manhattan assistant district attorneys eugene hurley and ben rosenberg didn t work in hincapie s original trial, but they say hincapie is a liar. to make their point, prosecutors cross-examine hincapie s witnesses starting with luis montero. assistant da ben rosenberg pointed out over the years details in montero s story have changed. that s what you swore to here, correct? yes, it s right there. your testimony here today is inaccurate. and in all these years montero never once mentioned seeing hincapie at all that night and that montero s wrongful arrest gave him a motive to lie. your experience in this case dating back 20-plus years, you re angry about it, aren t you. i m not angry about it. i m just scared.
montero had been in the subway station during the crime and told attorney ron kuby a story that backed up johnny hincapie s account of the night brian watkins was stabbed. montero establishes not only did johnny not participate in the attack, he could not have participated in the attack. and that s established by what luis saw from where we re standing? that s right. based on montero s story, kuby filed a motion for a new hearing. and 24 years after he went away, hincapie got his wish. a manhattan supreme court judge agreed to reopen the case. the people of the state of new york versus johnny hincapie. in february of 2015, the hearing was called to order. for this proceeding the burden was on hincapie s attorneys, ron kuby and his co-counsel leah busby to convince judge eduardo padro that hincapie s conviction should be vacated.
you re still scared? yes. you kept me innocent for 18 years. you think i m not scared of you guys? i m petrified of you guys, you know. i can t even look at you guys. and you re angry? no, i m not angry. i m scared of you. prosecutors have their own witnesses to discredit hincapie s story, who did not want us to record their testimony. remember that friend who hincapie said was holding his money that night. i gave him my wallet complete with all my money. that friend s name is anthony nichols, and he testified that hincapie never gave him any money to hold. looking for anthony nichols is supposedly the whole predicate for the defendant going back into the subway station or going down to the platform. but mr. nichols says it didn t happen. i asked ron kuby about that. that friend tells the prosecution that johnny s lying, he never gave him money. how do you respond to that? well, that friend also told ms. busby, be admitted on the
lester. so this is home? no, i wouldn t call it home. my home is with my family on the outside. how old are you, johnny? i m 42. you spent more than half your life behind bars? yes. it s terrible. being separated from your family, probably the worst thing. throughout his incarceration, hincapie has been a model prisoner. he s been involved with an inmate theater program. i don t know, i ve been tired lately. and he took college courses offered at the prison, which is where he met a man by the name of bob dennison. he said, i don t know if you know anything about my case, once he started, i said of course i do. dennison is the former chairman of new york state s parole board. he showed me the article that bill hughes had written about him. did he tell you he was innocent? he did.
but montero never cracked and maintained his innocence. kuby argued to the judge that what montero and hincapie say happened to them was easy to believe, that they were just two of many innocent people swept up by police at a time in new york history when crime was out of control. simply, in the wrong place in the wrong era. we have done some terrible, terrible things to innocent people in the course of fighting crime. case in point, kuby argued, the central park jogger case. that other so-called wolf pack. just like hincapie, those five teens had also confessed on tape, but they were exonerated in 2002 after dna cleared them. the defense now calls johnny hincapie. now the time had come for hincapie to tell his story under oath on the witness stand. something hincapie says his original trial attorney advised him not to do.