An NYPD cop who claimed that a Brooklyn man tried to run him down in a driveway — only to be exposed as a liar by crystal-clear surveillance video — resigned from the force, but got only a wrist-slap jail sentence, The Post has learned.
Diego Palacios pleaded guilty on Feb. 7 in Brooklyn Supreme Court to writing a false report, and was ordered to spend four days behind bars, law-enforcement sources said.
But Palacios served only a single night in the clink, as state law mandates that inmates are to be released on Friday if their discharge date lands on a weekend.
The trouble started when MTA worker John Hockenjos squabbled with a neighbor over who owned the driveway between their Sheepshead Bay homes.
The feud came to a boiling point last February when Palacios was called to the scene after Hockenjos, 56, got into a heated beef with the neighbor in the driveway.
Palacios eventually slapped cuffs on Hockenjos, claiming in a police report that the enraged engineer had tried to mow him down with a car.
The stunned Hockenjos was charged with first-degree felony reckless endangerment, which carries a maximum sentence of up to seven years, and was carted off to jail for three days.
But the tide turned in his favor when a video surfaced that revealed what really happened.
The surveillance footage from a nearby camera showed that Hockenjos slowly pulled into the driveway, while the responding cop calmly stood still.
Hockenjos turned the evidence over to NYPD Internal Affairs, and the charges against him were subsequently dropped.
“In my 20 years of legal experience, I’ve never seen a more crystal-clear example of a false arrest,” Hockenjos’ attorney, Craig Newman, told The Post at the time.
When contacted by the Post yesterday, Palacios said, “I have no statement.” The NYPD did not respond to a request for comment.
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