'Most Corrupt' Former NYPD Officer From LI Gets 8 Years In Jail

PLAINVIEW, NY — A former NYPD officer, who called himself the "most corrupt" cop in his Queens precinct, was sentenced today to more than eight years in prison for accepting bribes and attempting to transport heroin.

Robert Smith, 45, of Plainview, was sentenced to 97 months in prison. He had pleaded guilty in 2021 to using interstate facilities to commit bribery and attempting to transport heroin. He had retired from the NYPD in March 2020.

Two other former NYPD officers from Long Island — Heather Busch, 35, of Massapequa, and Robert Hassett, 37, of Farmingville — also both previously pleaded guilty to bribery charges in the same scheme. Busch was sentenced to six months in prison in February. Hassett is still awaiting sentencing. All three worked at the 105th Precinct in Queens.

“Corruption not only endangers the communities that police officers are sworn to serve, but it also corrodes the public’s trust in law enforcement and the criminal justice system. Robert Smith and his co-defendants were corrupt officers who sold out their badges for personal gain without regard for the betrayal and the harm they caused the NYPD and their fellow officers,” said United States Attorney Breon Peace. “For his crimes, Smith, self-described as ‘one of the most corrupt cops in the 105’, deservedly will spend years in prison. Today’s sentence should send a message that this office, together with our law enforcement partners, will work diligently to investigate and prosecute corrupt public servants who exploit their positions of power for profit.”

According to officials, NYPD officers are required to use a computer system called the Directed Accident Response Program (DARP) when responding to auto accidents. The program randomly selects a licensed tow truck business to respond to the scene to ensure that no one business gets favorable treatment from the police department.

Starting in September 2016, Smith and Hassett purposefully bypassed the DARP system and directed business to an unnamed towing company in exchange for thousands of dollars in cash bribes. Smith and Hassett continued with the scheme until at least June 2017, when they temporarily stopped.

In November 2019, Smith once again began steering damaged vehicles to the towing business in exchange for bribes. In January 2020, Smith discussed recruiting Busch into the arrangement with the owner of the towing business. Smith and Busch met with the owner in March, and Busch agreed to participate. Since then, she would also send damaged vehicles to the towing company for bribes.

In addition to giving the owner of the towing company preferential treatment to access car crashes, starting in January 2020, Smith and Hassett began to get the names and information of recent car accident victims from the NYPD database and would give it to the company owner in exchange for cash. The officers knew that the owner would then sell that information to physical therapy businesses and personal injury attorneys.

Hassett would often access the information and give it to Smith to pass to the tow company owner. The owner would then give cash to Smith, who would share it with Hassett. From January to March 2020, the officers sold the identifying information of more than 100 people in exchange for more than $7,000.

Starting in January 2020, Smith started to talk to the tow company owner about transporting drugs for them in exchange for cash once Smith retired from the NYPD. In June 2020, Smith met with two people to discuss participating in drug trafficking, and told them that he could carry a gun and his identification as a retired NYPD officer while doing so.

In July 2020, Smith met with a person in Brooklyn and accepted a bag containing what he believed to be a kilogram of heroin and transported it to Queens. He was given about $1,200 cash for it, officials say.

Smith also said in text messages obtained during the investigation that he would deliberately point his gun at Black people (whom he used a racial slur to describe) to see their reaction and then drive away, officials said. He also wrote that he wanted to see "mass suicide and death" among his fellow NYPD officers, according to court documents.