‘Briber’ used NYPD woo on gals: feds
A married de Blasio donor on trial for allegedly bribing cops used his powerful police connections to try to score dates, according to new court papers.
Jeremy Reichberg, on trial in Manhattan federal court, sought to woo a nurse by convincing his police pals to do favors for her, documents allege.
The nurse, Tara Sheils, was chauffeured around in a police vehicle to run “at least one purely personal errand,” and taken by Reichberg to an NYPD promotion ceremony so he could impress her, according to prosecutors’ papers.
Reichberg met Sheils when she came to his home to help him recover from surgery in 2014.
Reichberg, 44, boasted about his cop connections and got his pal, convicted ex-NYPD Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, to give Sheils his business card and cellphone number in case she “ever needed anything,’’ the feds said.
Reichberg also brought his lady friend to NYPD headquarters to meet accused co-conspirator and ex-Chief of Department Philip Banks, who was second in command at the department, prosecutors said.
Sheils was also on Reichberg’s arm at One Police Plaza “to attend a promotion ceremony for unindicted co-conspirator Michael Milici,” the feds said.
Prosecutors plan to call Sheils to testify, but the defense has balked at questions about the “romantic nature” of the pair’s relationship, saying that any talk of romance with Sheils, “who cared for Mr. Reichberg after he had a surgery,” is prejudicial because Reichberg is married. Sheils didn’t return requests for comment.
The jury got its first whiff of the claims involving Sheils last week, when contractor Boaz Gazit said he did roughly $1,500 worth of home repairs for her for free because Reichberg asked him to. At the time, Gazit owed Reichberg for a big job recommendation, he told the jury.
When prosecutor Martin Bell asked Gazit about the nature of Reichberg’s relationship with the nurse, the defense objected, saying the feeds were “trying to em- barrass Mr. Reichberg” in front of his wife, who was in the courtroom.
Gazit only said Reichberg and the nurse were “very close friends.”
The feds say Reichberg, a selfdescribed police liaison from Brooklyn, teamed up with real-estate investor Jona Rechnitz to buy off high-ranking officers, including Reichberg’s co-defendant, James Grant, and unindicted coconspirators like Banks, in exchange for official police favors.
Rechnitz, the government’s key witness, is expected to testify next week that he and Reichberg gave Grant meals, a private plane ride with a hooker, free windows on his Staten Island home and other perks in exchange for favors, including police escorts and help with private disputes.
The defense has argued that the men exchanged gifts and favors because they were friends. They have also argued that freebies were commonplace at the NYPD and so neither side saw anything wrong with it.