New York Paralegal Blog

Preet Bharara, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York announced that William Masso, a former New York City Police Department (NYPD) officer, was sentenced today to 57 months in prison for leading a group of active and retired NYPD officers and others in a scheme involving the illegal interstate transportation of firearms and stolen goods.

Early this morning, FBI agents and detectives from the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau effected the arrests of 12 men, all but two of whom are current or former law enforcement officers. The arrests are the culmination of a long-term FBI undercover investigation.

PREET BHARARA, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, JANICE K. FEDARCYK, the Assistant Director-in-Charge of the New York Office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (“FBI”), and RAYMOND W. KELLY, the Police Commissioner of the City of New York (“NYPD”), today announced charges against 12 defendants, including eight active-duty and retired NYPD Officers, for participating in a variety of schemes involving the illegal interstate transportation of stolen goods. According to the Complaint filed today in Manhattan federal court, from September 2010 to the present, some or all of the defendants conspired to transport across state lines: stolen slot machines; firearms, including three M-16 rifles, one shotgun, and 16 handguns, the majority of which had been defaced to remove or alter the serial number; and stolen cigarettes and counterfeit goods. In total, the goods that the defendants allegedly illegally transported carried a street value of over $1 million.

New York City Police Officers Franklin Mata and Kenneth Moreno were each found guilty of three counts of Official Misconduct. During a trial before a jury in New York State Supreme Court, it was established that Officer Kenneth Moreno and Officer Franklin Mata engaged in acts of official misconduct for reentering the apartment of an intoxicated woman whom they were called to assist. They are expected to be sentenced on June 28, 2011. “We respect the jury’s verdict, which acknowledges that the defendants’ actions that night not only violated the law, they violated the victim’s rights, and the public’s trust,” said District Attorney Cyrus R. Vance, Jr. “I thank our prosecutors, Coleen Balbert and Randolph Clarke, Jr., who worked tirelessly on this case. I also commend the bravery of the victim in coming forward, and in persevering through an often grueling and very public 9-week trial. ” District Attorney Vance thanked Assistant District Attorneys Coleen Balbert, Deputy Chief of the...

CHICAGO—One current and three former Chicago police officers who were members of the disbanded Special Operations Section (SOS), an elite city-wide unit, were charged today with federal civil rights violations for allegedly presenting false information and testimony to conceal unlawful searches or arrests during which hordes of cash were often stolen between 2003 and 2006. Two of the former officers were also charged with federal tax offenses, and one of them, Jerome A. Finnigan, is also facing a charge that was filed against him previously for allegedly planning the murder-for-hire of a former fellow officer who was a potential witness against him. The civil rights charges are new, and the other three defendants were charged with federal crimes for the first time today, following a lengthy joint state and federal investigation of the activities of rogue officers within the disbanded special unit. Seven other former officers assigned to the SOS have previously pleaded guilty to state c...