Cop Recants Grand Jury Testimony in Attempted Murder Trial

By ELIZABETH KELLY

A New York City police officer testifying in an attempted murder trial on Tuesday admitted that she had lied under oath to the grand jury that brought the indictment.

The officer, Kathleen Correa said she lied because she “was nervous” at the time and now had “more clarity” about the events.

Probed by the prosecutor about other statements she had made to the grand jury, she admitted that those were also false because she again “was nervous” when she made them.

The avowals came in the Brooklyn trial of Jerry Benoit who faced attempted murder  and weapons charges arising from a shootout with two plainclothes anti-crime officers on a night in September 2011 after they stopped to question him on a Brooklyn street. Police said the suspect fired first, they returned fire and he fled.

Later that same evening Benoit was confronted by other officers, including Correa who also engaged in gunplay with the defendant who was struck in the left leg and abdomen, barely missing a main artery.

It was this encounter that Correa said she falsely described to the grand jurors and now was recanting, saying that she did not actually see the weapon at all that night that she fired two rounds of her shotgun first, striking Benoit.

If convicted Benoit, 30, faces possible life imprisonment.