Finest lied about gun: B’klyn DA
BRASS PLAY DEFENSE
O’Neill (right inset), meanwhile, defended the way the NYPD disciplines its officers.
“Each and every discipline case comes up before me,” O’Neill said. “We make sure that whatever discipline is meted out is done fairly and it’s done consistently and it’s done regardless of rank.”
But critics have said the city’s interpretation of 50-a is overly broad — and flies in the face of the NYPD transparency pledge.
The latest shift in policy drew criticism from both civil rights activists and police unions.
“This is just another example of the city pretending 50-a prohibits them from disclosing information about police misconduct in an attempt to counter bad headlines,” said Cynthia Conti-Cook, staff attorney with the special litigation unit at the Legal Aid Society.
“The law does not prohibit the department from making anything, including names of officers who have committed misconduct, public. We should know which officers commit acts of misconduct and betray public trust.”
Christopher Dunn, associate legal director of the New York Civil Liberties Union, called the move “almost meaningless.” “Without much more detail about the officer’s misconduct and without officer names, it will be impossible to know if discipline is appropriate and to identify officers who are serial offenders,” he said.
The biggest police union, the Patrolmen’s Benevolent Association, also blasted the NYPD’s plan, but for different reasons.
It said it remains “firmly opposed” to the release of any disciplinary information.
Union President Patrick Lynch, in a letter last Thursday to O’Neill, demanded that the NYPD “comply with the law and immediately cease all plans to release” disciplinary information.
Lynch also said that so-called “deidentified” case summaries are not necessarily anonymous, with court documents, for instance, providing the information that could lead to the identification of an officer.
Michael Palladino, head of the Detectives’ Endowment Association, agreed that the NYPD’s announcement is “a breach of our protections provided under 50-a.” AN OFF-DUTY cop was busted after he went drinking and fell asleep in his car, police said Tuesday. Keith Roman, 28, was arrested at 10:20 p.m. by officers from the 111th Precinct in Queens. Roman was sleeping in his car on the side of Clearview Expressway with the engine running, cops said. He refused to take a breathalyzer test and was charged with that offense and with operating a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol level of .08%, police said. Police refused to say where Roman is assigned or how long he has been with the NYPD. AN NYPD officer was arrested Tuesday, accused of repeatedly lying under oath about seeing a handgun in a suspect’s apartment in order to obtain a search warrant.
Joseph Moloney was charged In a 24-count indictment with lying on five occasions from May 2016 to April 2017 about spotting a pistol in an apartment at Brooklyn’s Red Hook Houses — including on a search warrant affidavit, to a judge to get the warrant, and to a grand jury.
Although there was a silver handgun in the bedroom where two children slept, Moloney did not see the gun — it was another officer of the 76th Precinct who did, prosecutors said.
“Our police officers are expected to be truthful and honest at all times because people’s fates and the integrity of the justice system depend on that. We allege that the officer in this case failed to do that and instead repeatedly gave false testimony under oath,” said Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
During an April 2017 pretrial hearing, Moloney’s account began to unravel when the cop admitted to a judge that his sworn testimony was a “mistake on my part, being my first search warrant that I’d sworn out alone, and just a rookie mistake,” according to court records.
But Moloney came clean during preparations for additional pretrial hearings in July 2017, prosecutors said.
“Such conduct diminishes public trust and is, in fact, criminal. We intend to now hold the defendant accountable,” said Gonzalez.
The suspect’s weapons charges were dismissed.
Moloney, 27, was escorted into Brooklyn Supreme Court uncuffed and surrounded by six NYPD detectives. His attorney John Tynan entered a not guilty plea on his behalf before Justice Danny Chun released him on his own recognizance.
He was placed on modified duty with the department and faces up to four years in prison for the top charge of perjury.