NYPD GHOUL
Cop buys ring on dead man’s credit card
WHEN OFFICER Ymmacula Pierre (above) found Ken Sanden’s body in his Manhattan apartment, her thoughts turned to diamonds. She was indicted Tuesday for using the dead architect’s credit card number to purchase herself a $3,200 ring.
DEAD MEN tell no tales — and they don’t buy cops diamond rings either.
An on-duty NYPD officer helped herself to a corpse’s credit card number to buy herself some bling, prosecutors said Tuesday.
Ymmacula Pierre, 30, was indicted on charges of criminal possession of stolen property, identity theft and official misconduct for the brazen theft, which prosecutors said happened in Union Square last July 14.
Pierre was called to an E.14th St. apartment to make a “wellness check” on a 65-year-old man with medical issues who’d failed to show up for work, Manhattan prosecutors said.
Pierre, who was assigned to the 6th Precinct, discovered architect Ken Sanden dead inside.
She used his Samsung Galaxy phone to contact his niece, and vouchered some of his property, including his Citibank Mastercard, prosecutors said.
She also allegedly jotted down Sanden’s credit card and email information.
Two days later, Sanden’s card was used to buy a diamond ring online from Zales for $3,283, authorities said.
The cop was never able to put a ring on it — the credit card company notified Sanden’s niece about the suspicious charge, and she was able to stop it from being shipped, prosecutors said.
Investigators found the purchase from beyond the grave had been made from a computer in Queens owned by Pierre’s boyfriend, whose address she’d listed as her emergency contact, prosecutors said.
The same computer was used to access the dead man’s email, the DA’s office said.
The address the ring was supposed to be sent to was one Pierre had used as a reference on her NYPD application, prosecutors said. Prosecutors also noted in court that the dead man’s Galaxy phone is missing.
“He was taken advantage of,” said Sanden’s niece, Jennifer Rogers. “That was the case.”
Pierre, who’s been on the job three years, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to the charges in Manhattan Supreme Court and was released on her own recognizance. The NYPD said she’d been suspended without pay for 30 days. She faces a possible four-year sentence.
She declined comment outside her West Hempstead, L.I., home. “I was told not to say anything,” she said.
Her lawyer, Israel Fried, described his client as “a wonderful person.”
Sanden’s former superintendent said he remembers letting cops into the apartment the day the longtime building resident and Yale grad was found dead.
“She was with a partner. She looked for his wallet for an ID on him,” Aleks Servy told the Daily News. “It was pretty sad to see,” Servy said of Sanden, who suffered from low blood pressure.
Evan Oppenheimer, a movie director and writer who lived next door to Sanden, said he was well respected. “We lived next door for 10 years,” Oppenheimer said of the jazz aficionado.
“We trust that the police be there when we need them. This is just wrong, to take advantage of Ken. It’s a horrible thing to do.”