A Queens woman dropped a bombshell during a court hearing Monday, when she testified that cops “pressured” her♈ to lie on the witness stand in a 1996 murder trial that left a man locked up for the past 18 years.
Joan ♑Perser-Gennace, 57, said detectives threatened her and her family as they demanded that she finger Robert Jones as the man she saw outside her window shortly before the slaying of♋ Far Rockaway street preacher Antoine Stone.
She told the court that, despite⛎ her testimony, she didn’t recognize the man.
“The lies were provided to me by the police,” Perser-Ge✱nnace said. “The police said, ‘This is how I want you to say it.’ It was all 🎐a lie.”
She made the 🌼claim aꦆt hearing in Queens Supreme Court in which a judge will decide if Jones gets a new trial. The Queens DA’s office is fighting to keep Jones locked up.
Perser-Gennace told the court she 🃏was “catching a breeze” from the window of her Mott Avenue home on Sept. 9, 1994, when she noticed two men talking outside.
“One of the gentlemen looked 🌱up at me, 👍he had a bike, but I couldn’t recognize him,” she said.
She didn’t see what happened next. But a few moments later ꧒Stone was shot dead.
“I told the detectives almost 10 times that I didn’t recognize the guy…they threatened my family, asked for my legal status…I was afraid,” she said. She eventually agreed to go to the precinct.
She said cops gave her a folder filled with mug shots🔥 and coached her to memorize Jo𒈔nes’ face.
“I was reluctant to do the line up…I didn’t identify the guy,” she said.
ౠJones, 45, had allegedly been having a sexual relationship with Stone. Victim, who was known around the area as “The Preacher,” wanted to end their relationship because of his Christian beliefs.
Jones’ lawyer Christopher Joralemon s🎃howed Perser-𓃲Gennace a signed document from the line up in which she identified his client.
“They told me to sign the form and we will fill it up late🐽ꦑr,” she said.
Perser-Gennace told the court that on the day of the trial in March 1996 she told prosecutꦯor Debra 🌼Pomodore she didn’t recognize the man from the line up.
“She got mad and told the detectives ‘She’s messing this up,’” she said. “I was afraid. I lied because I haꦇd to — not because I wanted to,” added Perser-Gennace, who was not testifying with immunity from perjury charges.
Joralemon is expected to call another neighbor, Philip Engelbert, who is also recanting his t💝estimony against Jones.