Nassau judge dismisses charges after ADA resigns

A judge dismissed domestic violence charges against a Uniondale man Tuesday in a case that led to a Nassau prosecutor’s May resignation.

After leaving a Nassau County Court room following the ruling, Ean Soley, 42, hugged his attorney, Michael DerGarabedian.

The Rockville Centre attorney had asked Nassau Supervising Judge Christopher Quinn to sanction the district attorney’s office for prosecutorial misconduct by dismissing Soley’s charges. The judge previously ruled the prosecutor on the case withheld evidence favorable to the defense.

Quinn dropped the charges Tuesday as the case was about to go to trial. A court official said he did so after a different Nassau prosecutor asked for a dismissal, citing inconsistent statements from the complaining witness and concern the witness might perjure herself.

DerGarabedian later repeated his claim that prosecutors sat on evidence absolving his client as the man sat behind bars.

“They decided to look at it on the eve of trial,” DerGarabedian said of the district attorney’s office. “ . . . He spent two years in jail while they were sitting on this evidence.”

Soley had faced charges that included burglary, criminal contempt and criminal obstruction of breathing for allegedly assaulting the mother of his young son. The chef and father of two now plans to sue the county, DerGarabedian said.

“It’s a shame that I spent that much time in there before they actually put the energy into looking into my case and finding the truth,” Soley said.

Quinn kicked now-former Nassau prosecutor D.J. Rosenbaum off Soley’s case in April, and she resigned a month later at her employer’s request. The judge found that in Soley’s case and one other, she violated the Brady rule, which requires prosecutors to give the defense evidence that tends to negate the guilt of the accused.

Prosecutors had argued there had been no Brady violations. But Quinn found the prosecution acted improperly by not disclosing, for more than 18 months, information in Soley’s cellphone that included texts from his son’s mother contradicting her grand jury testimony.

Brendan Brosh, a district attorney’s office spokesman, said Tuesday that Soley “knew the content of his own phone, and police did not have probable cause to download its contents during the two years it was held by police.”

He added: “Only Mr. Soley has the ability to waive laws protecting his privacy, and he chose not to consent to police accessing the content, which he could have done if he believed it contained exculpatory evidence.”