(20 Jun 2016) Charges brought against four men arrested Monday in a widening city corruption probe include lurid claims that a top police official roomed with a prostitute during a Las Vegas trip as businessmen spent over $100,000 to ensure unformed officers were available as their private security force.
Two high-ranking New York Police Department officials and a police sergeant who oversaw gun license applications were among the latest arrests in a case that has cast a cloud over the nation’s largest municipal police force.
Deputy Chief Michael Harrington, Deputy Inspector James Grant and a third defendant, Brooklyn businessman Jeremy Reichberg, were charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud — the latest development in a series of overlapping public corruption investigations coordinated by U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara. David Villanueva, an NYPD sergeant assigned to the gun license bureau, was arrested on charges of conspiring to commit bribery.
In announcing the arrests, U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Reichberg exchanged bribes for “cops on call.”
Harrington was second in command at police headquarters in an office responsible for all uniformed operations.
The complaint said Harrington and an unidentified police chief let a businessman buy dinner once or twice a week for 18 months at expensive Manhattan restaurants, where bills ran $400 to $500.
Andrew Weinstein, Harrington’s lawyer, said the charges against his client were politically motivated.
Among favors was $59,000 spent on a private jet in February 2013 that took Reichberg, an unidentified detective and James Grant, commander of an Upper East Side precinct, to Las Vegas, the court papers said. The complaint said Reichberg and another businessman arranged for a prostitute to join the flight and spend the weekend with the group, staying in Grant’s luxury hotel room.
The head of Grant’s union declined to comment. His lawyer didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment.
Reichberg, Harrington and Grant were each charged with conspiracy to commit honest services wire fraud.
The fourth person arrested Monday was David Villanueva, an NYPD sergeant assigned to the department’s gun license bureau. He was charged with conspiracy to commit bribery. Villanueva and a uniformed officer named Richard Ochetal allegedly took money from Alex Lichtenstein in exchange for gun licenses.
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