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Heard on Tape: Cops Discuss Alleged Fixing of a DWI Incident

By Murray Weiss | May 16, 2011 11:51am | Updated on May 17, 2011 8:09am

By Murray Weiss

DNAinfo Contributing Columnist

This is how an alleged DWI coverup for a NYPD cop sounds.

It starts with a knock on the door in the dead of night, according to secretly-recorded tapes that are part of a massive NYPD ticket-fixing probe. The knock comes from a Westchester cop, at the home of a pal in the NYPD.

"I have one of your guys (from the NYPD) down the block," the Westchester sergeant says, according to a recorded conversation between the NYPD cop and another friend. "He is bombed — Bad!"

The sergeant explained that the "bombed" cop had just knocked down two light poles and two parking meters and led the local cops on a chase before being stopped.

"I am f---ing happy to have this guy sign these f---ing summonses," the local sergeant explained. "But he is fighting us."

"Ok, lets go!" says the NYPD cop who has just been rousted from sleep. And off they go to the scene of the car accident.

There they find the hammered officer from a Manhattan East Side precinct. The Westchester cops are trying to get him to sign a summons declaring the incident merely a car accident. He'll still have to pay a few thousand dollars for property damage, but no DWI will be reported.

"It's accidental and basically improper driving, erratic driving, causing property damage in town," the NYPD cop on the tape says. "That's it!"

I previously reported the NYPD has a list of at least two dozen cops who can't retire until the grand jury currently investigating the ticket-fixing scandal is finished, which may be as early as the end of next week. Another several hundred cops could be disciplined before all of this is through during the next year, or two.

This scene is just one of several instances of cops behaving badly heard on new tapes I've recently received.

• Earlier I described the cozy relationship between NYPD union bigwigs and the Yankees that surrounded killing a speeding ticket for a top team executive. In another conversation involving Yankee Stadium, a union rep rants about how a police details arrested a "white guy" scalping tickets outside Yankee Stadium when there was any number of "black guys" selling tickets there to chose from. 

It turned out the "white guy" was a season ticket holder selling his own seats at face value — and he was a donor to organizations that support police widows and their children to boot.

• There are shocking calls made by a self-proclaimed police "whistleblower" who eventually was assigned to Internal Affairs for his protection. Not long after he got there, he pledged to leak information about IAB probes to the union, according to the tapes.

"If something comes through while I am working that is serious I will contact you right away," the whistleblower tells a close union friend.

"Dude, I am not worried about that," the union honcho replies. "I have full faith in you."

And if that weren’t enough, the whistleblower is heard on yet another tape trying to fix a ticket for his landlord.

"I am behind on my rent ... so I want to have this done," he says.

• Then there's the horny officer caught on tape bartering with a hooker.

"I don't like to talk on phones," he begins.

"I understand," she replies."How much sex you want ... everything?"

"Ahum," the cop confirms.

"$150?" she asks

"No, I have a hundred," he replies.

"Where you at?" she replies.

But none of this is as disturbing as the case involving the purported cover up on the crash involving a cop from an East Side precinct.

That officer was apparently so intoxicated he could not understand that the cops who caught him were trying to do him a favor — by turning a drunk driving arrest into an accident covered by insurance.

"There is nothing that says it is DWI, it just says, 'I am fucked up and caused an accident. There is no DWI. But he is beyond (drunk). He is bombed (and he) wants a (union) delegate here, and (insists) 'I am not signing s--t!'"

So everyone is forced to track down the allegedly drunk cop’s delegate in Manhattan to get him to sign the summons. But there is just one more sticking point for the NYPD cop who was awakened in the middle of the night.

"He can go through his insurance. It was an accident. He hit a pole," the cop says. "He is a young cop. (The local sergeant) told me they are going to f--king charge him $6- $7,000 for the two lights and meters. They said he could use his insurance. It was an erratic turn causing property damage. Who gives a s--t?”

Maybe the District Attorney will.

Murray Weiss writes a weekly column for DNAinfo. He is an award-winning investigative journalist, author, columnist and editor, and is considered an expert on government, law enforcement, criminal justice, organized crime and terrorism.