Executive Summary
- NYPD Officer Miguel Vanbrakle was indicted on charges including perjury and tampering with physical evidence.
- Body-worn camera footage allegedly contradicts the officer’s testimony regarding the location of evidence in a 2023 gun case.
- Prosecutors allege the officer moved a benefit card into a safe to link a suspect to a recovered firearm.
- The underlying weapons charges against the original defendant were dismissed following the review of the footage.
- Vanbrakle faces up to seven years in prison if convicted and is due back in court on February 23.
A Queens grand jury has indicted a veteran New York City Police Department officer on charges of perjury, official misconduct, and tampering with physical evidence stemming from a 2023 weapon possession investigation. Queens District Attorney Melinda Katz announced that Officer Miguel Vanbrakle, 48, allegedly provided false testimony and falsified documents regarding the recovery of a firearm, a narrative that was reportedly contradicted by body-worn camera footage.
According to the indictment filed in Queens Supreme Court, Vanbrakle was part of a team executing a court-authorized search warrant at a residence in Cambria Heights on October 19, 2023. The officer reported recovering a loaded .38-caliber Smith & Wesson revolver inside a locked safe. Investigators allege that Vanbrakle testified before a grand jury and stated in official complaints that he also found a New York state benefit card belonging to the homeowner’s fiancée inside the same safe, thereby linking the suspect to the weapon.
Review of the officer’s body-worn camera footage by the District Attorney’s office reportedly revealed a discrepancy in the official account. Prosecutors state the video shows Vanbrakle removing the benefit card from a shoe box in the living room and subsequently placing it into the safe where the firearm was located. Based on this evidence, the District Attorney’s office moved to dismiss the felony weapon possession charges against the original defendant in December 2024, after the individual had faced pending charges for over a year.
Vanbrakle, a 12-year veteran of the NYPD assigned to the 102nd Precinct, was arraigned on January 20 before Queens Supreme Court Justice Leigh Cheng. He is charged with perjury in the first degree, falsifying business records, offering a false instrument for filing, and official misconduct. If convicted, he faces a maximum sentence of seven years in prison. Justice Cheng released the defendant on his own recognizance and ordered him to return to court on February 23.
Judicial Oversight and Accountability
The indictment of a law enforcement officer based on body-worn camera evidence underscores the pivotal role digital documentation plays in modern judicial oversight and internal accountability. This case highlights the procedural mechanisms available to prosecutors to review and rectify cases where the integrity of evidence is called into question, ensuring that previous indictments based on potentially flawed testimony are dismissed. As the proceedings move forward, the court will examine the admissibility and interpretation of the video evidence against the standards of official conduct. It is important to note that Officer Vanbrakle is presumed innocent of all charges until proven guilty in a court of law.
