Confirming what the Nassau County District Attorney's Office announced as their plans last week, criminal charges in one of two sexual abuse cases against Nassau County Police Officer Matthew Murphy were dropped at a hearing held this week on Wed., Feb. 14. The charges dropped were from an alleged incident in December of 1999.

According to Nassau County District Attorney Denis Dillon, Murphy was initially accused of the crime because the complainant's original statement and the observations of an eyewitness to part of the incident established reasonable cause to charge him with first degree sodomy.

"After Murphy's arrest, the Nassau County Police Department Internal Affairs Unit interviewed an independent witness whose statement cast doubt on the complainant's original characterization of her relationship with the defendant," Dillon stated. "As a result, our investigators interviewed the complainant in Spanish over a two-day period. It became clear that she had not accurately described the facts of her involvement with Murphy in her first statement. It appears to have been a consensual relationship that went on for several years."

In moving for the dismissal, Assistant District Attorney Philip Tomich said that there was not enough legally sufficient evidence to show that Murphy forced the woman to engage in the charged act. "Since forcible compulsion is an essential element of the crime of Sodomy in the First Degree, we must move now to dismiss this felony complaint," Tomich stated.

First Degree Sodomy Charges against Murphy are still pending in an incident that allegedly occurred in August of 2000. According to Dillon, that charge will continue to be prosecuted. Murphy's attorney, Paul Gianelli, said last week that his client did not commit a crime that day, and that he will face those charges.