A NYPD detective working the murder case of 18-year-old college student Tessa Majors was previously accused of falsifying evidence in an unrelated case.
The Gothamist identified the detective as Wilfredo Acevedo who has been sued at least twice for making false statements in a previous case.
Acevedo and another officer were sued by a New York man who claimed they planted evidence in his apartment and accused him of a shooting in 2015.
The man was held in custody for one year and released after the charges were dropped.
Acevedo was sued by another New York resident who accused the detective of falsely arresting him on drug and gun charges. The city later settled the lawsuit for $50,000.
The manhunt has expanded for a 14-year-old boy believed to have stabbed Majors multiple times during an attempted robbery in a park on Manhattan’s west side.
Police released three photos of the unnamed suspect and asked the public to call in with tips. The MYPD normally does not release photos of or identify underage suspects, but the boy is a fugitive and considered extremely dangerous.
The boy was being driven to a police station by a relative on Dec. 16, when, the relative claims, the boy jumped out of the car and fled at a Harlem intersection.
But investigators don’t believe that story and the relative has since stopped cooperating with the investigation.
Police have a 13-year-old boy in custody who will be charged as a juvenile in the murder case. The boy told investigators that he and two friends – both 14 – went to Morningside Park around 8 p.m. on Dec. 11 to rob someone.
They spotted Majors walking alone in the park and attempted to steal her backpack. But Majors resisted and fought back.
The 13-year-old told police the 14-year-old suspect stabbed Majors in the face and upper body. She died from internal bleeding that same night.
Surveillance video supports the 13-year-old boy’s account of the murder, his lawyer says.
The third suspect was taken into custody and questioned in the presence of his mother and a lawyer. He was released after he invoked his right to remain silent, police told the New York Times.
Majors was a journalism and music student in her freshman year at Barnard College when she was killed.
Anyone with information on the 14-year-old suspect’s whereabouts is asked to call the NYPD Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
