Bribe trial isn’t NY’s Finest hour
An ex-cop accused of bribery goes on trial Monday in a case that’s expected to shame the NYPD with allegations of officers going on hooker-fueled weekend getaways and lavish Caribbean vacations funded by wealthy citizens.
It’s not just the government’s case that will muddy the NYPD’s reputation. The defense also plans to call attention to gifts given to high-profile cops, including two-time former Commissioner Bill Bratton.
The Manhattan federal trial, which kicks off with jury selection Monday, centers on ex-Deputy Inspector James Grant, who stands accused of acting as a rent-a-cop for de Blasio donors Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg.
The feds say Grant doled out official police favors, including fixing traffic tickets and police escorts, for Rechnitz, a real estate investor, and Reichberg, a Brooklyn police liaison, in exchange for gifts including a private plane trip to Las Vegas complete with a hooker dressed as stewardess.
Reichberg has denied the charges and will be seated at the defense table with Grant.
Rechnitz will take the stand as the government’s key witness and say he bribed any cop he could, including treating four now-former NYPD officers — including ex-NYPD Deputy Chiefs James McCarthy and Andrew Capul and retired cops Eddie Gardner and Stephen McAllister — to a trip to Miami that included hookers as “entertainment” in 2013.
Rechnitz will also say he lavished gifts on ex-Chief of Department Philip Banks, including trips to Israel and the Dominican Republic, in exchange for “access” to 1 Police Plaza.
The feds will also call to the stand Gabi Grecko, the hooker on the plane, who is expected to tell the jury she performed sex acts on both Grant and Detective Michael Milici, who was dismissed in 2016.
After the government finishes sliming cops, the defense will then seek to call some of Grant’s former comrades in an effort to show that New York’s Finest accept freebies all the time, including expensive meals and trips.
“Commissioner after commissioner after commissioner has taken private plane rides and eaten out with wealthy people,” Reichberg’s lawyer Susan Necheles told the judge. “And it was all in the papers.”
On Friday, Grant’s lawyer John Meringolo told the judge that of the 44 men in blue he subpoenaed, the only one he plans to call “without question” is Bratton, due to the highly publicized gifts the former commissioner received during his first term from wealthy friends like Wall Street billionaire Henry Kravis.
The government objected and the judge has said he will rule at a later date.
“This is not a trial of other police officers,” prosecutor Jessica Lonergan said. “The point is what the defendants did.”