Police officers in New York falsified the results of investigations and closed cases without verification

Two NYPD officers have been fired after the department found they lied about investigating cases and falsified their work. Among the cases they closed without doing anything were complaints of domestic violence and drug-related crimes. New York Daily News.

Officer Eric Cabrera worked in the 113th Precinct in Jamaica. In 2019, he improperly (without due diligence) closed 25 investigations. In order not to be noticed, he made false entries in the case monitoring system, which monitors investigative actions.

Cabrera closed the cases of threats and harassment without due diligence. For example, in one case, the suspect texted the victim “I will kill you.” In another, the suspect sent threatening messages saying that she would “come after the victim and burn down her house and car.”

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Cabrera was also accused of improperly closing an identity theft case. Then the suspect used the victim's date of birth and social security number to rent an apartment in Georgia and register a mobile phone line. In addition, he chose not to investigate an incident in which a tenant pushed his landlord and threw trash into his car, and the theft of 10 packs of potatoes from a car with broken windows.

Cabrera said in court that he was overworked at the time of the offense and was in the process of divorcing his wife. This allegedly prompted him to close the cases without investigation. At the hearing, Cabrera said: “I was assigned 300 cases a year. And the lieutenant insisted that I close all the cases on time.”

He went on to say that the long hours he worked led to the breakdown of his marriage. Because of this, he was allegedly depressed and anxious. Cabrera added that he decided to focus on bigger things rather than smaller ones.

“Officers who deliberately make false statements are betraying a critical function of policing and also risking the reputation of fellow officers,” wrote Josh Kleiman, NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Litigation.

Kleiman noted that Cabrera should remain eligible for a police pension, as he otherwise had an impeccable disciplinary record and received high performance ratings in 2019, 2020 and 2021.

“Failure to properly investigate cases of family or domestic violence puts victims at risk,” said Casey Gwynn, president of the Alliance for Hope, an international organization to combat domestic violence.

Another forger

A second police officer, Detective Thomas Mannion, was also caught falsifying records in investigative reports. He faked 11 cases in 2020.

Assigned to the Brooklyn North narcotics unit, Mannion claimed in investigative notes that he had visited locations where there were reports of drug activity. In fact, he never did.

“Mannion did not visit these places. Although he submitted reports claiming he did,” wrote Jeff Adler, NYPD Assistant Deputy Commissioner of Litigation.

The detective's misconduct was discovered when investigators compared his recordings with the GPS data of his work car.

Manion is dealing with the stress caused by the lack of staff in his team, as well as the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020.