Results tagged “internalaffairs”

New troubles are bubbling up for the NYPD: Internal Affairs and Prosecutors have identified "as many as two dozen cases in the past year in which cops allegedly made false statements involving routine arrests," according to the Post. This is a sharp increase over previous years, when one or two such cases would be discovered and prosecuted.

As the Internal Affairs investigation on Officer Andrew Kelly and the potential police coverup of his DWI crash continues, yesterday the accident's victim, Vionique Valnord, was laid to rest inside her preacher father's Brooklyn church. Hundreds of friends and family gathered at the Church of God in Marine Park to pay their final respects. Her brother-in-law said, "We don't know how to feel. Sad, mad, but we are happy that we are able to send Veronica to the Lord. We will see her again one day."

Defying the tired old cliche about cops loving their carrots and wheatgrass, a Brooklyn police sergeant is under investigation for loading up on donuts without paying at a Belle Harbor Dunkin' Donuts. A manager at the location called the cops on Sgt. Eric Turetsky after getting fed up with his behavior, which he claims included flirting with the adolescent workers and habitually underpaying for his donuts. The manager, who for obvious reasons asked not to be identified, tells the Post, "The girls here couldn't stand him. He was rude toward them. He was not professional at all." After reporting Turetsky, Internal Affairs watched him go into the store on seven different occasions, and on each of those trips he allegedly went behind the counter to help himself to the donuts. Turetsky, who was promoted to detective after blowing the whistle on fellow officer Justin Volpe in the infamous Abner Louima bathroom sodomy scandal, is currently assigned to the 100th Precinct in the Rockaways. If found guilty of accepting free or discount donuts, Turtetsky could lose 30 days of vacation time!

Earlier this month, the NY Post reported that a Port Authority police lieutenant Coretta Smith was being investigated after she "tried to get a gun-toting sailor with a mental disorder onto a jet at Kennedy Airport -- two days after orchestrating his release when his first attempt failed." Smith's response at the time was, "I'm aware of my mistake, and I'm handling it my way." Now the Post says Smith, who may be Rep. Charles Rangel's niece, "helped spring a trio of suspected pot smugglers from jail," prompting another Internal Affairs investigation. When a driver on the George Washington Bridge was stopped on suspicion of being intoxicated, the driver admitted to smoking a joint and a police dog smelled pot in a purse, which contained bundles of cash with had "a strong odor of marijuana all over the money." Smith, working at the NJ stationhouse where the driver and two teen girls were brought in, then "refused the request by...the arresting officer, to alert the Bergen County Prosecutor's Office" and "refused to authorize a criminal history check of the trio"—and it turned out the driver had a history of various drug and weapons convictions. According to the Post, "insiders believe she is getting lenient treatment because of her high-powered uncle, who has great influence over federal grants to the agency as dean of the New York congressional delegation."

The NY Post reports that the partner of the police officer accused of raping an East Village woman claims the pair had consensual sex: "Officer Franklin L. Mata is insisting that the woman willingly agreed to [have] sex with married Officer Kenneth Moreno, 41, last Dec. 7 as the young partner stood by, sources told The Post. But investigators don't buy that story, which Mata has conveyed through his lawyer, sources said."

NYPD's Internal Affairs is looking into a Bronx family's charges that when cops came to break up their New Year's Eve celebrations, they crashed more than just the party. Emilio Serrano says that cops immediately started hitting him when they arrived to respond to a noise complaint. He tells 1010 WINS, "They just came and starting beating me with sticks, punching me in the face, kicking me." He says that a security video (captured on four cameras set up inside the apartment) shows police throwing guests down violently and spraying them with mace. He apparently had to get a staple in his scalp and has bruises on his face from the incident. Cops however say that the video will only vindicate them, showing that guests were acting belligerently toward them and that the Serranos were illegally using their apartment as a nightclub. It seems that parties this New Year's Eve just wouldn't wind down quietly—in Staten Island, a landlord is accused of breaking into a tenant's home and firing off a shotgun in order to put an abrupt end to the festivities.

An unidentified homeless man got sent on a Dickensian misadventure last December after he made the mistake of knocking on the door of NYPD counterterrorism czar Richard Falkenrath (pictured) to ask for a glass of water. Like other czars, Falkenrath is not known for his compassion, and he promptly alerted the local constabulary to the parched roustabout's presence in his Bronx neighborhood. Cops questioned the man and released him, but officers in the NYPD's intelligence threat assessment unit, which handles threats against public officials, later flagged the man's name so they would be informed if he was arrested again. They also notified the Joint Terrorist Task Force, which Falkenrath oversees.

Two members of the NYPD's Organized Crime Control Bureau were relieved of their badges after videotape of a raid on a downtown club made its way to the Internal Affairs Bureau. According to the Post, in one segment, a veteran sergeant is seen bending down over an open cash register (some money was reportedly stolen). His supervisor was taped urinating in the establishment's kitchen sink. One of their OCCB co-workers, a detective, was suspended earlier this year when he was accused of acting as a pimp for teenage girl prostitutes.

The NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau is investigating allegations that just hours after the not guilty verdict was issued in the Sean Bell shooting trial, a number of crank calls were made to the home of Nicole Paultre Bell's parents by someone connected to a police union. The calls were both hang-ups or someone laughing--"Ha ha ha"--on the other end of the line.

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: a pedestrian struck on Broadway and 231st St. in the Bronx, an aircraft alert at JFK at Queens, and a person fatally struck by a train at 57th St. and 8th Ave. in Manhattan.
• Entries for the NYC Half-Marathon will start being accepted at 11:59pm on May 29th. Details.
• And the Design Trust for Public Space is accepting submissions for its Grand Army Plaza redesign competition.
• An Internal Affairs Bureau Lt. has been reassigned to a surveillance booth in a housing project after his friend allegedly raped a young woman in the apartment of the cop's girlfriend as she begged him to stop.
• The body of Rabbi Zev Segal, missing since yesterday morning, was found in his car, which apparently slid into the Hackensack River in NJ.
• The memorial for promoter-gossip Baird Jones is being held at Plumm, a venue he wasn't a huge fan of.
• A Gawker employee was shackled and thrown into the Tombs after drinking a beer-in-a-bag in the subway system.
• The carjacker of Mayor Bloomberg's personal car, which was in the possession of one of his aides, faces 15 years in the slammer for the crime.
• A lovely castle-like house in Flushing, Queens - turrets and Tudor details!
• Former Gov. George Pataki underwent emergency surgery this morning to relieve an intestinal blockage (he's had problems with this before!).
• And former Project Runway contestants Jeffrey Sebelia, Santino Rice and Kit Pistol watched Project Runway finale in LA amidst their young, adoring fans.

Queens DA Richard Brown announced an off-duty NYPD detective and his girlfriend were charged with promoting the prostitution of a 13-year-old Brooklyn runaway. Brown said, “This case is every parent and every child’s worst nightmare – made even more frightening by the fact that one of the defendants is a police officer who swore to uphold the law and protect the community he serves.”

An ongoing investigation of corruption and illegal practices in the Brooklyn South Narcotics Unit could jeopardize dozens, if not hundreds, of successful prosecutions of drug dealers. The possibility has arisen days after a sergeant and a detective were arrested for paying an informant with drugs and cash that they themselves had robbed from the addict. Another sergeant in the unit was also arrested for using NYPD resources to investigate the vehicle IDs of a drug dealer's suspected rivals.

The spicy story of the cop fired after testing positive on a drug test - after unkowingly eating a meatball spiked with pot - returns with a lawsuit! Anthony Chiofalo, a 22-year veteran of the NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force, is suing to be reinstated, claiming his termination was "arbitrary, capricious, unreasonable and unconstitutional." Back in 2005, Chiofalo was shocked when he tested positive for marijuana during a drug test. Then it turned out his...

Note to public servants: Your embarrassing MySpace pages will get the tabloid once-over if you do something totally stupid. Last week, police officers Thomas Eliassen and Michael Danese were arrested after they stranded a 14-year-old boy who had been egging cars at a remote swamp. Now Eliassen's MySpace page, where he proclaims, "LET'S DO LINES OFF A STRIPPERS A--!!!", is getting attention from the boy's lawyer. The boy, Rayshawn Moreno, claimed the officers also made...

a good idea, no matter what side of the law you're on. A 14-year-old boy was throwing eggs at cars in Staten Island when two police officers decided to teach him a lesson. Police sources S.tell the Daily News that Officers Thomas Elliassen and Michael Danese picked up Rayshawn Moreno around 8:30PM, drove him to "a swampy area of the 122nd Precinct" and then "dropped him off wearing only boxer shorts and socks and left." Moreno had to walk to a Burlington Coat Factory, where a security guard called his parents.

The NYPD is investigating six police officers suspected of trying to improperly obtain steroids. According to WNBC, the NYPD and State Health department have been raiding Brooklyn pharmacies - and the NYPD's Internal Affairs has now turned an eye on its own.

Yesterday, a police officer testified that her police captain boyfriend viciously beat her. Sharon Gandarilla, who was married to another man at the time of the affair, had filed a sexual-harassment suit earlier this month, alleging that 17-year NYPD veteran Alberto Sanchez had assaulted her multiple times during they three-year affair. She also claimed that Sanchez forced her to have sex at their East Harlem precinct house and at the Police Academy, where he was later transferred and where he persuaded her to transfer.

This might be one of the few times bad police behavior is well-timed with the release of a Dreamworks animated film! The Daily News reports that a couple enjoying a first anniversary celebration was spied upon by an NYPD captain who was trying to film the amorous couple with his pants unzipped. It's definitely one of the better stories about how the NYPD deals with catching criminals in their ranks.

When the police arrived at a Cambria Heights house 13 minutes after receiving a 911 call from a distressed woman, they found four dead bodies. Twenty-year-old Jimmie Dawkins shot his mother, her boyfriend, and the boyfriend's health care aide before shooting himself.

A truly strange story unfolded yesterday after initial reports that a police officer had been shot at Sixth Avenue and Prospect Place in Brooklyn. It turns out that the husband of an NYPD officer shot at an unmarked police SUV carrying four cops. And the wife, police officer Jacqueline Melendez-Rivera, tried to cover up her husband's actions.

It's cop vs. cop in an interesting Brooklyn incident that stems from a robber attempting to steal a car. A sergeant at Brooklyn's 78st Precinct accused three officers of assaulting a man suspected of stealing a car belonging to one of the officers. The Daily News says that Sergeant Greg Abrahams and officers Mark Zajac and Chris Kirch were off-duty when they saw a man trying to steal Abrahams's car, parked in front of 11 Lincoln Place in Park Slope.

The suspect was sitting in the car and had ripped out the front console, sources said.

Continue reading "Cop Tells On Other Cops Who Assaulted Perp"

Yesterday, a mortuary technician for the medical examiner's office was charged with using a dead man's ATM card and stealing about $3,000 from the man's account. Philip Bethune of Brooklyn got a hold of the card when he was sent to transport a body from Kensington back to the morgue. But he also rifled through the man's wallet, finding the ATM card with PIN number (! another reason NOT to have your PIN number in your wallet).

Police are looking for a man who fondled a 13 year old girl in Queens on Tuesday. And police believe he is the same man who fondled a 15 year old girl in the spring.

A police officer in the NYPD's Joint Terrorism Task Force underwent random drug testing - only to find that he tested positive for marijuana. Twenty-two year vet Anthony Chiofalo was automatically suspended without pay but did not understand why he tested positive. And then his wife admitted she "spiked" the meatballs with pot to get him fired. From the Post:

During the departmental trial, the NYPD's Internal Affairs Bureau interviewed Cathy, who confessed to them that in the summer of 2005, she cooked up two separate pots of meatballs and laced them with weed so her husband would test positive and get booted from the force.

Continue reading "Pot Meatballs: Brilliant or Bad Idea Jeans?"

You take some eggs, some rowdy residents, and some undercover cops and you get a crazy riot in Broad Channel. The NY Sun has a very detailed article about the riot between police and residents, where the only part of the story that the police and residents agree on is that a bunch of kids egged an unmarked police car. Which was only in the area to respond to earlier calls about property being egged!

Talk about Internal Affairs! The Post reports that a police commander in the Bronx was suspended after a secret recording revealed he was trying to set up a rendez-vous with a female officer. The officer, described as a 42 year old single mom, complained to Internal Affairs that Captain Michael DeBellis "wanted to turn their friendship into a romance," and said that he had "'made inappropriate comments' involving seeing her alone for sex." So Internal Affairs asked the officer to record DeBellis's interest. DeBellis approached the officer again on Tuesday and was promptly suspended.

The Suffolk County DA's office believes that the NYPD cadet who plotted to kill his girlfriend may have wanted to prevent her from telling anyone about his "shady past." Kabeer Din, a Long Island resident who is being held on $1.5 million bond/$150,000 cash bail, had just started the city's police academy after some time with Baltimore's police department when the NYPD's Internal Affairs found out that Din was looking for a hit man. When an undercover detective posing as a contract killer met with Din, the rookie apparently wondered about disgraced "Mafia Cops" Louis Eppolito and Stephen Caracappa, asking, "Is there some kind of unofficial connection between police types and mob types?" Which is certainly weird, as Eppolito and Caracappa are on trial (still!) for carrying out murders for the mob. Anyway, as it's unclear what Din's "shady past" might be, another hypothesis for the murderous plot is that Din was mad his girlfriend turned down his marriage proposal. His sister, Anjma Hussain, said that her brother was a "devout Muslim" and that the allegations were not true, emphasizing that he wouldn't even date a woman the family didn't know.

A landlord-tenant dispute in Bedford-Stuyvesant that left the tenant dead is further complicated by the fact the the landlord is an Internal Affairs police officer. Some reports say while Lt. Shamik Walton was collecting rent, he and tenant Byron Hearst scuffled and Walton's gun went off, whereas other reports say that Walton shot Hearst as they argued over back rent that Hearst owed. Hearst lived in an apartment at 645 Macon Street with his pregnant girlfriend, who said that Walton only said he was an accountant, not a police officer. The police are investigating various accounts of yesterday's shooting, from how many shots were fired to whether it could have been self-defense (Hearst had been in the Navy).