Sources: More Charges Expected For NYPD Top Cops
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork/AP) -- The NYPD is reeling after the arrest of two senior commanders as more charges are expected to other top cops.
CBS2 political reporter Marcia Kramer reported that Deputy Inspector James Grant and Deputy Chief Michael Harrington were arrested on charges of accepting expensive gifts from two politically connected businessmen, including a trip to Las Vegas on a private jet that included the services of a prostitute.
Sources told CBS2's Kramer that more charges are expected at the NYPD involving senior people. They include conflicts of interest charges, department charges and the specter of additional arrests.
So far, nearly a dozen cops have been removed from their posts as the investigation proceeds.
The case against Grant and Harrington centers around two prominent businessmen – Jeremy Reichberg and Jona Rechnitz, who are also linked to probes of Mayor Bill de Blasio's fundraising.
The two reportedly showered the top cops with lavish gifts in exchange for influence, ticket fixing and favors.
"They got a private police force for themselves and their friends – effectively they got cops on call," U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said Monday.
Gov. Andrew Cuomo was so irritated over the reported closing of one lane of the Lincoln Tunnel and a police escort to expedite the trip of a visiting businessman that he demanded a full investigation of the Port Authority's involvement.
"The NYPD has no jurisdiction within the tunnels boundaries," Cuomo said. "If members of the Port Authority participated in any fashion – through purpose or neglect – that State will deliver immediate and severe consequences."
When asked to comment Monday on the lane closure and other allegations, Reichberg's lawyer, Susan Necheles, said her client "did not commit a crime." She said his "only mistake" was befriending a government cooperator "who is desperately trying to get others in trouble in order to curry favor with prosecutors and save his own skin."
Sources said the investigations started with calls to the NYPD's Internal Affairs tip line. The first call was received in 2012, but the investigation didn't pick up speed for a few years.
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