By Madina Toure
A detective and a lieutenant assigned to the 109th Precinct’s Detective Squad have been charged with accepting bribes from Flushing karaoke club owners in exchange for letting them know when narcotics or vice units planned to schedule police raids, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown said.
The officers have been identified as Yaytu Yam, 35, a detective who had been a police officer since January 2005, and Robert Sung, 50, a lieutenant, according to Brown.
The pair have each been charged with taking bribes as well as being rewarded for official misconduct, Brown said. Sung was also charged with obstructing governmental administration, according to the DA.
The NYPD suspended Yam and Sung and they each face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, he said.
“Instead of upholding the law, the defendants are now charged with tarnishing their NYPD badges to unjustly enrich themselves,” Brown said in a statement.
In December 2013, Yam allegedly had a conversation with the owner of Club JJNY at 147-38 Northern Blvd. in which he told the owner he would notify him about police raids if he got paid under the table, according to a complaint filed by the DA’s office.
An officer told Sung he conducted an inspection of Club JJNY on Aug. 30, 2014 that recovered controlled substances and patrons were handcuffed, according to the complaint.
The officer said he released the detained patrons because Yam had told him he could not make arrests as it was Sung’s “place,” which bothered Sung, the complaint said.
When an officer told Sung that a deputy inspector asked him to conduct another inspection of several karaoke clubs, Sung told the officer he would give Club JJNY an advance warning and directed him to transmit the inspection over the police band radio instead, the complaint continued.
Sung also told an officer and another individual to tell the clubs not to have drugs present and close down at 4 a.m. ahead of state troopers arriving, the complaint added.
Yam forced an officer processing an arrest on Sept. 12, 2014 of two individuals who possessed narcotics while at Club Joyful at 33-46 Linden Place to issue them desk appearance tickets instead of a misdemeanor charge, the complaint said.
The owner of two clubs in the precinct area allegedly paid Yam $2,000 per month for three years for protection, the complaint said.
Yam and Sun were arraigned Tuesday and ordered to return to court Dec. 22. Yam was ordered held on $25,000 bail and to surrender his passport and firearms, the DA said.
Sun was ordered held on $20,000 bond or $10,000 cash bail. His firearms were previously seized and he cannot apply for a passport during the case, according to Brown.
Reach reporter Madina Toure by e-mail at mtour
