Updated April 3, 2 p.m.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the bribery investigation involving Flushing’s 109th Precinct does not involve as many officers as previously reported.
Bratton disputed claims in a DNAinfo article published on Tuesday that indicated 23 officers from the command were at the center of the probe, which stems from the arrest of two 109th Precinct Detective Squad members last December.
Although Bratton acknowledged that “several individuals in that command” have gone through the disciplinary and criminal justice processes, “the information in that article is incorrect as far as the numbers of personnel.”
“It’s an ongoing investigation,” he told reporters at a press conference. “It’s a criminal investigation as well as administrative.”
After QNS published this story on Friday, Murray Weiss — the DNAinfo investigative reporter who wrote the article — said in an email to us that he stands “100 percent” behind his article, which was “based on detailed 80-plus page Internal Affairs report that I had obtained that named every officer, allegation against them, and included their photos.”
Weiss did not disclose the names of those mentioned in the report.
Bratton also refined his statement about the exact number of officers under investigation, indicating that a number of officers are being questioned about the knowledge they have regarding various concerns within the 109th Precinct. He further indicated it may take some time for the NYPD Internal Affairs Bureau and the Queens District Attorney’s office to sort it all out.
The NYPD did confirm that it fired Lieutenant Robert Sung, who was arrested along with Detective Yatyu Yam last December on charges that they accepted bribes from local karaoke club owners in exchange for providing them with favors including inside information about impending surprise inspections.
Another member of the precinct, who was not identified, has been suspended without pay; four other 109th Precinct members have been placed on modified duty pending the results of the investigation.
