QUEENS — The NYPD detective charged with taking thousands of dollars in bribes from Queens karaoke club owners spent two days confessing his wrongdoing to Internal Affairs Bureau investigators at a secret location before he was arraigned Monday night, DNAinfo New York has learned.
Detective Yatyu Yam, 35, began singing the NYPD blues shortly after he was scooped up by Internal Affairs probers last Friday and after he agreed to talk rather than be taken straight to central booking.
Sources say Yam, a 10-year veteran working at the 109th Precinct in Flushing, was then taken to a secret hotel room, where he answered questions for the next two days about his alleged protection racket, detailing how he was in bed with club owners and tipping them off about narcotics raids and other NYPD actions.
He also fingered other cops in the precinct, including Lt. Robert Sung, 50, a veteran of 20-plus years, who was arrested Tuesday on similar corruption charges. Investigators were already looking into Sung.
As many as nine more officers will be stripped of their guns and badges and placed on modified assignment as the investigation continues, sources said.
Sung and Yam face 15 years in prison if convicted.
The arrests were first reported by DNAinfo New York.
During the two-year investigation by IAB and the Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, investigators found that Yam became so close to several club managers that he invited them to a barbecue at his home and to police birthday parties, where he accepted his monthly $2,000 payoffs, according to court documents.
Yam also allegedly intervened when fellow cops made arrests at clubs he was protecting — convincing them to either take the handcuffs off suspects and turn them loose, or to at least give them desk appearance tickets that spared them from being hauled to jail.
It is unclear whether any other officers will face criminal charges, or severe departmental charges, sources said.
Their wrongdoing ranged from frequenting clubs that are off-limits to officers to partying with so-called “Comfort Girls” who provided back rubs and other services behind closed doors for cash.
Some of their activities were secretly recorded or captured by surveillance cameras, sources say.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and his top aides held a closed-door session Wednesday to discuss “shaking up” the precinct with wholesale transfers of personnel.
For now, the sources say, the decision is on hold as the investigation unfolds.
Precinct commander Capt. Thomas Conforti will likely dodge a bullet because he is said to have alerted Police Headquarters brass to the potential problem nearly two years ago, sources said.
