A Manhattan cop pleaded guilty Monday to lying under oath and concocting evidence in three cases - but says he did it for the right reasons.
Sgt. William Eiseman, a 12-year NYPD veteran, admitted to faking a marijuana case against one man and cocaine-related charges against another - and training young cops to falsify paperwork to sidestep legal safeguards.
"These are allegations of serious misconduct," Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Juan Merchan told Eiseman, 39, who refused to give the cop a no-jail deal.
The judge said the allegations against Eiseman, "paint a picture of a police officer who has challenged and undermined the integrity of the entire system that we have here."
Merchan offered to give him 24 days at Rikers Island when he's sentenced Sept. 6 - far less than the seven years he faced if convicted at trial.
The cop took the deal and must quit his job and forfeit his pension.
He admitted he perjured himself when he testified about the arrest of an alleged marijuana dealer in 2007 and that he falsified paperwork in two other cases.
Eiseman's lawyer, Andrew Quinn, said his client is guilty of "bending the rules" for the right reason - to get bad guys off the streets of northern Manhattan.
"He was doing it because he was overzealous … to get drugs off the streets," the lawyer said of Eiseman, who served four years in the Army.
"It was never to line his pockets."
Prosecutors acknowledged the arrests targeted admitted criminals but said the charges against them had to be dismissed because Eiseman broke the law.
They said he was "training other cops," many just out of the Police Academy, to doctor evidence.
Eiseman's co-defendant, Officer Michael Carsey, is going to trial at the end of August.
No comments:
Post a Comment