CBS News Charges brought against four men arrested Monday in a widening New York City corruption probe include lurid claims that a top police official roomed with a prostitute during a Las Vegas trip as businessmen spent over $100,000 to ensure uniformed officers were available as their private security force.
Two high-ranking New York Police Department officials and a police sergeant who oversaw gun license applications were among the latest arrests in a case that has cast a cloud over the nation's largest municipal police force. The men are charged in "two separate and serious criminal schemes," Preet Bharara, U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, said Monday.
Those arrested Friday include NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, Deputy Inspector James Grant, and Sgt. David Villanueva. Grant and Harrington are accused of accepting lavish bribes from Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg and another businessman. Reichberg, Harrington and Grant were each charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
Another officer arrested Monday was David Villanueva, an NYPD sergeant assigned to the department's gun license bureau. He was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery and accused of accepting cash, liquor and limo rides to push through the approval of gun license applications. A fourth NYPD officer, Richard Ochetal, has pleaded guilty to the same allegation, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of New York. They say Ochetal is cooperating with federal investigators.
A criminal complaint accompanying the latest charges alleged Reichberg exploited his connections within the police department to arrange arrests, speed up gun application processing, make tickets disappear, obtain police escorts for him and his friends, get assistance from uniformed personnel to resolve personal disputes and boost security at religious sites and events.
Susan Necheles, Reichberg's lawyer, said in an email: "Mr. Reichberg did not commit a crime."
Reichberg's "only mistake," Necheles said, was befriending a government cooperator "who is desperately trying to get others in trouble in order to curry favor with prosecutors and save his own skin." Reichberg's friend, an unidentified businessman, pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit honest services fraud, and is providing information to federal investigators "in hopes of leniency when he is sentenced," the criminal complaint says.
The complaint said Reichberg managed to use connections to local law enforcement agencies to shut down a lane of the Lincoln Tunnel connecting New Jersey and Manhattan and obtain a police escort for a businessman visiting the U.S.
In return, the businessman showered his favored police officials with well over $100,000 in benefits from 2012 to 2015, including free flights and hotel rooms, prostitutes, expensive meals, home improvements and prime seats at sporting events, the complaint said.
In announcing the arrests, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Reichberg and the unidentified friend exchanged bribes for "'cops on call,' a private police for themselves and their friends."
The complaint said Harrington and an unidentified police chief let a businessman buy dinner once or twice a week for 18 months at expensive Manhattan restaurants, where bills ran $400 to $500.
Andrew Weinstein, Harrington's lawyer, said the charges against his client were politically motivated.
"Chief Harrington is a loyal and devoted family man who has an unblemished record and has spent the last three decades working tirelessly to keep New York City safe," Weinstein said. "One would be hard-pressed to find a straighter arrow in their quiver."
Among the alleged favors was $59,000 spent on a private jet in February 2013 that took Reichberg, an unidentified detective and James Grant, commander of an Upper East Side precinct, to Las Vegas for Super Bowl weekend, the court papers said. The complaint said Reichberg and the friend arranged for a prostitute to join the flight and spend the weekend with the group, staying in Grant's luxury hotel room.
According to the FBI complaint, the prostitute told law enforcement agents that Grant and others "took advantage of her services" during the trip. [...]
claims that a top police official roomed with a prostitute during a Las Vegas trip
ReplyDeleteThey were roomies, huh? Who writes this garbage?
Very salacious story, certainly. Too early to know if any of this is true. Could just be accusations hurled any which way.
ReplyDeleteMaybe hold off a couple of months?
If your brother is a police officer, are you allowed to offer him a ride on your private jet? Are you allowed to take him to the Super Bowl? How about if a police officer is your friend?
ReplyDeleteIs an off-duty police officer allowed to go the a football game with his friends who are not police officers?
I fail to see how any of this is criminal.
Closing off a lane in the Lincoln tunnel for ten minutes in the middle of the night is not right. It deserves a good scolding. Maybe even a loss of a couple of vacation days. I can't see how it deserves jail time and the termination of employment of a proven officer.
You must be kidding. The "unnamed businessman" is already pointing fingers and naming names. In other words, he cut a deal to turn state's evidence on Reichberg and the chiefs, and he's providing all kinds of other info to the DA as well. It's on his information that they went after Huberfeld and Norman Seabrook last week.
ReplyDeleteIf your brother is a police officer, are you allowed to offer him a ride
ReplyDeleteon your private jet? Are you allowed to take him to the Super Bowl? How
about if a police officer is your friend?
All of those things are fine unless there is a quid pro quo involved, as there was in this case. If your police officer brother or friend is getting you concealed carry permits and providing police escorts, there's a problem.
closing off a lane: if money exchanged hands, thats something different.
ReplyDeletei would note that the person being transported was is a security risk. he has threatening business interests all over the world, and enemies therefore all over the world. going through "official" channels will be a fifty fifty (probably less) (and if denied, then definitely would require investigation.) and this would be the most assured way to get this security. i mean, there are policemen stationed at this tunnel 24 7 so obviously the police security forces consider this a security problem. though i personally think the 24 7 police is mere show and (false) justifying a bloated budget ( = tolls) for the agency. not for realistic security.
just read the complaint at https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/file/868506/download.
ReplyDeletemr reichberg did NOT pay for the vegas trip or the prostitute. nor did he eat at the restaurant (presumably not kosher.)
he called his friend for police security after the paris attacks at an unnamed synagogue shul, and at 42 st and fifth avenue for a visiting (unnamed; why do i think its rav pinto?) rabbi.
werent police sent to many most synagogues right after the attack? isnt that the protocol?
this involves what is called "honest services fraud", not bribery. perhaps the policemen should be indicted for not doing their job to protect certain locations / certain people?
It's called the Hatch Act. It's the reason that the Mayor (for example), if pulled over by a police officer for speeding and when asked for his paperwork, may not add to that info by informing the officer that he's the Mayor (or whatnot), lest he be engaging in political trafficking for personal gain. (Instead, he slickly hands over his license in its encasement strategically opposite a card ID'ng his office. Same msg sent'n'received without any clearly implicating act.)
ReplyDeletehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hatch_Act_of_1939
Well, that's exactly what I meant. He's naming names to save himself, so all the more reason to wait for the dust to settle. You don't really believe everyone given immunity tells the truth? Some create stories for prosecutors in order to secure such immunity deals.
ReplyDeleteSave himself from what? He wouldn't need to name names if this was all one big nothing. They did not arrest Norman Seabrook on a random shot in the dark.
ReplyDelete