By Michelle Han
Three Brooklyn police officers were suspended without pay last week after threatening a 104th Precinct officer who had arrested one of their colleagues on a drunk-driving charge in Ridgewood, police said.
The three officers, Scott Woltering, 39, James Wunderlich, 30, and John Maguire, 35, were all assigned to the 83rd Precinct in Brooklyn, just across the Queens line, said police spokesman Alan Krawitz.
A rookie police officer from the 104th Precinct, whose name was not released, had arrested a colleague of theirs, Cheryl Gaffney, late Friday night after she had gotten into an accident with two other cars while driving her car near Myrtle Avenue and 67th Place in Ridgewood, Krawitz said.
The three officers, after hearing of the arrest, allegedly traveled across precinct lines to confront the arresting officers in the locker room of the 104th Precinct house in Ridgewood, Krawitz said.
They apparently threatened one officer and said, “You better watch your back because you're not getting backup in the 83rd Precinct and you may catch a bullet,” according to Krawitz.
Gaffney, from the 83rd Precinct, was charged with driving while intoxicated and was also suspended from the police force, said police spokeswoman Theresa Farello.
Krawitz said the Police Department's Internal Affairs Bureau was investigating the incident, which happened Sunday night, and would determine the future of the officers who had been suspended.
None of the three suspended officers had made any official comments, Krawitz said.
