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4 New York Officers Are Put on Desk Duty Amid U.S. Corruption Inquiry 4 New York Police Leaders Reassigned Amid Corruption Inquiry
(about 7 hours later)
Four high-ranking veterans of the New York Police Department were pushed into desk jobs on Thursday in a first wave of discipline connected with a continuing federal public corruption inquiry. Four high-ranking veterans of the New York Police Department were reassigned to desk jobs on Thursday in what is likely to be a first wave of discipline stemming from a wide-ranging federal corruption investigation.
Two of the four officers were placed on modified duty, stripped of their guns and badges and taken off patrol, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said, and two others were transferred from their current assignment. The administrative action against such prominent police commanders — three chiefs and a deputy inspector — is a rare public rebuke to the senior management of the national’s largest municipal police force.
Two of the four officers were placed on modified duty, stripped of their guns and badges and limited to administrative duties, Police Commissioner William J. Bratton said. The other two were transferred from their current assignments to less prestigious positions.
“The investigation is examining the conduct of current and former N.Y.P.D. officers and several others,” Mr. Bratton said at a news conference at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan to announce technological advances the department has made in recent years.“The investigation is examining the conduct of current and former N.Y.P.D. officers and several others,” Mr. Bratton said at a news conference at Police Headquarters in Lower Manhattan to announce technological advances the department has made in recent years.
“We will follow the leads wherever they take us,” he said.“We will follow the leads wherever they take us,” he said.
A federal grand jury is hearing evidence in the case that was initiated in December 2013 by the department’s Internal Affairs Bureau and later was joined by an inquiry initiated by prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan, officials said. While roughly 20 police officials have been questioned in recent weeks as part of the federal inquiry, three people briefed on the matter have said it is focused more closely on the conduct of two businessmen with ties to Mayor Bill de Blasio and how they may have sought to wield their influence.
As part of it, agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation have been asking questions centered on allegations of free meals and trips given to police officials by members of religious communities in Brooklyn. The agents focused intently on two businessmen with ties to Mayor Bill de Blasio, according to three people familiar with the inquiry, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it. Federal Bureau of Investigation agents assigned to a squad that mostly investigates political corruption are continuing to gather evidence, and the federal authorities have not ruled out charges against any of the officers, according to the people briefed on the inquiry, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
On Thursday, Mr. Bratton identified the two senior police leaders placed on modified duty as Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, who had been serving as the executive officer of the department’s Housing Bureau and who the police said had worked under the former chief of department, Philip Banks; and Deputy Inspector James Grant, the commander of the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. A federal grand jury has begun hearing evidence in the matter, and one person briefed on the case said that several of the police officials, accompanied by their lawyers, have discussed the possibility of cooperating with federal prosecutors.
Mr. Bratton identified the two other officers as Deputy Chief David Colon and Deputy Chief Eric Rodriguez. The inquiry grew out of two separate investigations that were quickly merged, one of which the Police Department’s Internal Affairs Bureau started in December 2013 and the other initiated by federal prosecutors from the United States attorney’s office in Manhattan. Police officials said the two inquiries were combined in early 2014.
Chief Harrington has been a member of the department for 30 years, and Inspector Grant for 19 years, the police said. Chief Colon, the commander of the Housing Bureau in Brooklyn, and Chief Rodriguez, assigned to Patrol Borough Brooklyn South, have both been on the force for 24 years, the police said. The original federal inquiry was focused on Philip Banks III, who was the police force’s chief of department at the time, and Norman Seabrook, the head of the union that represents New York City correction officers. Investigators were examining the two men’s financial dealings and whether Mr. Seabrook had enriched himself during his two decades running the union, people briefed on the matter said.
Officials could not immediately say where any of the officers were being transferred to. Mr. Banks has emphatically denied wrongdoing on several occasions. His lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, said in a statement issued on Tuesday, “Based on everything I have seen to date, I do not believe that Mr. Banks ever intentionally violated the law.”
Though the commanders are now spread throughout the force, Lawrence Byrne, the department’s deputy commissioner of legal matters, characterized the scope of the wrongdoing as limited. Press representatives for the United States attorney’s office and the F.B.I. declined to comment on Thursday.
A number of those briefed on the matter have identified the two businessmen at the center of the investigation as Jona Rechnitz and Jeremy Reichberg. Both served on a large committee that planned the inaugural celebration for Mr. de Blasio in 2014.
The precise allegations being examined are unclear. Neither man has been charged with a crime.
Mr. Rechnitz was a generous donor to the mayor’s 2013 campaign, raising roughly $45,000 for him; also, he and his wife each gave the maximum amount allowed, $4,950. He owns a real estate investment, development and management company called JSR Capital L.L.C., which owns buildings in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
In 2014, Mr. Reichberg hosted a fund-raiser for a nonprofit group created by advisers to the mayor, a Democrat, to push Mr. de Blasio’s political agenda. The group, the Campaign for One New York, was criticized by government watchdogs for acting as a “shadow government” of lobbyists and businesses with interests before City Hall. It began the process of shutting down last month.
Mr. Reichberg could not be reached for comment, and it could not be determined whether he had retained a lawyer.
Mr. Rechnitz’s lawyer, Marc S. Harris, said this week that his client had broken no laws and had not been notified that he was the subject of any investigation.
As federal investigators focused on Mr. Reichberg and Mr. Rechnitz, they uncovered a web of connections to senior police officials, according to several of those briefed on the matter. When F.B.I. agents questioned the police officials, these people said, they asked about the two businessmen and about allegations that they had provided free trips and meals.
On Thursday, Mr. Bratton identified the four officials against whom the department had taken administrative action.
He fended off questions about why he had acted now, after the inquiry had been going on for more than two years. He said that enough information had developed to allow him to move against the officials — and that he had acted after a meeting Thursday morning with Diego Rodriguez, an assistant F.B.I. director who heads the agency’s New York office, and F.B.I. supervisors involved in the inquiry.
Officials said the range of potential violations confronting the four disciplined leaders — and others who might come under scrutiny — include violations of federal criminal law, the city’s conflicts-of-interest rules and the Police Department’s internal administrative codes.
Mr. Bratton said the two police officials placed on modified duty were Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, who had been the executive officer of the Housing Bureau, who a police official said had worked under Mr. Banks when Mr. Banks was chief of department; and Deputy Inspector James Grant, the commander of the 19th Precinct on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Both men are officials in the union that represents police chiefs, inspectors and captains.
Mr. Bratton identified the two other officers who had been reassigned as Deputy Chiefs David Colon and Eric Rodriguez.
Roy. T. Richter, the head of the union that represents the men, the Captains Endowment Association, said the moves would be “traumatic” for any police officer.
“And especially for those who hold senior leadership roles,” he added. “The allegations contained in media reports tarnish the unblemished career records of those named. I do not know any of the police commanders to be the subject of the F.B.I. probe and hope the federal investigation is wrapped up quickly to allow them all to defend their reputations in an open forum.”
Though the commanders are now spread throughout the force, Lawrence Byrne, the department’s deputy commissioner of legal matters, characterized the scope of the alleged wrongdoing as limited.
“We can’t go into too many details,” he said. “We don’t believe, based on what we know so far, that this is deep, systemic corruption throughout the department. It goes to perhaps bad judgment among a small group of people.”“We can’t go into too many details,” he said. “We don’t believe, based on what we know so far, that this is deep, systemic corruption throughout the department. It goes to perhaps bad judgment among a small group of people.”