Officer Who Arrested Bronx ADA For DUI Says He Was Punished

Bronx ADA Jennifer Troiano

Friends and colleagues of the NYPD officer who busted Bronx ADA Jennifer Troiano for DUI last August claim that he was unfairly punished for making the arrest. In January, Elliot Zinstein, one of a handful of Orthodox Jews on the force, was transferred from the 44th precinct in the Bronx to the 94th precinct in Greenpoint because according to his superiors "the neighborhood needed more Jewish cops."

But given that the Jewish population is much higher in nearby Williamsburg and he was the only cop transferred out of the Bronx, Officer Zinstein didn't buy that explanation. "He was doing his job," a colleague tells the Daily News, "He's a good cop. He's made a lot of arrests and has no disciplinary record."

Troiano's arrest was a source of embarrassment for the city and DA Robert Johnson given the massive ticket-fixing probe that continues to ensare officers and taint the their testimony in courtrooms across the city. At the time of her arrest Troiano told Zinstein to call the chief of narcotics in the Bronx, Nestor Ferreiro, saying, "He'll take care of this. He took care of it last time." Troiano has since been transferred to the Appeals Bureau.

Officer Zinstein complained to Internal Affairs last month that he was unhappy with the transfer, and later "he was told to figure out where he wants to work." Zinstein and the NYPD are refusing to comment on his treatment.

Contact the author of this article or email tips@gothamist.com with further questions, comments or tips.

By Christopher Robbins in News on June 14, 2011 2:30 PM

Comments [rss]

Watching and Waiting

I know officer Zinstein at 94th - pushes people around like the Mossad in the West Bank. So he got pushed from on corrupt Precinct to another one, where people are too intimidated by the police.

Guest

This city stinks.

cr17

"ensare officers and taint the their testimony"

Please fix that. Sounds like something Foghorn Leghorn would say.

ikenwan

The Bronx ADA's are shitty and immoral. I was on a jury once in which two ADA's coerced a young man to continue pressing an attempted murder case against another individual. This happened even after the prosecutors found out that the "preponderance of evidence" against their suspect was nil. For example, their were reasons to doubt that the suspect was in the area where the shooting occurred in the first place. Second, the anthropomorphic build of the shooter in the video-still submitted as evidence didn't match the suspect's body. For each, they argued that their was a probability of he being the suspect because he had been arrested previously for smoking marijuana, an entirely unrelated misdemeanor.

It finally came out that they suppressed testimony from their own plaintiff where he said that he'd seen his shooter out on the street, while the ADA's accused was behind bars (he'd been locked up awaiting trial for two years). The judge eventually had to throw the case out. It left all the jurors with the greatest feeling of disgust.

I know everyone likes to rag on the Bronx. That's the easy part. But when people's biases against Bronx citizens make their prosecutors untouchable, that's just a travesty in of itself.

TimeDown

Unfortunately, this happens all over the city. Prosecutors are given more power than they deserve and receive full immunity from any mistakes or intentional disregards for the law.