A Rockland County man abducted from his Morris Park auto detailing shop and found dead in his car near Van Cortlandt Park last week was scheduled to testify against an alleged crooked cop in an upcoming trial.
Robert Bishun, 36, of Garnerville, was scheduled to testify in the trial of Merlin Alston, formerly of the 46th Precinct.
Alston was arrested in December 2014 and charged with conspiracy to distribute narcotics and illegal possession of a firearm.
He was caught on a wiretap assisting a drug dealer with narcotic sales and tipping them off to avoid raids, as well as acting as a bodyguard, according to court records, from 2010 to 2014.
The trial is scheduled to start Wednesday, October 5.
Bishun was abducted by two armed and masked men last Tuesday evening from his business, Mobile Creation Sounds and Security, located at 1631 Stillwell Avenue, at around 9:50 p.m.
At around 11:16 p.m., police located Bishun’s high-end BMW sedan parked approximately six miles away at 6071 Broadway in front of Van Cortlandt Park.
Bishun was found sitting upright in the back seat of the vehicle, unconscious and unresponsive, with a tightly fastened zip tie around his neck.
He was transported to Montefiore Hospital, where he was soon pronounced dead.
Two other people in the business at the time of the abduction were tied up and placed in the trunks of vehicles on the premises, but both managed to get free and call for help.
Alston is accused of assisting in the sale of heroin, cocaine and the designer club drug known as ‘Ecstasy,’ or ‘Molly,’ according to court records.
In addition to witness testimony, prosecutors plan to use wiretapped phone calls, consensually recorded conversations, surveillance footage and images obtained from social media sites to make their case.
They will also use physical evidence including confiscated drugs and drug paraphernalia, as well as Alston’s own NYPD badge and gun.
Alston was out of jail on bail, but following Bishun’s murder has been remanded back into custody by the federal district judge for the Southern District of New York, Colleen McMahon, according to police.
Bishun himself had been convicted on drug trafficking charges in 2012 and had served roughly three years in prison before he returned to his business, according to police.
His wife had run the business while he was incarcerated, according to police.
Bishun’s business had previously been robbed in January 2015, according to police, when two men tied him up and escaped with $15,000 in cash and keys to a new Mercedes Benz sedan.
The robbers were never caught.
