Photo courtesy the NYPD Hispanic Society
The lawyer for the Brooklyn 16-year-old charged with setting ablaze part of his Coney Island housing project, killing a city cop in the process, said his client was coerced into delivering his confession.
Marcell Dockery may have submitted a written confession and a video testimony admitting he lit a mattress on fire in the 13th-floor hallway of the building, but attorney Jesse Young said he was forced into it at the hands of aggressive detectives. The April 6 fire killed NYPD Officer Dennis Guerra and severely injured his partner, Officer Rosa Rodriguez of Howard Beach.
Young said officers promised his client that authorities would not evict his mother from her apartment if he confessed to the crime, thus making the confession null and void. The lawyer also noted eviction proceedings were in motion against his client’s mother.
A suppression hearing on Dockery’s confession was scheduled for Sept. 29, court records showed.
Dockery was charged with felony murder following the fire that, according to police, he allegedly set because he was “bored.” When the blaze got out of control, Dockery called 911 – after which Rodriguez and Guerra appeared on the scene, officials said.
By the time the two officers arrived, the smoke was so toxic that they were knocked unconscious, the NYPD said at the time. Firefighters removed them from the 18-story New York City Housing Authority building at 2007 Surf Ave., and they were immediately hospitalized for carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation, officials said.
Guerra, 38, fell into a coma from which he never recovered, and he was pronounced dead at the Montefiore Medical Center in the Bronx the Wednesday after the fire. Rodriguez, 36, was hospitalized for several weeks and was still recovering from the burns, the NYPD said.
By Phil Corso
