BATTLE OF THE BULDGE
Stripper guy: No, cops asked for pic!
Four female NYPD cops who posed for a photo with a strapping male stripper initiated the racy shot — despite departmental claims to the contrary, the exotic dancer told The Post on Tuesday.
Jude Menelas of Brooklyn — who goes by the stage name “Messiah” — said the giddy gals corralled him following his gig entertaining a Mother’s Day party at a senior center in upper Manhattan.
“I came out, danced around a bit. After that, I started taking pictures with all the elderly ladies, even the ladies in the wheelchairs and with oxygen tanks,” said Menelas, who posted one of those shots on his @messiahnyc Instagram page.
“I was about to leave and the officers said, ‘ Can we take a picture?’ and that was that.”
“They just wanted to take a picture real quick,” he added.
Menelas said he dressed up as a soldier and ripped off a pair of tear-away, camouflage pants during the climax of his performance.
Menelas wore a black Gstring underneath, and one of the cops was photographed gleefully pointing at the bulge in his underwear.
“It’s all real — no sugar, no saccharine,” Menelas bragged. “It’s all me.” Menelas’ account of the in- cident — during which a second male stripper was photographed in the background — clashed with that provided earlier by an NYPD spokeswoman who said, “The senior-center participants encouraged the officers to pose for the picture.”
Law-enforcement sources also disputed an NYPD assertion that the cops “were not aware that the males in the photo would be present at this event.”
One source said the strippers’ performances were promoted “well in advance” of the Thursday party at the ARC XVI Fort Washington Senior Center.
“The job knew they would be there,” another source said.
NYPD Assistant Commissioner for Public Information J. Peter Donald said: “We are not aware of that. Our previous statement still stands.”
The NYPD has said the four cops face potential discipline from their commanding officer in the 33rd Precinct.
Two of the cops have been identified as Amber Guzman and Nathalie Lebron, who both serve as “neighborhood coordinating officers” as part of Mayor de Blasio’s “neighborhood policing” program.