Tech Smart Teen Means Perjury Rap for Cop

A teen suspect's snap decision to secretly record his interrogation with an MP3 player has resulted in a perjury case against a veteran detective and a plea deal for the teen.

(ABCNEWS)

Unaware of the recording, Detective Christopher Perino insisted under oath at a trial in April that suspect Erik Crespo wasn't questioned about a shooting in the Bronx.

But the defense confronted the detective with a transcript it said proved he had spent more than an hour unsuccessfully trying to persuade Crespo to confess.

Perino was arraigned today on 12 counts of first-degree perjury and freed on bail.

Perino arrested Crespo, then 17, on New Year's Eve 2005 while investigating the shooting of a man in an elevator. Defense attorney Mark DeMarco said that after his client was taken into the interrogation room of the 44th Precinct stationhouse, he pressed the record button on his the MP3 player, a Christmas gift.