A Brooklyn cop and his wife face up to 25 years in prison for using the officer’s mother’s identity to steal upwards of $360,000 from financial companies and the federal government after she died in 2016, according to an indictment District Attorney Eric Gonzalez filed in Supreme Court on Tuesday.
Together with his wife, the 16-year veteran of the force, who most recently worked out of the 71st Precinct covering parts of Crown Heights and Prospect-Lefferts Gardens, allegedly falsified documents — including his mom’s certificate of death — and impersonated her over the phone to con the Feds into continuing her social-security benefits, and scam her pension fund to keep cutting checks, which together totaled more than $88,000 in illicit payments, the top prosecutor claimed.
The couple, who live in Marine Park, also fraudulently sold their dead relative’s home for $260,000, according to the indictment, which alleged the pair unsuccessfully attempted to swindle an insurance company out of an additional $160,000 in life-insurance payments to the deceased by again impersonating her and using forged Police Department documents to claim a relative illegally liquidated her accounts — an accusation that led an employee of the firm to contact the police, whose Internal Affairs Bureau subsequently opened the investigation that led to the duo’s arrest.
And the defendants also continued to refill the mother’s Percocet prescription no less than 14 times after she died, prosecutors alleged.
The city’s top cop called the officer’s crimes particularly heinous because they sully the integrity of all of New York’s Finest.
“Police officers swear an oath to hold themselves accountable to the highest standards of ethics and integrity,” said Police Commissioner James O’Neill. “And when they intentionally violate that promise, they tarnish the reputation of all good cops — making their jobs much more difficult.”
The defendants face 101 charges that include identity theft and grand larceny, and the cop was also slapped with an official misconduct charge, according to the indictment.
They must return to court on Nov. 7, Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun ruled at their arraignment.
