The East Meadow Patch by Geoffrey Walter - November 2, 2011
Officer pleads guilty to misconduct after sexually inappropriate behavior during traffic stop.
A Nassau County police officer from the Third Precinct pled guilty and resigned Wednesday after being charged with official misconduct in relation to a traffic stop in East Meadow during which he reportedly coerced a woman into touching him sexually. The former officer, Garrett Mannerz, had served as a Nassau County police officer since November 2005. He resigned at 12:25 p.m. on Wednesday and is ineligible for a NCPD pension. Mannerz, 34, was arrested on June 15 following an investigation by the Nassau District Attorney’s Office Public Corruption Bureau in conjunction with the Nassau County Police Department Internal Affairs Unit (IAU). According to Nassau DA Kathleen Rice, Mannerz stopped a vehicle that was travelling in the vicinity of Hempstead Turnpike and Newbridge Road in East Meadow on Feb. 27, 2011. Three women in their early 20s were inside the car. After performing field sobriety tests on the driver, Mannerz ordered one of the passengers out of the car, asked for her phone number and had the woman walk over to his patrol car where he told her that if she “did something for him,” then he would allow the driver to leave the location without receiving a summons or being charged criminally, Rice said. According to Rice, after allowing the women to leave, Mannerz then began to place sexually suggestive calls to the woman. He was arrested after the victim recorded one of the phone calls and brought it to police. Hon. John Kase sentenced Mannerz to 80 hours of community service and issued orders of protection prohibiting Mannerz from contacting the three women who were in the car and granted a conditional discharge. Mannerz had been facing up to seven years in prison on multiple charges, including felony bribe receiving, but a plea deal knocked the case down to a single misdemeanor official misconduct charge. “Garrett Mannerz abused his authority by taking advantage of a woman while on duty, and his conduct was a disgrace to the Nassau County Police Department,” Nassau District Attorney Kathleen Rice said in a statement. “Nassau County is a safer place with Garrett Mannerz off the police force.”
No comments:
Post a Comment