$3M for man wrongly convicted of killing rabbi

A Brooklyn man who spent nearly 16 years in prison after being wrongly convicted of killing a rabbi has settled his wrongful conviction claim against the state for $ 3 million.

Jabbar Collins was convicted of killing Avraham Pollack in 1995 ​when​ cops received a random tip about his involvement in the murder.

After tirelessly marshaling a legal strategy to reverse his conviction and gathering key documents, Collins was eventually exonerated and released from prison in 2010.

“Three million dollars is a lot of money, but it is a small fraction of what Jabbar Collins is entitled to for 15 horrendous years in a maximum security state prison,” said his attorney, Joel Rudin. “We look forward to concentrating totally on his much larger claim against New York City.”

Collins still has a pending civil rights claim against the city for $ 150 million in Brooklyn federal court.

The state settlement was approved by Judge Faviola Soto in the New York State Court of Claims in Manhattan Thursday afternoon.

A trio of witnesses who had helped to put Collins away recanted their testimony and a federal judge reversed his conviction in 2010 while blasting prosecutorial misbehavior in the original case.

Rudin told The Post that he is expecting a settlement figure in the federal suit comparable to the one awarded to the Central Park Five – roughly $ 1 million per year spent in prison.

That would net Collins a roughly $ 16 million windfall.

Collins claims in his federal case that the Brooklyn District Attorney’s office that oversaw his conviction operated with reckless zeal for a conviction at any cost.

Then headed by embattled former Brooklyn DA Charles Hynes, the office turned a blind eye to egregious misconduct in the Collins case, according to his suit.

One witness said that controversial former Brooklyn prosecutor Michael Vecchione threatened to pummel him with a coffee table if he refused to take the stand against Collins at the original trial.

Vecchione has steadfastly denied the allegation.

Rudin has highlighted portions of his deposition of Hynes in the federal case where the former lawman acknowledged prosecutorial transgressions in the Collins conviction.

Rudin told The Post earlier this week that the city has been lowballing his client in settlement talks in the federal case just months before a scheduled October 20 trial date before Judge Frederic Block.

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