Queens rookie cops probed in bogus summons scam

BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA | rocco.parascandola@newsday.com

9:29 PM EDT, May 15, 2008

Two rookie cops in Queens are under investigation for a scam involving overtime pay and possibly bogus summonses, police sources said.

Earlier this spring, the officers, assigned to the 113th Precinct, wrote nearly 40 red light and seat belt summonses in one tour-- a number considered difficult to reach, in part because the officers were working their regular tour, responding to 911 calls, sources said.

A few days later, a sergeant realized the officers had submitted fraudulent overtime paperwork, in which they claimed they had worked a full overtime tour when they had worked less than a third of that tour, sources said.

It appears, sources said, that the officers wrote the summonses during a regular patrol tour -- then tried to claim they wrote the summonses while working overtime.

"The question now is did they 'flake' these motorists?" said one police source, using a slang term to describe issuing summonses without cause and to meet a quota. "Did they stop people for no reason? Did they use names from summonses they had previously issued? Forty summons in one tour is real difficult if you're also responding to calls."

A second source, however, says that the summonses reviewed thus far appear to be legitimate. "But who knows?" that source said. "It could come back that the other summonses, when they're reviewed, are not legitimate."

The officers have served 30-day suspensions without pay and are now on modified duty, working in administrative positions.

Departmental charges have not yet been filed against them, as Internal Affairs is conducting an investigation that includes a review of summons activity by other officers in the precinct, which covers part of South Jamaica, St. Albans, Hollis and Springfield Gardens.

A New York Police Department spokesman confirmed the officers -- whose names were not released -- "submitted an overtime slip for a tour of duty they didn't perform." A lawyer for the officers had no comment.

Last month, a still-pending investigation was launched against another Queens police officer, Joseph Harmon, of the Housing Bureau, after Internal Affairs accused him of writing about 80 phony tickets over the past two years.

Harmon made up names and address for some quality of life summonses, sources said. In other cases, he allegedly gathered the names and addresses of actual people, then used them to write summonses on subsequent tours.

Harmon is on modified duty.

And last August, four NYPD traffic enforcement agents were charged with grand larceny for allegedly issuing dozens of phony parking tickets in Manhattan.

The agents issued summonses for bogus offenses and often didn't put the paperwork on the vehicles. The ticketed motorists, in turn, only found out they had been given tickets when they were alerted by mail.

At least 48 tickets were voided after the arrests.

Two agents earlier this month pleaded guilty to forgery and were sentenced to five years' probation. The cases for the other two are pending.