News finds ‘lost’ video of cop scrap

Let’s go to the tape. The NYPD closed its investigation into a lieutenant accused of roughing up a fellow cop at the mayor’s mansion in part because it couldn’t find security footage of the alleged assault — but the Daily News did.

The grainy footage (inset) showed an alleged confrontation between Lt. Karl Pfeffer and Sgt. Roland Jerome on Sept. 13, 2017, outside the mayor’s home on the Upper East Side.

Jerome alleged that the head of the mayor’s security detail, Inspector Howard Redmond, swept it under the rug.

The NYPD said Wednesday it did not open an Internal Affairs investigation into the incident until after The News disclosed it in August 2018.

Police spokesman Phil Walzak said the NYPD closed the investigation in December as “unsubstantiated” following a “thorough investigation.” A police official said because the Internal Affairs investigation did not start until September 2018, any security video had long been erased. Jerome said, “This is an example of top brass taking care of their own.”

While the NYPD said the security video was erased within 30 days after the incident as per policy, a source was able to supply The News with the video. The video shows, as Jerome claimed, that Pfeffer shoved the other cop after the lieutenant allegedly stormed into Gracie Mansion irate that Jerome had let a female detective go home early.

Walzak said a thorough investigation was conducted by Internal Affairs.

“The IAB investigation was exhaustive,” Walzak said. “Everyone involved . . . was interviewed by IAB. No complaints were raised until a year after the alleged incident . . . . The investigation was performed by the book.”