Pedro Perez allegedly found nine individually-wrapped baggies of cocaine in Allah's boot.
Allah disputed the cocaine discovery at trial and maintained his innocence. He was acquitted of most of the charges against him, but convicted of possessing the found cocaine, the decision says.
On appeal, the court found merit with Allah's lawyer's arguments surrounding the existence or a purported police department video.
Detective Perez had testified in front of the grand jury that footage of the cocaine's discovery in Allah's boot during his arrest would have been recorded on the police department's internal cameras, a standard procedure.
The detective would just need to provide the Trenton police records custodian a date and time and the footage could be produced, the decision says Perez testified.
But Perez later found that the footage was discarded as a matter of routine after 60 to 90 days. Perez did correctly testify at the trial that he was previously mistaken about the tape's existence.
Allah's attorney pounced on the missing tape at trial, but the judge denied a motion to dismiss the indictment.
The appeals court said the prosecution and Perez's actions were not willful or intentionally misleading.
But Detective Perez's describing the videotape, which later proved to be false, had the effect of misleading the grand jury to believe the tape indeed existed, the court wrote.
"The fact remains the grand jury was misled by untrue testimony," the court wrote in vacating Allah's conviction
Allah also argued his sentence was excessive, but the court said it was moot to argue since the conviction is reversed. Moreover, records show Allah was paroled from the state prison system in 2014.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter@kevintshea. Find The Times of Trenton on Facebook.