Lawyers representing 29-year-old Tyrone Johnson were trolling the Web for background on the arresting cop when one stumbled on the officer’s unexpected online affiliation.
“My idea was check out ... to see if he had a profile, and to see if there was any information I could use from that profile,” said attorney Ben Moore.
CITY POLITICIANS CALL FOR DISCIPLINE FOR NYPD COPS WHO WROTE HATEFUL MESSAGES ABOUT WEST INDIAN DAY PARADE
“What I didn’t expect to see was his membership in a group called No More West Indian Day Detail.”
Moore and co-counsel Paul Lieberman used the nasty Facebook comments from the group to help Johnson win his acquittal last month following his arrest by Sgt. Dustin Edwards after the 2010 parade.
Edwards, approached Tuesday by the Daily News, declined to comment: “I can’t talk about that.”
The lawyer said he found the postings on Sept. 7, and they were deleted just two days later.
The trial wasn’t a complete victory for the mild-mannered and shy Johnson.
He applied for a job while awaiting his day in court, and was rejected because of the pending case.
“They fingerprinted him and it came up with these charges, and he didn’t get the job,” said Lisa Schreibersdorf, founder of Brooklyn Defender Services.
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