NEW YORK-
A judge ordered the release of a man accused of the 1990 murder of a nightclub bouncer, saying prosecutors waited too long to charge him.
Thomas “Spanky” Morales was released Tuesday following a ruling by State Supreme Court Justice Bonnie Wittner. He had been indicted in April 2005 for the shooting death of nightclub bouncer Marcus Peterson.
Morales’ due process rights were violated, Wittner wrote in her decision.
Within a week of the attack, an anonymous tipster gave police identifying information on a shooter’s nickname, car and neighborhood that could have led to Morales, Wittner wrote in her ruling. By the following year, four witnesses had identified him in a photo array.
But prosecutors charged two other men with the crime. Last year, both were released after more than a dozen years in prison when new evidence was brought to the courts. Morales was then arrested and charged.
District Attorney Robert Morgenthau declined to comment and his office had not yet decided whether to appeal the ruling, a spokeswoman said.
David Lemus, one of the two men whose convictions were overturned in the case, is due to be retried on Nov. 13.
The other man, Olmado Hidalgo, returned to his native Dominican Republic after a judge found he had nothing to do with the killing.
Peterson was shot outside the Palladium night club in November 1990 after he and another bouncer scuffled with a clubgoer who refused to go through a security check. Prosecutors have said the clubgoer and at least one other man returned with a gun and opened fire.
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