NYPD cop accused of false arrest admits he faked overtime reports
An NYPD cop accused of arresting a bodega clerk to make some extra cash — a practice known as “collars for dollars” — took the stand Tuesday and admitted he’s falsified several overtime reports.
“I submitted for an overtime shift that I was not present for the entire shift,” Officer Hugo Hugasian conceded in Brooklyn federal court.
His admission came during a trial over a civil rights lawsuit brought by 59-year-old Hector Cordero, who claims he was falsely arrested by four cops who just wanted to make some easy overtime pay.
Cordero was arrested in October 2014 on a felony drug possession charge — which was later dropped— after Hugasian said he saw the clerk sell drugs to another man, Matthew Ninos, outside his bodega.
Ninos, who was busted with 0.138 grams of cocaine on him, ended up pleading guilty to drug possession.
“To these officers, a citizen’s rights are no more important than a petty financial gain and the scariest part is that what happened to Mr. Cordero could happen to anyone,” Cordero’s attorney, Gabriel Harvis, said during opening statements Tuesday.
“They weren’t interested in doing an investigation. They didn’t care — it wasn’t about solving a crime. It was about getting paid.”
“During the course of this trial, you will learn how arrest overtime works at the 83rd Precinct, and this is not the first time Officer Hugasian submitted overtime paperwork fraudulently,” he added.
Cordero’s suit accuses the four cops involved in his arrest with claiming 27 hours of overtime that they didn’t actually work.
On the stand, Hugasian admitted that he’d made false overtime entries on four occasions between May 4, 2007, and May 4, 2008.
A city lawyer, Philip DePaul, insisted in his opening arguments that the cops had good reason to arrest Cordero, pointing out that he had $580 in cash on him during the bust. He also accused Cordero of erasing a portion of the bodega’s surveillance video.
“The plaintiff sold crack on the street. The plaintiff had the money on him. The other man, Mathew Ninos, was arrested and had the crack on him,” DePaul said.
“They’re trying to distract you with all this stuff about overtime. Overtime is a distraction in this case.”
If the four cops are found liable in the suit, Judge Jack Weinstein will hold another trial centering around whether cops routinely make false arrests to increase their overtime pay.
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