BROOKLYN, N.Y. — A Kings County judge sharply criticized prosecutors in criminal court Wednesday after they moved to dismiss a year-old gun case following a recent review of surveillance footage, calling the decision “perplexing” and describing the proceedings as a “waste” of the court’s time and resources.
The accused was a 23-year-old Black man originally charged with multiple firearm and ammunition possession offenses in early July 2025.
A motion to obtain DNA evidence was granted in March 2026, but the results were never returned.
The prosecution then moved to dismiss all charges, citing “insufficient evidence.”
Judge Abreu, who granted the DNA analysis, asked prosecutors why they were suddenly choosing to dismiss the charges, saying he believed they intended to use the lab results for comparison, particularly given that the case had been pending for a year.
The prosecution acknowledged that it had recently discovered surveillance footage showing that the accused was not carrying a bag at the time of the incident and did not reach into a bag to retrieve the alleged firearm. The footage also did not appear to show the accused carrying a firearm on his person.
In Brooklyn, Black people were “convicted of felonies and misdemeanors at a rate of about seven times that of white people” from 2019 through 2022, according to the New York Civil Liberties Union.
Judge Abreu asked why the footage had not been reviewed earlier, and the prosecution responded that it could not “stop the clock.”
Unsatisfied, Judge Abreu said he had conducted “hundreds of investigations himself.”
He continued that he was “perplexed” by the prosecution’s actions and criticized prosecutors for “wast[ing] time and wast[ing] resources,” as well as requiring the accused to return to court again.
Prosecutors attempted to defend their actions by saying they had used DNA from the accused’s prior case, to which Judge Abreu replied that doing so was not permitted.
While not illegal, retesting old DNA can raise chain-of-custody, contamination and privacy concerns, according to Morris and Dean, an accident and injury law firm based in Atlanta.
The case was dismissed and sealed, and bail was vacated.
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