319 NYPD Cops Got To Stay On Duty Despite Beatings, Lying: Report

NEW YORK, NY — More than 300 NYPD employees have kept their jobs even after beating New Yorkers, lying under oath, sexually harassing colleagues and committing other offenses for which they could have been fired, according to a new BuzzFeed News report.

The website obtained a cache of secret documents showing that at least 319 officers and other Police Department workers were given "dismissal probation" from 2011 to 2015 despite committing a fireable offense. That means those cops couldn't get promoted during the probation period, usually a year, but they continued to do their jobs and collect a salary, BuzzFeed reported Monday.

Some 57 of these workers were guilty of driving under the influence, BuzzFeed found. Some 38 were found to have used "excessive force," fired their guns unnecessarily or gotten into a fight. One cop threatened to kill someone.

One officer, Raymond Marrero, "was accused of viciously beating one person, falsely arresting another, assaulting a third, and fabricating evidence against a fourth," BuzzFeed reported. But he still patrols the streets even after the city paid about $900,000 to settle lawsuits against him, the story says.

Kevin Richardson, the deputy commissioner of the NYPD's Department Advocate's Office, told BuzzFeed that dismissal probation is the right punishment for cops who have done wrong but "don't need to be terminated." At least 777 cops in total got the punishment from 2011 to 2015, the department told BuzzFeed.

But records like those BuzzFeed obtained are shielded from public view under a state law protecting police personnel records as confidential. That makes it hard for defendants to know whether a cop accusing them of a crime has a history of lying or other trouble, BuzzFeed's story says.

Read the full BuzzFeed News story here.

(Lead image: Photo by lazyllama/Shutterstock)